Skip to main content

Knitting Brain Cells Together

While I was reading about boosting brain power, I had the intuition that knitting has got to be exercise for your brain.  Sometimes knitting can be meditative.  And believe me, struggling to wrap my mind around that lace pattern for my recently completed shawl--that was a brain workout.  I can't tell you how much ripping out I did before I finally got started.  At some point my brain and my fingers just started to work together.

Well, lo and behold, it turns out that there is some scientific investigation into the benefits of knitting (crocheting and sewing, too) for the brain.

According to Dr. Yonas Geda of the Mayo Clinic, knitting may be "neuro-protective."  It may reduce memory loss and symptoms of depression, which seems to be a factor in the likelihood that mild cognitive difficulties will lead to dementia. 

An interesting article about therapeutic knitting can be found here.


Maybe it's taking the easy way out, which might not be in the proper spirit,  But, hey, way easier than reading Kafka.  That's what I think.
Labels:

Comments

  1. BarbMay 10, 2011 at 3:24 PM

    I think knitting might be stressful for me - find me another activity, please. For you though - perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Meryl BaerMay 10, 2011 at 5:11 PM

    I'm with Barb. My friends tried to teach me a couple of years ago, and I failed. My grandmother tried decades ago. I wasn't ready. There's got to be other activities for us knitting flunkies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Arkansas PattiMay 10, 2011 at 7:01 PM

    I'm with Barb and Mercyn I fear. My arthritic hands won't take that type of work so I will have to find another way.

    ReplyDelete
  4. MargaretMay 10, 2011 at 7:19 PM

    Well, now I have to get my project going. Really! I'm not surprised, I like the meditative qualities of knitting. But I still can't read a pattern.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Linda MyersMay 10, 2011 at 7:20 PM

    I'm thinking about taking it up - I crocheted for a few years way back when. What I don't think I could do at all is quilt.

    ReplyDelete
  6. marciamayoMay 11, 2011 at 4:58 AM

    Then I'd better get my skein out.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousMay 11, 2011 at 9:30 AM

    I like how you think Olga!
    Visiting from GrandmasBriefs.xom. Love your blog. I can't knit but I do crochet and I really believe it staves off depression and such. Have a beautiful day!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Heidrun Khokhar, KleinsteMotteMay 13, 2011 at 11:21 PM

    For sure there's power needed to do it well. My mom very many bit of wool and created the most elaborate patters that were repeated and all from her brain!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousMay 16, 2011 at 9:15 PM

    I'm glad there are meditative knitters so I can wear sweaters, but I'm unhandy with those kind of skills and do much better with gardening or walking. We all manage different things, don't we?

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousJune 12, 2014 at 10:25 AM

    Yea for a Minnesota doctor and his open support of knitting! I live in Minnesota. I knit. My brain still works!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I appreciate readers' comments so much. You don't even always have to agree with me.

Popular posts from this blog

It's TIme

 It's been a while since I have posted anything and even my reading your posts is falling by the wayside. I am in Florida now. I have a yard where little attention was spent on landscaping for the past years so I am slowly and (somewhat) methodically addressing that. I also volunteer to work at the pollinator garden and the edible garden I helped install at the UU grounds and I took over the volunteer job of cleaning out the overgrown community garden by my neighborhood mailboxes. The neighbor who was doing that got sick and could no longer attend to it. It's a bigger job than I'd thought at first -- not only overgrown with weeds, but the plants that are wanted there are in life and death competition for each others' spaces. And two walks a day, morning and evening, so Levi can keep up with addiction to canine social media and a daily rousing came of stick or ball midday take up another chunk of my time. I have a weekly meditation group that I co-facilitate, and my own ...
10 comments
Read more

Life Goes On

There is nothing like a visit from the grand children to remind one that life goes on.  I spent Friday night at my daughter's and then brought the kids back home with me.  I did not get to see so much of them this past summer and it was a birthday gift to my daughter (who just turned 40!) to have a couple of days to herself. She probably spent them in her son's room playing Lego StarWars.  Dane tried to teach me how to play this video game--a hopeless task if ever there was one.  "Concentrate, Grandma!  You have to concentrate!"  I do have a hard time with sustained concentration lately, but in this case I had no clue what it was that needed concentration.  He finally took the controls away from me (thank-you!). It's amazing how long he can amuse himself at my house being out side on a scooter or helping me in the yard, especially if it involves a hose.  Inside, they both sit and draw or craft for hours.  Just before bed, Dane did say, "N...
41 comments
Read more

Walking

 I have always been a walker. Now that I have a high energy dog there is no excuse for not getting out there. And the weather is not an interfering factor here. Early morning and early evening are our preferred times so even when it gets hot we should be okay. We can get quite a long walk going around the neighborhood, greeting neighbors out working in their yards or walking their own dogs. But the landscape changes quickly just beyond the confines of the housing developments. It could be described as natural Florida or as sites of future housing developments. I do prefer the first option. And I really enjoy being out in natural areas so I often opt to head to a nature setting. I would have liked to put a picture here. Unfortunately my iPhone has made a unilateral decision. It will no longer be sending my photos to my computer. Why? I have no idea. However, we may be walking along happily enough -- me listening to the birds or trying to identify wildflowers and other plants while L...
10 comments
Read more