"before knowing it" is a correct and usable phrase in written English
You can use it when you want to refer to something that happened suddenly or unexpectedly. For example: She had fallen asleep before knowing it.
On the flip side, there have been many times when I've stayed attached to the outcome for too long and had to get my butt kicked before knowing it was time to let go.
When we turn in the direction of the seer, we do not discover a transcendental ego but a being who is itself of the sensible, a being which "knows it before knowing it"(VI, 133).
"This also means that advertisers would often have to pay a lot of money for a single large list before knowing it worked.
I lost to Ryan Hartt, UK fighting game stalwart and the first-ever sponsored fighting game player), before knowing it was Ryan!
I have also known many quantitative biologists who, through dogged adherence only to what can be inferred from the data at hand, lacked the imagination to conceive of what 'must' or 'should' be, before knowing it is actually there.
If they invent a new gadget, we line up to buy it before knowing its uses.
The expert, Philippe Meunier, said that although it was hard to judge the new plan before knowing its details, "the total volunteerism approach makes us worry".
The violence of the capsize had shattered a 6ft section of the mast, which Dye began cutting away to save the boat before Brockbank, knowing it was their only means of propulsion, stopped him and they stowed it as best they could.
"They have watched their friends being shot before their eyes, knowing it might as well have been them … No one is immune".
It's so stressful and it's something I've never experienced before, going into every tournament knowing it's almost life or death.
He threw his hands over his head and smiled before greeting catcher Russell Martin, knowing it was not exactly Rivera-like.
