Making Me Time

by Julia

May is Mental Health Awareness month, and something that is particularly close to our hearts at Wool and the Gang. As crafters, we all know that warm, fuzzy feeling when you finish a project, especially when it’s a gift for someone special. But when it comes to feeling good, the power of crafting goes far beyond that.

Our Co-Founder and Creative Director Jade Harwood: “It’s to do with the repetitive nature of knitting, it can seem tricky at first but once you’ve mastered a stitch and keep going, you’ll reach a relaxed, almost meditative state. Like a knitting nirvana! Before you know it you’re calm, relaxed and have knitted something you’ll feel proud of too.”

Knitting and crocheting helps an overwhelming 68% of you to combat stress and anxiety, focusing on something crafty is like meditation or yoga for lots of us. In our crazy world where it feels like everything moves a million miles a minute, slowing things down with some needles or hook can be the perfect antidote.

This is one of the reasons why we carried out our ‘Make Yourself Happy’ survey a little while ago. We asked a bunch of you how knitting and crocheting made you feel, and while we know the magic of making we were amazed to see how it played a big part in your lives when it came to well being.

Not only is making proven to lower blood pressure, reduce depression and slow dementia, but it also helped 64% of you to feel more relaxed. Stress is something that impacts all of us, and we want to spread the message far and wide of how knitting can help us to cope. This is when we came up with our idea for the ‘Me Time’ scarf.

Made using our super soft Feeling Good yarn, the yarn will magically change colour every 20 minutes of knitting. This kit is designed for absolute beginners, meaning if you set aside 20 minutes a day, 3 times a week for 3 weeks, you’ll not only have made a gorgeous scarf but will be a little calmer, having dedicated some down time to learning a new skill.

And it turns out we’re not the only ones who use knitting as our yoga. We found some amazing quotes from our favourite actors, yogi’s and more on how making is their meditation….

Nicholas Hoult: “One of the costume girls taught me. It’s a real skill and quite relaxing. I’ve done five bobble hats.”

Ryan Gosling: “I did this scene in ‘Lars and the Real Girl’ where I was in a room full of old ladies who were knitting, and it was an all-day scene, so they showed me how. It was one of the most relaxing days of my life”

Amanda Seyfried: ‘I knit constantly, I think it’s just a form of therapy’

Yoga Guru Tara Stiles: “Due to the mindful repetition combined with time dedicated to quiet concentration, knitting is a really lovely form of meditation – with the added joy and reward of an actual physical product at the end of it all.”

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