The Craft Yarn Council Wants You to Stitch Away Stress

A few years ago (long ago enough that I wrote about it for About.com), the Craft Yarn Council started an initiative called #StitchAwayStress for Stress Awareness Month, which is in April.

That first year they released knit and crochet patterns for squeezable lemons, which you could use yourself or pass on to someone who needed a reminder of what to do when times get hard and to squeeze for a little stress relief.

This year they’ve supersized the fun, with huggable lemon pillow patterns. The knit version is designed by Lori Steinberg, while the crochet version is by Twinkie Chan.

Stitch one up for yourself or for a friend who needs a little stress relief. Visit the Craft Yarn Council site for patterns, info on the benefits of yarn craft for stress relief and fill out their survey all about using crafts for stress relief.

I’d love to hear your stories about knitting for stress relief/self-care, too!

[Photo: Craft Yarn Council.]

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Why should the fireplace get all the fun? Instead of knitting stockings this year, why not whip up a pair of Christmas themed socks? These Christmas sock knitting patterns are lots of fun to make and you can wear them to holiday gatherings for years to come.

For our friends in the southern part of the world, there are the Christmas in July socks from the Kiwi Lodge – Kylie (Ravelry link). These shorty socks are covered in Christmas trees and have bright pink heels and toes for a tropical feel. There’s also an option to make a longer sock if you celebrate somewhere it’s colder.

Twin Stitches Designs (Ravelry) has a fun pattern with mix and match colorwork motifs you can use to build your own cozy Christmas socks. From the sample socks I see Christmas puddings, trucks hauling trees, Santa belts, ornaments and a couple of different borders. There may be more patterns included but the listing doesn’t say. Make a pair that matches or use different motifs on each foot for extra holiday cheer.

If you want to stick to Christmas puddings on your holiday socks, check out this cute pattern from Stone Knits. These lovely socks feature a band of puddings around the leg and a bit of holly by the toes.

These vintage holiday light socks from Grey Owl Knits by Sarah are classic looking and lots of fun at the same time. I love this color combination but of course you can make your lights and stripes whatever colors you like or have on hand. They’re worked using stranded knitting.

And if you’d like even more of a mix of patterns for your socks, try Barbara Ceglédi’s Christmas Chaos socks, a free pattern on Ravelry. The pattern includes 25 little motifs you can choose from, ranging from snowflakes and Christmas trees to elf hats, reindeer and hearts.

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