Yeah, you know your family situation best.

But I was by no means trying to make her happy. I was trying to think of situations to give her minimal chance to interact with you - personally, my mom gets on my case a LOT even if I'm doing something productive and needed - if she doesn't see how it relates to her at all or doesn't see it as too her benefit, then I should be putting it down to do what she wanted. That's the perspective I'm going from! If your mom's the sort who would sit there and chat with you while doing something... then knitting sure wouldn't work.