Mental Health Awareness Month - Knitting

I think we can all agree that the Craft Yarn Council may be a little biased towards anything that encourages the consumption of yarn, but in this article from the NY Times we see both a first person experience and supportive research about the value of knitting for mental health.

Paul Rogers via

The short notes that any knitter can attest to are -
 - knitting helps improve focus; paradoxically it improves focus on both the project and outside forces.  Any student who doodles can attest that often the practice of letting your hands work, frees your mind to focus on the lecture, in the same way knitting can make a movie, a TED talk or a conversation with friends more memorable
- knitting, at least when you finish a project, boosts self-esteem.  The act of creating something that wasn't there before is both incredibly fulfilling and life-affirming

Whether you are looking to distract yourself from crippling social anxiety or improve your memory and mental acuity, seek out a local shop, grab a beginner's kit, or checkout a YouTube tutorial and break out the sentimental needles and yarn you inherited and get to knitting and purling!