What Learning Crochet Can Add to Your Life

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I’m excited to share with you a guest post from Kathryn Vercillo. Kathryn is the talented blogger at Crochet Concupiscence and author of Crochet Saved My Life and several other titles. In this article, she explores some of the benefits of crochet that we may not always think about.

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By Kathryn Vercillo

Mandalas for Marinke project - Kathryn Vercillo — © Kathryn Vercillo – Used with permission.

When you first learn how to crochet, chances are that you assume you are just adding a new hobby to your life. While that’s true, what you might not realize at first is that this hobby has the potential to bring so many wonderful things in to your life. Crochet has benefits that enhance your quality of life in so many ways, making it such a great craft to learn at any age.

Crochet Brings Serenity

In all of the research that I’ve done into the health benefits of crochet, the number one thing cited by nearly everyone is that crochet offers relaxation. This is more than just the joy of a hobby; it’s a deep sense of peace that comes with the tactile softness of the yarn in your hands and the rhythmic motion of the “yarn over, pull through” offered specifically by this craft. After you have mastered the basic crochet stitches, you can immerse yourself in meditative, mindful crochet to achieve a sense of calm wherever you take your craft. This can be useful for people in stressful situations (such as hospital waiting rooms), those of us who deal with anxiety and anyone who seeks a little more zen in their days.

Crochet Can Also Challenge the Brain

The great thing about this craft is that it is easy to learn the basics but there are also so many more things that you can learn if you want to. There are advanced stitches, new techniques, and even different pattern types (written patterns, symbol charts, graphs …) so that if you want to keep pushing yourself in crochet then you always can. People can crochet for decades and become really comfortable with the craft and still find something new to learn if they dig a little bit. This allows you to keep stretching your brain over the years, which is important to anyone who wants to keep stagnation at bay, possibly even preventing or delaying age-related memory loss. It also just keeps things interesting for us at any age, giving us something new to focus on and to feel accomplished at when we succeed.

Crochet Comes with a Community

This is a craft filled with people who are kind, generous and creative. While some hobbies get very competitive, crochet tends to be more collaborative. Yes, crochet is something that you can do on your own. However, it is also something that you can share with others. This may be done simply through online communities like Facebook groups and Ravelry forums, in person at classes and workshops or even by participating in group activities that range from crochet-alongs to collaborative yarnbombing projects. When you make something new and share it with other people who crochet, they usually respond with positive feedback. This adds social satisfaction to the sheer pleasure of crafting, giving a new dimension to the craft.

As you can see, crochet offers such a range of benefits for your life, if you only choose to take advantage of them. The versatility of the craft means that it enhances quality of life for different people – introverts and extroverts, those who need calm and those who need mental stimulation, young and old alike. The portability of the craft, the ease of learning it, the adaptability for people with various ability limitations and the affordability of the materials all add to the reasons that crochet is a great choice when bringing a new craft into your life.

This is a guest post by Kathryn Vercillo, blogger at Crochet Concupiscence and author of several books including Crochet Saved My Life and Mandalas for Marinke.