The Best Knitting Snacks: Food Ideas for Stitchers

Hey, fellow snackers, come pull up a chair and let’s have a chat. We have a bit of a problem on our hands.

Sometimes literally.

You see, as every inveterate snacking knitter has learned the hard way at some point, eating and knitting can be fraught. Food can be messy, and our knits don’t always fare so well when they come into contact with our little treats.

So what’s a stitcher to do? Well, don’t worry. I’ve got some ideas for you so you can snack without worry, plus a few bonus options for those of you who (like me) get your adrenaline fix from knitting with more dangerous snacks.

The Problem: Snacks and Knitting Don’t Always Mix Well

When we’re snacking and knitting, we have three problem zones we need to worry about: our knitting, our food, and our hands. If we end up in a situation where any two of those three come into contact, we can also end up with a real mess. When I’m snacking and knitting, I try to always ask myself the following three questions. 

First, what happens if the food comes into contact with my knitting (i.e., I drop or spill something)? 

Next, what happens if my food gets on my hands and then I knit? 

And finally, what happens if I get a little distracted and my knitting comes in contact with my food (I’ve, uh, definitely trailed my yarn through a plate of food or a cup of tea on more than one occasion)?

Guidelines for the Safest Options

So let’s start with what makes a perfect knitting snack. I think the most important part is this: it’s not wet. That means no sauces, broths, juices, or marinades. If you can wipe it on a piece of fabric and a liquid residue stays behind, it’s potentially a dangerous knitting snack. Leave the peanut butter and honey sandwiches for another time.

And similarly, foods that crumble or leave residue behind? Nope nope nope. I love me some popcorn and potato chips, but the salt and crumbs and grease are a bad combo with my knitting.

Dark colored foods are also potential danger zones. Berries are probably the worst offenders in this regard, but I’d be careful around dark drinks, too (I’ve spilled coffee on my knitting before).

Finally, foods that require more than one bite to eat a portion can be more trouble than they’re worth. If I can pick it up, pop it in my mouth, and keep knitting, we’re good to go. Foods that are large enough that they need to be eaten in several bites are more likely to fall apart while you’re eating them or leak/ooze onto your knitting.

So let’s sum it up: the safest knitting snack is dry, not crumbly, residue-free, in a light color, and consumable in one bite.

Recommendations for No-Mess Knitting Snacks

​Right then. We’ve got our criteria, so what foods out there might satisfy them? I’ve got a few ideas.

1. Grapes. Green grapes are basically the platonic ideal of a knitting snack. They’re small, don’t leave residue, have a little juice but it’s clear, and they’re just super refreshing. I’ve almost always got some grapes on hand when I’m knitting.
2. Skittles. This works no whether your Skittles are the fruity candy or the chocolate candy, because both have a hard outer shell that won’t leave residue behind. One good suggestion: keep them in a bowl or the package until you’re ready to actually put them in your mouth. Holding them in your hands will lead to a little bit of melting of the candy exterior, and that can leave some marks.
3. Baby carrots. If you don’t like sweets, baby carrots are a great little snack for knitting. They’re basically the green grapes of the vegetable world. 
4. Little cubes of cheese. There are lots of light, medium-to-hard cheeses out there that are great for snacking while knitting. I’m partial to a good Gouda.
5. Gummy bears. A lot of other gummy candies have sugar coatings or leave a weird residue on your hands, but the classic gummy bear won’t let you down. Have a couple bears and keep on stitching.

Ideas for Knitting Snacks if You Like to Live on the Edge

Now, I can practically hear the concerned questions already. “But Lauren!” you might say. “Why in the world do you have crackers with soft cheese and dark fig preserves on them in the photos for this post? Doesn’t that break all of your rules?”

Yeah, sorta. But I like to live dangerously. I’m a rebel. A real iconoclast.

And the thing about these little cracker bites is that they still follow the most important rule: I can eat each one in one bite. The crackers can’t break and drop cheese/fruit spread everywhere if I don’t have to bit them in half.

So if you’re an adrenaline junkie, too, here are some recommendations.

1. Table water crackers with cheese and fruit. The table water crackers part is very important. They don’t have salt on them (unlike Wheat Thins), so no residue. They’re small enough to eat in one bite. They’re not as fragile as some of the multigrain crackers. These guys are pretty good. You could even turn them into 100% safe zone crackers if you put toppings on them that can’t mess up your knitting (like, say, a thin slice of granny smith apple and a little piece of white cheddar).

2. Fruit chunks eaten with a fork. I still probably wouldn’t do, oh, pomegranates or blackberries, but I’ll go to town on a bowl of watermelon while knitting.

3. Cheetos eaten with chopsticks. Listen, the cheese residue on the fingertips is a fun side effect of cheesy puffs, but it’ll wreak havoc on our knits. On the other hand, if you use chopsticks to pick up your little cheesy snacks, that residue can’t ever build up on your fingertips. It’s not a bad strategy.

Combating Food Insecurity 

As a final note, while this is a bit of a silly post that I wrote because I needed a giggle, feeding people is actually a cause that’s really important to me. As of 2022, about 1 in 6 people in the United States (where I live) relied on some form of food assistance. 

That’s why I donate a portion of each month’s profits to my local chapter of Feeding America. I hope you’ll join me, if you’re able. It’s always a good time to help make sure our neighbors have full bellies and don’t have to worry about where their next few meals are coming from.

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