Studies show . . .

While checking my Facebook page this morning I noticed a posting from WEBS. I don't usually click on the many links that surface overnight on Facebook . . . but this one mentioned 'Knit for Health and Wellness'. I had to investigate further!

I clicked and there it was - a post from Canadian Living by Kate Daley with four benefits of knitting.
   
1. Knitting can make you feel calm and happy.
"In a study published in the British Journal of Occupational Therapy researchers state there is a significant relationship between knitting frequency and feeling calm and happy. 'More frequent knitters also reported higher cognitive functioning.' 'Knitting in a group impacted significantly on perceived happiness, improved social contact and communication with others'."

Look at this group. Are they happy or what?!

   

 Well, hello. How can you not be happy if you have the yarn of your choice flowing through your fingers? I mean what could be better? Oh, I know. Knitting with others. Just ask anyone attending a knitting guild meeting or a class in a yarn shop. Better yet, ask anyone  in the library's Monday Night Group.






2. Knitting works as a sort of meditation.
"Doctors at Mass-General Hospital Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine found that meditation-like activities reduced blood pressure."

  


My husband has border-line high blood pressure.
I told him about this study and pointed out that 
my doctor always comments on my nice low 
blood-pressure. I offered to teach him to knit but he said he would pass. I think he also mumbled something about it would probably make it spike.





3. Knitting can help manage anxiety in those with eating disorders.

 Well I don't have an eating disorder (unless there is Ben & Jerry's Half-Baked in the freezer), but I have spent many a late night with a teen-age son out driving. Sometimes I was amazed that I didn't break my bamboo needles in half.


4. Knitting can help delay memory loss.
 

"A Mayo Clinic study has shown that activities such as knitting, reading and quilting along with other activities in mid-life can help reduce the risk that people would develop memory loss in their 70s or 80s by more than one third."

   

OMG, all that time I've been using all those knitting graphs with all those symbols . . . and thinking so hard my head hurt . . . well I was probably making more brain cells!!







So of course I agree. With everything in the article. And more. People have knit their way back from grief, forged lasting friendships in the comfort of a local yarn shop, relieved boredom and given flight to creativity with nothing more than string and sticks. 

But if you are a knitter, you already know all that. You know why you knit and what it means to you.

I wonder when they will include us in a study?? 

Until next time, keep your nose in a book or your fingers in fiber.

This Could Be Trouble . . .

Last night was another great night of knitting with the "Monday Night Knitting Group" at the library. I love to see the progress of everyone's projects . . . especially when they are completed!!

The picture really doesn't do it
 justice. The colors are gorgeous.

The night was going quite smoothly and then Pat showed us her weaving loom. . . and then Pat let me 'do a couple of rows' (I don't remember what the correct term is!) on her weaving loom . . . and then Pat offered to bring the loom back next month. Oh no. 

I can easily see how weaving would have the same relaxing effect that knitting does. Sitting there envisioning what the finished piece will look like and day dreaming about how it would be used or worn. I could easily forget all my troubles while doing the back and forth repetitive motions. Not to mention what a terrific way to use some left overs and single skeins of yarn in my stash.

What do you think? Is it time to learn a new craft? I'm going to go think about it. I'll work on Judy's sweater while I do.

Until next time, keep your nose in a book or your fingers in fiber.

What are you doing next weekend?

One of my favorite library patrons called yesterday to tell me she saw an ad in the Boston Globe for the Knit & Crochet show. (You really have to love someone that thinks of you when they see a 'knitting event' and also takes the time to call . . . thanks Ruth!!).

Well, I figured I should share it with you. Check your calendars. If you aren't doing anything, head up to Manchester. It's not far - maybe an hour and half or something like that? If you can't go for the weekend, go for the day. 

Go on-line and investigate (knitandcrochetshow.com) . . . it's probably not too late to register for a class. If nothing else there is always . . .  SHOPPING! The marketplace will be filled with sock yarn, hand-painted yarn, alpaca yarn, mohair yarn, silk yarn . . . get the picture?? It will be like fiber heaven.

Let me know if you go. Better yet, let me know what you buy.

Until next time, keep your nose in a book or your fingers in fiber.

I heard you.

I'm sorry . . . I've been absent for awhile. It hasn't been a very good knitting time for me. My aunt Audrey (one of two aunts that taught me how to knit) passed away at the beginning of the summer, and my dad - who had been sick - passed away at the end of June. Add a little heat and humidity to the mix and the result is that the sweater I have been working on for my friend Judy has been left to languish in my knitting bag.

So this morning when I took my coffee out to the deck to listen to the birds sing and enjoy the cool air, I began to fondly remember the many summers I spent with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins at the family beach house in Mattapoisett. Into my head popped all those things you are told as a child/young adult and then conveniently ignore. So many times from my father I heard "If the job is worth doing, it's worth doing right" . . . "You get what you pay for" . . . "Get the right tools for the job". . . And when Audrey caught you sitting in a beach chair doing nothing . . . "Well, where is your knitting?"

Indeed. Where was my knitting now? I put down the coffee and quickly went into the house to get it.




As I sat and knitted away on Judy's sweater, I couldn't help but smile. 

(Yes Audrey, I am knitting. I am no longer just sitting idle. And if it gets too hot for the wool to be 
on my legs, I will use a pillow case . . . just as you taught me.) 



I am using Debbie Bliss yarn which moves through my fingers so smoothly. (Yes dad, you do get what you pay for - so I always use good yarn.) 


The stitches are moving quickly from one needle to the next on my Addi Click interchangeables. (Yes dad, I splurged one day and bought really nice needles.) 

I have also been checking my cable work throughout the project to make sure nothing is twisted the wrong way. (Yes dad, I'll do it right.)

I kept knitting and could picture the two of them, both in beach chairs, looking out at the ocean. Maybe they will turn to each other and say, "Hey, she was listening to us after all!" I was. To everything. Don't worry, I'll carry on. One stitch at a time.