Projects to Knit for Your Mental Health

We missed sharing these projects in May, which was Mental Health Awareness Month, but any time is a great time to think about the health benefits of knitting, which include stress relief and a way to feel in control of something.

The Breathe for Four patterns by Molly Conroy give you a chance to choose your own knitting adventure on projects that are meant to be mindful. You can make it as a scarf, cowl or shawl, using any weight of yarn you like to make them any size you want.

The stitch pattern includes a breathing pattern (thus the name): knit 4, slip 4, purl 4 aligns with inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4. (Add another hold at the end and you’re box breathing, which is great for stress relief as well as improving concentration.)

Because this style of breathing requires focus and is a little different from normal breathing, the designer recommends starting with just five minutes at a time of knitting and breathing together. As you practice more you can do it for longer periods, but make sure you’re really paying attention to your breath and connecting it to the stitch pattern as you go.

Yes, you could just knit these projects and breathe normally, but it’s a fun experiment to try to make your knitting as mindful as it can possibly be. If you try it I want to know how it goes for you!

As shown the projects were worked with DK weight yarn, but you can use whatever you have on hand and adjust the stitch counts as needed to make it work for the size you want to make. Choose a really nice yarn you’ve been saving up for something special, because knitting while you breathe is going to make this project take a long time to finish!

You can get the patterns for free on Ravelry, or if you’d rather you can download them from Hands On Knitting Center’s website.

[Photo: Molly Conroy]

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Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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