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.]

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.

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