knitting for stress relief

Well here at Crafty Housewife yarns(aka Me)  we are in the process moving. I'm finding that it is very hard to be a housewife and stay at home mom, crafty or otherwise while living in a hotel.

 This has been a less than glamours experience so far.  While I am very happy for an opportunity to movie closer to family so that we don't have to endure flying for 14 hours with two toddlers everytime we want to visit people, leaving our well established lives not to mention partners and friends  in all things fiber in the pacific NW has not been easy.  

You always hear how good knitting and spinning is for stress relief I feel like I've been putting that theory to the test here lately.  

The first obvious benefit is that it is very portable.  It was a two day process of a team of movers packing up our house.  I'm super grateful that I didn't have to pack up all of our belonging because lets face it that would have involved not moving or selling everything we owned, but it was a very odd place to find yourself out of place and in the way in while strangers go through everything you own.  This is where knitting first came in handy.  It gave me an excuse to hide in the stairwell by myself with headphones and a tablet watching Bob's burgers, knitting and trying not to think too hard about what was going on.  The second benefit you hear for the stress reliving qualities of knitting is the meditative quality of the repeating stitches.  Having made it to the long term hotel in Knoxville where we will be living after 3 days of packing, house selling and traveling that I hope to completely block from memory I could defiantly use some mental distraction.  I had packed some yarn that I've had in my stash for awhile, a beautiful hand dyed fingering weight.  It reminds me of the colors of the fall leaves of the mountains and Im hoping it will help me start to feel more at home and excited to be here.  

It is also been resheared that  crafting  practices like knitting, spinning and crochet help with enhancing cognitive function, Lord knows I need all of the help I can get in that department.  Here is an excerpt form the New York times:

"Perhaps most exciting is research that suggests that crafts like knitting and crocheting may help to stave off a decline in brain function with age. In a 2011 study, researchers led by Dr. Yonas E. Geda, a psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., interviewed a random sample of 1,321 people ages 70 to 89, most of whom were cognitively normal, about the cognitive activities they engaged in late in life. The study, published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences, found that those who engaged in crafts like knitting and crocheting had a diminished chance of developing mild cognitive impairment and memory loss." 

Last but probably most importantly the art of working with yarn and fiber helps to relieve stress because you're actually making something! It's exciting to have something calming to think about like the details of picking the perfect amount and type of yarn to go with a new pattern you're excited about. You can either get complex by slightly altering a pattern to fit your needs and figuring out exactly how to do it, or you can just start knitting a simple scarf or cowl from left over stash yarn or something special you may have picked up(I know a good place to get something special, ha ha) Not many stress relieving practices also reward you with the feeling of accomplishment and a cute new item when you're done. I know any time I see something I made by hand or was made for me by someone else it makes me smile, even if it's just a dish cloth.  

So take it from me, a long time fiber arts and crafts person as well as an expert at stressing out that knitting or crochet even if it's super simple and brainless while you watch too much ancient aliens or real housewives of ATL can really help.