Studying How Crochet Heals and Helps People

This is a guest post by Kathryn Vercillo, author of Crochet Saved My Life and blogger at Crochet Concupiscence. She has created a new survey to explore the healing aspects of crochet.

Have you seen all of the research lately pointing to the fact that crochet heals people? Studies show that crafts including knitting and crochet likely have a number of health benefits. The most commonly cited benefit is relief from depression, but crafting helps with many other mental health and physical health issues as well. We’ve just begun to explore the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how crochet helps people. A new survey has been launched to help dig deeper.


Some of the things that this new survey will help us to better understand include:


* What symptoms of mental and physical illness are people relieving with crochet?
* How much is crochet really helping people with these symptoms?
* What other benefits does crochet offer besides symptom relief?
* How do the benefits of crochet compare to the benefits of other similar crafts?


There are many important reasons to study this topic. First off, there are tens of thousands of people out there crocheting and it can help each and every one of them to know about the different ways that the craft can help them. There are also plenty of people struggling with health issues who might be encouraged to try to crochet to heal if they can see how it might help. And there are a variety of institutions and healing centers (hospitals, therapy groups, schools, etc.) that might be interested in launching crochet programs if the study can show that the craft helps to heal people.


The research from this study has the potential to create a great ripple effect. And you can help just by taking the survey and spreading the word about it to others. Please consider taking the survey now. Or you can learn more about it from this press release.

Thank you so much, Kathryn! It is an honor to have you guest post here! 

I took the survey and it was a wonderful opportunity to "tell my story" about how crochet has healed me. Go on folks...tell your story.

| On the Board | -- Instead of being "thankful for things" we should focus on being "thankful in our circumstances", whatever they may be. 

~~Dieter F. Utchtdorf

::How To-- Read ALL of the Pattern::

For me, I know that as a student in school, I typically "forgot" to read the instructions carefully on an assignment and often found myself half-way through it before realizing I was doing it all wrong! If you've ever had the same tendency with a crochet pattern--skipping over that beginning "boring" part--this post is FOR YOU!

I'm so tickled that Tracy of CrochetHappy, a talented crochet artist, is here as a guest today to share her expertise about reading patterns! (And a HUGE THANKS to Tracy in advance!!)

Hi, my name is Tracy!

I like to support Independent Crochet Designers and provide fresh new patterns for my readers!

I've got patterns on the brain today …

Do you always skip over the first half of a patterns directions and start at ‘the good stuff’?

How many of us actually read that top half of a pattern?

I’m a skimmer. I freely admit, I quickly skim across those top few instructions because I’m excited to get to the starting point where I make that magic loop and my hook meets yarn.

That has caused some problems for me though so I have learned to slow down and take a look at what the pattern designer has to say in that top portion. After all, they went to a lot of time and trouble to put it there. I should at least read it.

Guess what, it’s some pretty helpful information.

Here’s the top portion for one of my favorite scarf patterns:

Alana Lacy Scarf Copyright ©2010 CrochetDreamz.