I like to watch movies while I knit. I figure knitting and watching a movie at the same time requires one hemisphere of my brain to follow the sequences of the knitting pattern while the other hemisphere is dazzled by the colorful scenes and emotional festivities in the film.

Certain movies are better to knit to than others. I avoid movies with subtitles because it’s easy to confuse what I’m reading on the screen with what I’m reading on the knitting pattern. For example, maybe the dialogue at the bottom of the TV screen goes, “In six more days we’ll be in Yakima.” And a dozen rows later I realize I’ve knit six stitches instead of three and put in a yarn-over which has created a gaping hole in my knitting. Ripping out is the unhappy result.

I don’t watch thrillers when I knit either, because tension aids knitting only if it’s not too tense. Plus, thrillers tend to have high- and low-tension sequences – what that does to my knitting as I ebb and flow with the ups and downs of the story, you wouldn’t believe.

Here are a few of my favorite movies to knit to:

. “Little Women.” This film is set during the Civil War when most clothing was still made at home by the womenfolk. The March sisters in the story are acquainted with the intricacies of needlework and knowing that helps me identify with them as they go about their adventures with one another and Laurie, the boy next door. I like to knit fingerless gloves when I watch this film because Jo wears them when she is scribbling in the family’s freezing attic.

. “Moulin Rouge.” Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Love are the movie’s themes – all of which is what knitting is all about – you know, the beauty of the yarn, the love of the craft, the freedom to charge all those gorgeous yarns to your credit card and the truth you learn about yourself when you discover that you’d rather rip out your hair than rip out stitches after you’ve made a mistake while trying to knit to a film with subtitles.

“Moulin Rouge” whisks me off to Paris at the end of the 19th century. It splices modern pop tunes with a story line that takes me from the delicious foolishness of love without bounds to the depths of black despair when even the moon weeps. Still, this is a sing-while-you-knit flick and even the gloom has a touch of the giddy about it. (Say, we have Netflix, why can’t we have KnitFlicks – films made with knitters in mind?) Watching “Moulin Rouge” makes me want to knit with sensuous materials like silk and cashmere, really the best fibers to have at hand when the svelte and glittering Nicole Kidman is dangling from a flimsy trapeze and crooning “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend.”

. “Funny Face.” This film calls for something I can knit with my eyes shut, like a garter stitch scarf. That’s because the dance sequences are so wonderful I don’t want to miss a single toe tap or pirouette or any of the gorgeous clothes. The story makes me fret a bit because it’s about a young woman who dreams of becoming a philosopher but is persuaded to abandon her dream to become a fashion model and marry the photographer who is old enough to be her father. I give it a D-minus for that message. However, it has never been difficult for me to suspend disbelief, especially when it’s Audrey Hepburn asking me to believe the unbelievable. I like to knit with black yarn when I watch “Funny Face.” Audrey is tres chic wearing a black turtleneck sweater with skinny black pants during her solo dance in the avant-garde Parisian dive.

. “Persuasion.” This is a story about love deferred between Anne Elliott and her Capt. Wentworth. It’s also about her father, the high and mighty Sir Walter Elliott, living beyond his means, forced to rent his manor house to those he considers beneath him. Knitting to any film based on a Jane Austen novel feels so civilized. Even though I can’t imagine Anne’s sister, Elizabeth Elliott, ever soiling her hands with something as plebeian as knitting, I can imagine Anne knitting warm things for her captain to wear aboard ship.

In films, and even on the page, Austen characters always have the look of lace about them – little drawstring reticules, the empire waist dresses, gauzy shawls and frivolous little caps with ribbon lappets floating behind them as they walk. The minute the film begins I want to grab needles the size of toothpicks, yarn so airy it almost floats out of the basket and a lace pattern so intricate and lavish even Sir Walter wouldn’t look down his aristocratic nose.

Let me ask you this, dear readers – now that I’ve told you what films I like to knit to, what films do you like to knit to – and why?

Snippets

Elaine Eskesen, author of “Silk Knits,” will give a presentation and demonstration at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, in the Friends Community Room, Rockland Public Library, 80 Union St. in Rockland. Eskesen will bring examples of silk yarn, garments made from silk and knit swatches. Those who wish may bring knitting needles and try knitting with silk. Admission is free. For more information, call the library at 594-0310.

Visit www.kerpoof.com, a family-oriented Web site that allows visitors to create free Valentines which can be e-mailed or printed in color, or as a black-and-white outline that can be colored by hand. Recipients of the e-mailed cards can modify the card they receive and send it back or to someone else.

Also visit www.papervalentines.com to find printable greetings of love.

Call Ardeana Hamlin at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.