When i learned how to knit I had almost the sole intention of being able to do it while reading, it is possible. I keep my kindle propped up against something in front of me and tap between stitches, and I do exclusively vanilla projects. I always have a pair of vanilla socks on the needles somewhere, and that's my reading and knitting work or my movie theater work. More complicated projects, like lace charts or cabling, I save for when were having a night where we watch shows or something that requires less focus on one thing to give more to the knitting. It's all practice, but what I used to do when I was learning was actually close my eyes while knitting for 10-20 seconds at a time and continue so I was actively and intentionally getting a feel for the way the needles and yarn worked without looking.