Planning

 As usual, I have a sweater in progress. It will be about 100,000 stiches.  It is a worsted weight yarn, knit on 2.3 mm needles knit at 7.5 spi /10 rpi, so it is a nice firm fabric, but not weatherproof.   As I knit up the torso, the knitting log shows I am knitting the torso at just under an inch per hour - something in the neighborhood of 3,000 stitches per hour. That sounds like ~50 stitches per minute. 

However, I make coffee, and drink coffee, and decant the used coffee, so truth of the matter is that I am only knitting about 48 minutes in each hour, so when I am actually knitting, I am knitting more like 60 or 70 stitches per minute. 

Allowing for the coffee and sticky buns, these days, I plan on 3,000 stitches per hour of knitting.

I figure the sweater will actually take ~35 hours. At 8 hours of knitting per day, that is bit over 4 days of knitting and some finishing. I expect it to be finished the middle of next week.

14 years ago, I tried Lever Knitting/Irish Cottage - and there was no way in the world that I could knit this object in 5 consecutive days using Lever Knitting.  In those days, there was a knitting group, and one of  the frequent attendees was a lever knitter. One day she  sat next to me, my knitting sheath, and my pointy sock needles, I knit 7 stitches to her 5.  I had been knitting there for hours when she came in, and I continued knitting long after she left. As she left, many in the group commented on how fast she knit. Her knitting was a bold display of her new engagement ring. 

My knitting was done quietly in my lap, and nobody noticed how fast I was knitting, because my motions were so small. Because my motions were so small, they could be very fast. Now that I have learned to use blunt needles, my knitting motions can be much smaller - and much faster.  The smaller motions are less effort, and I can knit for longer periods of time. .My record is 9 consecutive 10 hour days. (At the time it was my record for fastest knitting of a Gladys Thomas gansey.)  Also, knitting sheaths support a variety of equally effective knitting styles that are driven by different muscles - as one set of muscles gets tired, they can be rested by using a different style of  knitting.  

I will not say you can knit while asleep, but you can knit in the gloom of a movie theater or with your eyes closed.