Huerta 1

Gabriela Huerta

Senior Finale

Ms. Cahalan

March 6th, 2018

Benefits of Crocheting

Millennials say crocheting is for old women, it’s hard, boring, time consuming and only

just for girls, but none of those things are true. Anyone can crochet. Crocheting has been around

since the 18th century and researchers thought that crocheting was probably originally developed

by Chinese needle work. Although crocheting originated from the Chinese, it quickly reached to

Europe and became a popular skill to learn (Marks). More people should crochet because it is a

healthy use of their time.

According to Rodale wellness, (Vercillo, “5 ways”), there has been research that shows

that crocheting helps people with depression. Crocheting helps ease the effects of depression

with rhythmic patterns and some research shows that it also releases Serotonin from the brain,

which is a natural antidepressant. (Mimberlyt). People with depression end up paying a lot for

their medication when they could just learn how to crochet and end up paying way less!

Crocheting is also a inexpensive way to help people with depression, while learning how to make

useful things around the house. It's a great distraction from reality which mainly causes

depression (Bullard).

Crocheting is a good distraction activity that helps the youth. There are lots of children

and teenagers that have bad behaviors and end up doing bad things like, partying, drugs and

harming themselves. There’s proven research that crocheting has been helping out children and
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teenagers with ADHD. Crocheting calms them down, which can also help the parents take better

care of their children (Bullard). A crocheting literacy event in a classroom full of second graders

have helped promote student empowerment. Crocheting as a class, they all get along better and

end up being more calm, and well behaved. It also improves their motor skills, being able to

perform complex muscle and nerve movements. Which is amazing for the children. They don’t

have to be so destructive and they could learn how to make new things which is a fun activity

(Kneller). Another reason why crocheting is a great distraction is that you could do two things at

once! Multitasking is hard but not impossible. While learning how to crochet, the children don’t

have to sit in complete silence. They could crochet with a group of friends, or watch television

while making cool new things, which is nice not worrying about stressful things. (Bullard).

A lot of people crochet because it reduces stress. There are many arts and crafts books

that teach certain patterns and type of hooks that many people didn’t realize. The more someone

reads about how to crochet. It occupies the mind away from the things that causes stress. (

DONOHUE). While learning how to crochet, starting a small project can even help brighten

positive vibes. Small projects make it easier to feel accomplishment because instead of doing a

large project like, blankets, shirts, and pants, small projects are much faster and easier to finish.

Being able to see the work can help heal stress (Ramirez). Seeing the progress while crocheting

is a neat thing when someone feels blue. Stress is a normal part of life, and it can affect us in

many ways. Stress can affect everyone differently like having difficulty concentrating on a

certain thing because something else is also on somebody’s mind, or feeling anxiety, “Using

knitting or crochet as meditation can be a daily way to minimize the effects of stress in your
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life.” (Mimberlyt). Reasons why crocheting is really good at minimizing stress because stress is

one of the causes of the leading health problems and also is a reason why people go to therapy.

Crocheting was/is used as occupational therapy. Occupational therapy was proven to

improve people with mental health problems, physical problems, and many range of other

problems (Vercillo,”Occupational“). As said before, crocheting can help with motor skills, and

develop neuromuscular skills, which means having the ability to use both nerves and muscles in

the body. Crocheting is also being used in nursing homes and hospitals which is a nice activity to

learn. Arts and crafts are very healing and very therapeutic “In fact, the healing benefits of

crocheting (and knitting) are numerous and range from simply calming you down and easing

your stress to potentially relieving depression and reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease”

(Wiatr). Having the mind engaged in repetitive motions it can reduce the risk of alzheimer's

disease by 30-50 percent. It can prevent short term memory loss because crocheting involves lots

of rhythmic patterns which can help the brain’s senses. By working in a group occupational

therapy it can help everyone have some way to relate with each other where the community gets

along better. (Wiatr).

Babies are cute, but it is sad when premature babies end up not improving at all. There

has been research that premature babies have been improving a lot with the help of a octopus.

There was a group of volunteers and they made the Octo project, where they crochet octopus for

the premature babies and the babies end up feeling secure. When they feel secure they end up

improving a lot. (Flanders.) Children are cute adorable beings and they often don’t know how to

get along with each other but with the help of crocheting, it’ll help them be more calm and well

behaved. The babies will be able to memorize patterns at a early age which is beneficial for
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them. (Bullard). There was a bus driver who knew how to crochet and decided to give the kids

on to her bus each a crocheted item. They were all happy and felt comfortable and that made the

bus driver happy too. Crocheting can also make others feel happy because it's something that

someone works hard on and puts a lot of effort into (Wisconsin).

Everyone has lots of problems with their self esteem, but crocheting is also known to help

build self esteem. Crocheting something big or small and feeling proud of it after the project is

done, then selling it or giving it away to someone can definitely boost your self esteem (Wiatr).

