Let’s Celebrate the Benefits of Knitting

June 8, 2024 by Sarah White

I’m writing this post in honor of World Wide Knit in Public Day, but of course every day is a good day both to knit in public and to acknowledge the benefits of knitting in our lives.

It happens that a piece on this subject was recently published by Self magazine, and while it notes that other hobbies have these benefits, too, it specifically calls out knitting in the headline so we’re claiming it.

Even if you’ve never heard the evidence that yarn crafts and other hobbies that involve making things are good for your mental health, you probably know it from experience. (Though I know a lot of new knitters would argue knitting isn’t stress relieving, it definitely is once you get the hang of it!)

Knitting allows you to be creative, to learn new things, to feel relaxed and to gain a sense of control over things. It’s lovely to think about the fact that, even if you knit the same pattern as someone else using the same kind of yarn, you’re still going to make something that’ totally unique.

I bring up this post for knitting in public day because it also notes that a benefit of knitting is the built-in community. Whether you find that through public knitting events, your local yarn shop if you have one, or even online communities like our Facebook group (give it a join if you haven’t already!) there are so many knitters out there ready to welcome more.

I won’t say it’s universal, but the vast majority of knitters are helpful, kind and supportive, and remember what it was like to be new at something. The others, please ignore.

Check out the post at Self for all the benefits of knitting and other creative crafts.

I’d love to hear what you think are the major benefits of knitting for you, and shout out your local yarn shop or knitting group if you have one in the comments!

Have you read?

Easy Knit Baskets to Use All Your Stash

For the past few years I’ve taken part in a Christmas in July blog hop that encourages people to get a jump on their making for holiday gifts.

I love to use yarn I already have for these projects in the hope that people will consider what they already have that they can use to make projects for themselves or to give as gifts.

This year it was a couple of knit baskets made using partial balls of yarn left in my stash from other projects.

They use the same basic pattern but the first one is made with two colors of bulky yarn, and the second used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, which made the gauge about the same, but I cast on fewer stitches to make a smaller version.

The bottom of the basket is square, though you can make them rectangular if you’d rather. Then I just knit up the sides in rounds until I was about to run out of yarn. This gave both baskets rather short sides — maybe more like a tray than a basket — but you can keep knitting as long as you like to make the sides of your basket as tall as you want.

They’re worked in seed stitch, which keeps the edges from curling and adds a nice texture to the baskets.

Of course this also allows you to use even more odd balls from your stash. I’d love to make a big one someday combining lots of different yarn. I mean, I’d probably use it to store more yarn, but that’s a fine thing to do.

As it is, these little trays are great for sitting on your desk or bedside table to hold little things that always seem to appear there. I like to use one to hold the supplies for whatever project I’m working on, things like little scissors, my tape measure, a crochet hook, etc.

And they would make good gifts on their own or as a container to hold some other goodies if you like.

You can find the free pattern for these stash busting baskets over at Our Daily Craft.