To promote healthy coping mechanisms, Director of Hillel Bonnie Cramer hosted an educational event in Sorum where she taught students how to knit on Thursday, January 31 at 7:00 p.m..

“I consider knitting A. A spiritual practice and B. An anti anxiety practice,” Cramer said.

At this event, Cramer taught students the basics of knitting and provided spools yarn, two pairs of circular knitting needles and instructions for a basic hat.

“I wanted to learn to knit because it seems useful, fun and relaxing. I thought was super fun and chill… it’s a way to turn off my brain when it feels like it’s about to explode,” Lydia Hursh ’21 said.

Multiple studies have found that knitting has a multitude of health benefits.

In 2013 the British Journal of Occupational Therapy published, “The Benefits of Knitting for Personal and Social Wellbeing in Adulthood: Findings from an International Survey,” a study that found a “significant relationship between knitting frequency and feeling calm and happy.”

In addition to this, knitters reported cognitive functioning. When done in group settings, knitting can have a “significant” impact on happiness, social contact and communication.

Studies published by Harvard Medical School, the Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy and other journals have similar findings, in addition to finding knitting and crocheting to be helpful in treating symptoms of anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain.

One proposed reason for these effects are the repetitive motions involved in knitting and crocheting.

According to Cramer, the repetitive process is also why knitting is a religious experience.

She cited The Knitting Sutra: Craft as a Spiritual Practice by Susan Gordon Lydon as a resource to explain this mentality.

In her book, Gordon Lydon describes the lessons of interdependence, meditation and stillness that she learned through knitting and how the craft helped her cope through cancer treatment.