Suppose you’re a reasonably creative person, believing you’re stuck in life. In that case, picking up a trusty crochet hook may lift you out of muddy sadness. You may be thinking, “I don’t think so!” and yes, whilst a fuzzy ball of wool won’t cure depression, in my crocheting experience, it may help distract you from pain.
Producing crochet never filled me with excitement until I decided to pick up a new hobby during the isolating pandemic. I knit, but curiosity led me to buy a shiny crochet hook, search YouTube for friendly tutorials, and fumble with wool. I learnt that stitching repeatedly bought me the calming mindfulness that guided meditation hadn’t.
Suppose you’re like me and prefer to do stuff rather than sit and listen to a stranger speak affirmations through wiry headphones. In that case, crochet may be the therapeutic activity you’ve been waiting for.
“Crocheting acts as a mental and physical therapy and there are many beautiful things that are created in the process.” — Today’s Crochet World
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1. Patience Young Grasshopper
Tools, tutorials and time.
Firstly, it’s best if you collect the magical materials essential for crocheting.
For starters, I recommend finding a tutorial or pattern you love, seeing the requirements, including what trusty hook and wool the tutor advises. It’s unnecessary to pay for designs; I search online for free patterns and have never paid to discover instructions.
Patterns are unhelpful without accurately informing which hook size to use unless they allow their reader adaptation flexibility.
Generally, crochet patterns desire 3 basic things from you: working tools (hooks and wool), your precious time and the patience to finish crafting the crochet. Spending hours crocheting a detailed cushion requires patience. This patience skill helps in other challenging areas of self-care, such as working your way up a company, saving for a house or waiting for a takeaway.
Patience is essential to long-term success, and I believe crocheting is a fun method of increasing patience skills. So why not challenge yourself to see if you can stick to it?
You might surprise yourself with your determination and boost your self-confidence.
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2. Rippling Resilience
Benefiting Wider Life.
Once you’ve mastered the basics, crocheting’s rhythmic dance may soothe you. In addition, crocheting teaches people to treasure processes.
“Happiness is achieved when you stop waiting for your life to begin and start making the most of the moment you are in.”
― Germany Kent
I found myself excited to return to my crochet, enjoying the journey more than the satisfying end result.
Suppose you can teach yourself to appreciate the learning process during crocheting rather than focusing on the annoying mistakes you make. In that case, you can take these valuable lessons, revamping your attitude towards enjoying other areas of life.
“There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
Following this thought process, you’ll gain resilience and self-motivation to apply to career climbing, nurturing relationships and mindful self-improvement.
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3. “Nothin’ Like a Bit of Experimenting”
–Juno
Once you’re comfortably stitching, let yourself design your own patterns. Crochet is beautifully buildable, allowing for more creative exploration than knitting.
You can thread your hook into almost any angle of a stitch and go rogue.
I’ve found joy in mistakes (A.K.A. happy accidents) and worked my favourite wacky crochet hanging by leaning into imperfection. I wanted to craft a delightful boho tapestry like the softly filtered macrame hangings displayed on Pinterest. However, I quickly discovered that accurate stitching was super tricky when engineering with opposing sizes of wool.
In response to realising this, I crocheted outside the lines. I allowed the fabric to wiggle and curve however it wished. This resulted in a blue, wavy and boldly abstract tapestry, which is consistently inconsistent. I love it.
“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”
It can be freeing to bravely embrace childlike play when crocheting; as serious adults, we’re not usually allowed to unashamedly make mistakes. Crocheting is a safe outlet to experiment with risk. (I believe no harm comes from a homemade wonky tapestry!).
If You’re Not into Crochet:
- Safely experiment by watching films you’ve ignored.
- Switch up writing styles.
- Try a new food regularly.
Experimenting with your actions is a brilliant way to increase joyful open-mindedness.
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Crafting crochet teaches more than making a modern boho tapestry; crocheting can provide creatives with opportunities to grow in all aspects of their innovative lives.
Crocheting often requires determining attitudes, patience and experimenting. These crafting skills can teach us to apply the joys of trying new things into our busy lives. Including bravely bidding for jobs, taking up a hobby we’re putting off and travelling.
Whether you crochet or not, challenge yourself to be more patient, experiment safely throughout life and embrace your mistakes as opportunities to learn.
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I hope you find happiness.
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Please note, I’m not a psychologist, and this article is based on my experience as a crochet lover. However, suppose you’re suffering from severe mental health issues. In that case, I hope you get better soon and please seek the loving help of a professional psychologist.
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This post was previously published on Medium.
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