Hello All,
As some of you may know, April is “Stitch Away Stress” month within the knit and crochet community. To be honest you guys, I’ve had a very stressful April so far. I started my certification program in Health Informatics ,I have my 9 to 5 which has been very demanding and stressful over the past few weeks and I also lost a very close and dear family friend to Multiple Sclerosis. So to say that I’ve been stressed out is the understatement of the year so far. To keep me from completely losing touch with reality, I’ve been working on unfinished projects that I have laying around because they too were causing me stress. I try not to have too many wips going at one time because I know I can get overwhelmed and upset with myself that I let them go unfinished for so long. Am I the only one that get’s like this? Surely I can’t be…right?
I also had this really interesting conversation recently and I want to share it with you all. So here it goes…I was at work about a week ago and a group of people that I work with asked me how I manage my stress and with all of the confidence and self assurance I said, ” I crochet!” The people that asked looked suprised and to be honest with you I got a little offended because they gave me that, ” Your not old, why are you crocheting?” look that I get all of the time. I simply told them that when I get stressed out I pick up my hook and yarn to create something to get my mind off of what is causing my mental discomfort. Just know that I bring a huge bag to work with me everyday with different yarns and my hooks in it just in case I need to get my mind off of something.
I don’t know about you guys, but when I pick up my hook and yarn it’s like all of the outside world just disappears and I just get lost in the stitches. Before I know it, I’ve at least started something or finish a project that I’ve been working on. I’m not sure what the statistics are on how knitting and crochet helps lower your blood pressure and keeps your mind sharp but I know for sure (at least for me) that it can melt away your stress. I can also attest to the fact that it has helped me with my problem solving skills as well. I find myself sometimes waiting for someone to ask me to come up with a solution to an issue that they’ve been having and couldn’t figure out a way to fix it.
Now as I’m sitting here typing out this blog post, it reminds me of this time last year when I posted my 3 part blog series on how crochet changed how I manage my stress. I’m truly grateful for my craft and the community that I’m apart of.
Until next time,
Tacia (founder and maker of Joanna’s Crochet)
joannascrochet.com 