Knitting is a hobby that anybody can learn, love and enjoy. When I started knitting I did it out of curiosity and was pleasantly surprised to find all the benefits it has. Besides being a fun activity, knitting has some incredible benefits, here are some of them:
Reduces stress and anxiety
This benefit is the most popular benefit known by people. When you are knitting, you get very focused on the task on hand and the repetitive motions of knitting that your mind forgets about other things that may worry you, reducing stress and anxiety.
Improves cognitive function
Studies show that the repetitive motion of knitting stimulates the brain and benefit cognitive functions as well as reducing the risk of developing Alzheimer and dementia. You are exercising your mind when you are knitting.
Encourages community
You can find knitting groups online or in your community with other fellow knitting lovers. You can build many friendships with people that share the same hobby as you. Being able to share your projects and continuously learn from others can bring a lot of joy and sense of community.
Improves concentration
Knitting can help with your concentration because you are focused on a task for a long period of time. It’s very easy to make mistakes while knitting if you’re not paying attention, so concentration is key. This can help you improve your concentration in general.
Creates sense of purpose and pride
When you start a knitting project, you set a goal that is completing the piece you’re knitting. Knitting allows us to set a goal and work towards it with small increments across time. When you finish knitting a project you get a sense of pride and happiness because you knitted something yourself that took many hours of effort and dedication.
When it comes to forms of crafting with yarn, there are two crafting hobbies that stand out: knitting and crochet. Both crafting hobbies use needles or a hook to manipulate yarn to create fabric but use different techniques and give different results.
The similarities
Both crafting hobbies use yarn to create a piece. There are many types of yarn and all of them can be used to both knit and crochet. It might be worth mentioning that crochet could end up using a bigger amount of yarn than knitting.
Knitting
Knitting is done with two pointed needles and can be done by hand, a machine or a loom. These needles come in various lengths and thickness, could also be connected by a chord or individual two needles.
When you are knitting you have many loops of yarn that are being hold together by a needle. Each loop depends on the stitch below and when you drop a loop by accident, you can mess you the entire structure of your project.
Knitting stitches are created by looping the yarn around the needle and it’s usually done with two main stitches: knit and purl. You transfer a loop from one needle to the other with every knit or purl you make. The combination of these two stitches creates the stretchy fabric that knitting is known for. The simplicity of this technique allows knitting to be done by big industrial machines and mass produce knitted pieces.
You can make any type of project with knitting. When it comes to clothes, knitting is the preferred method because the result is more stretchy and drapes better than a crocheted piece.
Crochet
Crochet is done with a single crochet hook. These crochet hooks come in a lot of sizes. The size of crochet hook you use depends on the thickness of your yarn. Crochet can only be done by hand and cannot be mass produced by machines.
The main stiches of crochet are chain, single crochet, double crochet and half-double crochet. The combination of one or all these stitches create a crochet piece. When you crochet you only have one loop in the hook. That means your project it’s less likely to unravel if you make a mistake.
You can create a lot of type of projects with crochet. The result of a crochet piece is usually more stiff and that makes it perfect for blankets. Crochet tends to be faster than knitting, so it’s ideal for bigger projects.
