Knitting Yarn Explores Knitting for Your Health
The first few times a person knits can be a little stressful. You have a tendency to concentrate perhaps a little too hard. Stitches sometimes get dropped and other times they seem to appear out of nothing. However, once a person has been knitting for a while, things change. An experienced knitter is comfortable with his or her needles. He or she can work peacefully for hours at a time. The motion of knitting can be very soothing and it’s not just yarn junkies who are taking notice.
In the latest issue of Newsweek knitting is encouraged as one of the activities that will help you “get smarter – faster”.
Photo Credit: The Daily Beast
It turns out that there is something about the hand motions associated with knitting yarn (and other activities) that helps to boost cognitive skills. While this doesn’t mean that you should give up studying and focus on knitting, but it does mean that knitting in your free time might help you to retain the information that you’re learning in class.
Knitting doesn’t simply have educational benefits. Former physiotherapist Betsan Corkhill has taken up the cause of knitting for health. She has started an online community known as Stitchlinks that is dedicating to discovering how knitting can help people dealing with all sorts of different health problems.
Photo Credit: curlyq.org
It turns out that knitting is good for just about everyone. Picking yarn in bright colors and visualizing your finished project can help people with depression. Knitting groups will help those who aren’t able to get out much. Knitting helps those with chronic illnesses feel useful during periods in which they have to rest. Knitting can even help sooth pain, like the kind that might come after chemotherapy treatments.
On Stitchlinks, Corkhill discusses many of the different ways that knitting can help people from all different walks of life while providing them with a place to come together to tell their stories. The site also includes a great deal of resources for anyone who is looking to use knitting as a form of therapy.
Of course, everyone who knits does so for a reason. It doesn’t always have to be something so clinical or serious. Perhaps you just like making things for your friends and family. Maybe it’s a way to carry on a tradition that you find important. Regardless of why you knit, the simple act of knitting can help your mind and body become stronger. Think of it as a knitting bonus.
How has knitting helped you?
Posted on This is aylwas happening to my mother, who knits like a mad fiend. She’s aylwas saying she’s cursed by the knitting gods . She’s gonna be so happy when I show this to her, and prove to her that she’s not the only one who has this problem, so thanks for sharing!It’s still pretty, even all stretched out. I hope the rework goes well.
My oldest deguhtar loves making bracelets! When will you be going next month? We would love to help in any way possible.This would be a great time to have one of those extreme couponing people around. I bet they have tons they could send with you!