Reasons why it would build self esteem is because it makes the person feel useful, productive,

and a somewhat hard worker for being able to crochet it, “Simply visualizing, working on and

then creating a product can make you feel better about yourself” (Mimberlyt). Also shows that

when crocheting it helps cope feelings and of not being able to leave abusive relationships, or

being able to stand up for themselves. Another reason why crochet would be amazing for self

esteem is that most people don’t have enough sleep because either they have insomnia or they are

up all night with something bothering them. If that’s the case, being able to crochet at night

instead of just sitting in bed bored, and exhausted because you can’t sleep, crocheting could help

a lot just but doing repetitive patterns and then falling asleep faster. “instill a soothing feeling in

the body and mind, serving as a form of meditation that can help you get back to sleep.”

(Vercillo, Sept 2017).

Another known fact about crocheting is that it helps reduce anxiety. When attending

daytime classes some people have social anxiety, which means getting really nervous to socialize

with other people. While crocheting it would beneficial because the persons hands would be
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occupied and the mind focused, that going to class would be much easier. (Mimberlyt.) “crochet

has been proven to reduce anxiety of all kinds, including panic attacks, social anxiety, and

generalized anxiety.” (Vercillo, “crochet as occupational.”) Crocheting has also been proven to

reduce some related anxiety that pregnant women get, keeps them more relaxed and it’s also

beneficial for them because they could be making baby hats, baby blankets, and other baby

needs.

There are many benefits to crocheting and is a great healthy way to spend one’s time.

Crocheting can heal your health in many ways, like helping children and teens with behavioral

problems, helping with depression and anxiety and many more. Crocheting is a great distraction

from drugs and video games because it’s more beneficial. Crocheting has many health benefits,

and is also a fun activity to learn. In all fairness people really don’t give crocheting another

chance because of the whole “stereotype” that it’s just for women but it really isn’t. This is

important because crocheting can help people’s health and most people don’t even notice.

Work cited

Bullard, Cathy Myers. “Crocheting for Beginners: Understanding the Benefits and History of
Crocheting.” Countryside Daily, 20 Nov. 2017, countrysidenetwork.com/daily/lifestyle/fiber-
crafts/benefits-learning-how-to-crochet/.
- This article gave information about the history of crocheting. It was very useful and easy
to understand.

DONOHUE, NANETTE. "Crochet to Calm: Stitch and De-Stress with 18 Simple Crochet
Patterns." Library Journal, vol. 141, no. 17, 15 Oct. 2016, pp. 87-88. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=118860782&site=ehost-live.
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- This article gave me information about ways that crocheting can help relieve stress. This
was very easy to read and helped a lot.

Flanders, Nancy. "A Crochet Octopus Is Helping Premature Babies Thrive." National Right to
Life News, Mar. 2017, p. 40. EBSCOhost ,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=121908439&site=ehost-live.
- This article gave out cute information about crocheting and how it benefit others. This
was a bit on the hard side but manageable.

Kneller, Sarah and Maureen Boyd. "“We Were Slow; It Was Challenging” and “It Was Hard Not
to Make Knots”: Crocheting as a Literacy Event in a Second Grade Classroom Community."
Early Childhood Education Journal, vol. 36, no. 2, Oct. 2008, pp. 135-147. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1007/s10643-008-0254-3.
- This article gave information on 2nd graders and how it improved their motor skills. It
was a useful piece of source.

Marks, Ruthie. “History of Crochet.” Crochet History - Crochet Guild of America (CGOA),
www.crochet.org/?page=crochethistory.
- This article also gave out information on the history of crocheting. Only used a piece
from this article.

Mimberlyt, et al. “10 Most Important Health Benefits of Yarn Crafting.” Lion Brand Notebook,
18
July 2014, www.lionbrand.com/blog/10-most-important-health-benefits-of-yarncrafting/.
- This article gave lots of information on benefits that crochet had on people. This helped
out a lot and i used lots of pieces from this source.

Ramirez, Mary, et al. “Top 10 Reasons Crochet Can Help You Heal.” Crochet Concupiscence,
30 July 2012, www.crochetconcupiscence.com/2012/08/top-10-reasons-crochet-can-help-you-
heal/.
- This article gave me information on how crochet can help you. This source helped out a
lot.
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Versillo, Kathryn. “5 Ways Crochet Can Heal Your Health.” Rodale Wellness, 11 Sept. 2017,
www.rodalewellness.com/health/crochet-benefits.
- Very interesting article. The information from this article was very easy to understanding.

Vercillo, Kathryn. “Crochet as Occupational Therapy.” The Spruce, 15 Feb. 2017,

www.thespruce.com/crochet-as-occupational-therapy-4097170.
- This information was interesting. Crocheting therapy was very interesting to read about.

Wiatr, Julia. “7 Surprising Crochet Health Benefits.” AllFreeCrochet.com , 20 Jan. 2017,

www.allfreecrochet.com/Tips-for-Crochet/Crochet-Health-Benefits.
- This information was really good and gave out lots of interesting facts. This source
helped out alot.

"Wisconsin School Bus Driver Crochets Personalized Toy for Every Student on Her Bus."
Curriculum Review, vol. 57, no. 1, Sept. 2017, p. 3. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=124987875&site=ehost-live.
- This information gave out personal details of a bus driver and it was adorable. This
source gave good information and easy to understand.