Confessions of a Grandma

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 ...