I’ve seen lots of blogs and emails regarding knitting for your mental health. This has become very popular when Covid hit and we were all locked in trying to figure things out. Anxiety levels were high and we needed something to do that could help us decompress. Knitting has been proven to bring down blood pressure and calm anxiety. The rhythm of the stitches and the repetitive movements allow us to contemplate life and achieve a feeling of Zen.
There are many websites and groups dedicated to this theory.
- Project Knitwell is a group that goes into hospitals and teaches knitting to people going through illnesses and those who support them. They have online workshops as well with some great teachers and authors.
- Knit Sisu offers yoga and knitting workshops a few times a year and I’ve enjoyed learning from this group.
- Knit Om gives, in my opinion, the best explanation of why and how knitting helps in our mental health and physical health, as well as offering some knitting patterns.
So, maybe the next time you are overwhelmed with life stuff and all you can think about is sitting in a comfy chair with a warm beverage, your body is telling you that you need the benefits of knitting.
I wonder if I can get my doctor to write a prescription that tells me to knit uninterrupted for two hours per day?
Book recommendation:
The Knitting Circle, by Ann Hood. During a zoom class through Project Knitwell, Ann Hood was the author being interviewed. She was discussing her book The Knitting Circle. It’s about a woman who looses her young daughter to illness and how a knitting group helped her through her grief. Ann was a great interview and we learned a lot about her. She also lost a young daughter and knew a lot about grief and loss. Not to get you down, but it really made me think about the knitting groups we have here at the store. The people in the groups do come to rely on each other. New friendships are made, and people look forward to coming and being together.
Yarn Substitution
I’ve recently started following a web site for yarn substitutions. I encourage you to check it out. Yarnsub.com will allow you to type in a yarn you are looking for and give you alternatives to use. It has been a great help for me and is allowing me to use some of my stash yarn for projects.
The newsletter affiliated with this site is Yarn Geeks Newsletter (sign up on YarnSub’s website). The most recent newsletter listed new yarns coming out and yarns that are being discontinued.
Happy knitting!