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Knitting Nirvana: cheap relaxation for rough times
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Sadly these days, while stress is plentiful, cash might not be. Lucky for us though, knitting and crocheting are medically proven stress reducing techniques which also are a lot cheaper then therapy. Knitters know that there is this special knitting-autopilot button in your brain-- the perfect rhythm, where thought is no longer required. Well, this state of mind is the very same achieved through meditation, yoga or Tai Chi, or even deep prayer. And this Zen state is proven to lower ones heart rate and even one’s blood pressure. The Harvard Medical School, Mind and Body Institute found that when a woman is knitting or crocheting her heart rate can drop by 11 beats per minute. This phenomenon is referred to as a “relaxation response”. So effective is knitting and crocheting that it is actually used to reduce stress in individuals with chronic illness. It is even taught in some school curriculums, because in addition to being a stress-reducer it encourages creativity and even promotes math skills! And if I have not mentioned it before, by day I am an engineer, so if there is anything I enjoy as much as knitting it is some good old math homework <<pushes glasses up>>… did I just lose some credibility?
OK, if neither math homework nor stitching does it for you, before you reach for those antidepressants, another great stress reducer is laughter. So here goes. I came across this pattern while browsing the Moda Fabric Bake Shop Website: Sugar Cube Pincushion. Scroll down to the second photograph (this one). Notice the brown bag labeled Scrap Bag on the right-hand side…. Notice how they accidentally covered the ‘s’ in ‘scrap bag’? HAHA! Oh boy, I hope that was an accident. Feel better yet? I do….
(Photograph courtesy of the Associated Press)
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