Did you know that April is Stress Awareness Month? Maybe you’re like me, to busy and stressed to even know about it! Stress, anxiety, and depression are frequent topics in our house. As a society, our mental health should be talked about openly on a regular basis. Recently, I shared an article on my personal Facebook page, how knitting can reduce anxiety and depression. I was surprised how many people commented they had always wanted to learn to knit or crochet. Since I’ve been thinking about starting a crochet group for, well, years now, it seemed like now was the time to start! A few months ago I got back in the habit of carrying a crochet project in my purse. I realized it’s my stress relief. Hopefully, I can help others with their stress relief as well.
Got Yarn?
Years ago I was on a kick making character hats. Not only did my kids love them, people started asking me for them. Since my nephew had been recently diagnosed with neutropenia, I made hats and for each one I sold, I made a contribution to the Long Race for Tate and the Ella Jewel Foundation for neutropenia research and support.
To this day, if I’m out and about, people often ask things like “where’s your yarn?” or “don’t you make those hats?” or “are you the one always knitting?” – the last is because they don’t know the difference between knitting and crocheting!
As my kids got older and I was able to drop them off at practices and lessons and run errands, I wasn’t crocheting as much. Character hats were no longer requested by my girls, which was fine because I was kinda burnt out from them.
But, I didn’t mean to not crochet. I still did crochet some. Just not nearly as much as I had in the past.
With the move and home improvement projects, I had plenty of creative outlets so I didn’t realize how little I was crocheting.
Recently, I began structuring my mornings differently. By getting up a little earlier and spending some dedicated time “working,” aka blogging, I’m not spending my evenings trying to get caught up or my waiting time getting lost in social media.
Now my evening relaxing time is spent crocheting and catching up on the shows IronFish and I record and watch together. When I’m sitting in a waiting room, I pull out my yarn.
And something amazing happened…
I’m not as stressed.
I’ve also had some wonderful conversations in waiting rooms while crocheting. Grandmothers telling me they used to crochet baby blankets and layettes when their grandchildren were babies. Grandfathers who know that I’m crocheting, not knitting, because their grandma, wife, mother used to crochet. Moms saying they never found the time to learn and are amazed that I’ve managed to. Teenagers who are mesmerized and say they want to learn to crochet or knit.
Once the conversation was started we just kept talking. Every time.
Starting a Crochet Group
Over the past few years, I’ve begun to work outside of the house and the number of hours has increased. While I’m still involved in different activities, but the groups where we just got together to be social have dwindled.
For a long time, people have asked me to teach them to crochet. Since teaching my girls was my first attempt… and it failed miserably… I’ve been hesitant to try to teach others.
But, it’s time to try!
The group is going to be casual. Come when you can, any ability level. Bring a project or learn a new stitch and practice it by making squares. My plan is to take lots of squares and work them into scrap blankets to donate to Project Linus. A great way to learn and use up scraps.
I’m also hoping to make some instructional videos. Ones that will help my friends when they are home trying to crochet on their own. And I’m planning on sharing them here so they are available to anyone who wants to learn!
If there is something you enjoy doing, invite your friends to join you. It could be a craft night, just bring what you’re working on. Or rotate between houses and the hostess can offer a project to teach.
Maybe you have friends that enjoy cooking and eating great meals but don’t always have time to make them. Have a meal exchange group… everyone makes enough of something for everyone that can be eaten within a week or frozen until later. Then, get together for a dinner and exchange your meals! Everyone goes home with several meals and only had to fix one.
I could probably think of several more ideas. But I’ll stop before I get carried away. My point is to bring friends together, spend time doing something that helps you reduce the stress in your life. Human interaction means a lot more face to face than behind a smartphone or computer.
Crochet Inspiration
If crocheting is your thing and it’s been a while, I encourage you to pick it back up again. Here are some of the projects I’ve done lately. I have many more to share in the near future as I finish them up. And so many ideas in my head! I’m hoping to be able to offer some new patterns soon too.
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What do you like to do to relieve stress?
