Knit a Lemon to Relieve Tax Day Stress

Tax day in the United States is a pretty stressful day for some people, and the Craft Yarn Council is encouraging people to take time for some stress relief by knitting and crocheting lemons.

In particular, knitting and crocheting lemons that will be distributed outside the James A. Farley Post Office Building in Manhattan on April 18 (later than usual thanks to a holiday in D.C.) to remind people to make lemons into lemonade and spread the word about the health benefits of knitting and crochet.

Confirmed by numerous studies and reports and personal stories from knitters and crocheters around the world, and highlighted in national and international press — including a recent New York Times article titled “The Health Benefits of Knitting” and stories on Yahoo!, CNN, Daily Mail and more — the stress-busting crafts are known to reduce blood pressure, decrease anxiety and stress, boost mood, increase mindfulness, elicit the relaxation response and much more. These health benefits are what triggered the non-profit Craft Yarn Council to start a health initiative and spread awareness about the positive effects these crafts bring through its Stitch Away Stress campaign and host the NYC Lemon Drop Campaign for Stress Awareness on Tax Day.

“Upon discovering all the studies out there that prove these crafts reduce stress and boost mood and hearing so many personal stories from knitters and crocheters on the topic, we felt it was important to draw more attention to the subject and help more people who are stressed out find a way to relax and feel happier,” said Craft Yarn Council Co-Executive Director, Mary Colucci. “Since April is National Stress Awareness Month and Tax Day is historically one of the most stressful days of the year for Americans, April 18 seemed like the perfect day to stitch away stress.”

Tags attached to the lemons will direct recipients to the website www.stitchawaystress.com where they can go to learn how to knit and crochet, download the free lemon stress ball pattern to make one themselves, explore all the health benefits of knitting and crochet and more. Those waiting in line may have the chance to learn a stitch or two from the knitters and crocheters handing out the lemons as well.

The knit and crochet lemons were designed by Twinkie Chan and are super cute. Even if you don’t live in New York, you can stitch some lemons and drop them at your local post office on tax day to spread the word about the stress-busting properties of yarn craft. What a sweet idea.

[Photo via Craft Yarn Council.]

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier.

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project.

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible.

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge.

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects.

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy.

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project.

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Xandy Peters]

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