Why I Knit

In this bonus book club episode Paula joins me to discuss two great books about art, health and well-being. Both books take a deep dive into the research into how the arts impact on our health, well-being and education.
Mia has read the New York Times bestselling book: Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. This is a summary of research across different areas of the arts and how the impact on health, welll-being and learning.
Paula has read Art Cure by Daisy Fancourt who has conducted a huge amount of research in the field of arts and health.
We share our thoughts on these books and how the relate to knitting and what might be happening in our brains when we knit.
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🧶 If you'd like to learn more about how to use knitting for your self-care, check out our course Self-Care One Stitch at a Time.
🧶Catch up on our on-demand webinars:
The Healing Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting
Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout
Knitting for Attention and Focus. We explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.
Here's how to stay in touch:
💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter
📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond
Mentioned in this episode:
Join us to learn more about the mental health benefits of knitting!`
We are running our popular webinar The Healing Power of Knitting on Tuesday 14th July 2026 at 7pm BST and we'd love you to join us. Click the link below to find out more:
https://creativerestoration.podia.com/the-healing-power-of-knitting-live-webinar-july-2026

For this journal club episode we discuss the commonly made claim that knitting can reduce blood pressure. We discuss the origins of this claim in the research and look at a new paper which examines the impact of a creative handicraft group, which included knitting, on a group of older adults living in a residential home.
You can find a link to the abstract and reference here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/psyg.70044?af=R
To find out more about Self-Care One Stitch at a Time: an audio course
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🧶 If you'd like to learn more about how to use knitting for your self-care, check out our course Self-Care One Stitch at a Time.
🧶Catch up on our on-demand webinars:
The Healing Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting
Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout
Knitting for Attention and Focus. We explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.
Here's how to stay in touch:
💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter
📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond
Mentioned in this episode:
Join us to learn more about the mental health benefits of knitting!`
We are running our popular webinar The Healing Power of Knitting on Tuesday 14th July 2026 at 7pm BST and we'd love you to join us. Click the link below to find out more:
https://creativerestoration.podia.com/the-healing-power-of-knitting-live-webinar-july-2026

This is our first bonus relisten episode where Paula and I choose 3 episodes on a theme and relisten to them and give our reflections.
This month we are listening to 3 episodes with knitters who discuss their experiences of ADHD and how they use knitting to benefit their well-being as an ADHD knitter.
If you'd like to listen back, the episodes we discuss are:
Una S8E8
Madison Siegel S6E4
Lisa Silver S4E4
If you'd like to see the full list of episodes featuring discussions of ADHD you find them on the blog
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🧶 If you'd like to learn more about how to use knitting for your self-care, check out our course Self-Care One Stitch at a Time.
🧶Catch up on our on-demand webinars:
The Healing Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting
Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout
Knitting for Attention and Focus. We explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.
Here's how to stay in touch:
💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter
📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond
Mentioned in this episode:
Join us to learn more about the mental health benefits of knitting!`
We are running our popular webinar The Healing Power of Knitting on Tuesday 14th July 2026 at 7pm BST and we'd love you to join us. Click the link below to find out more:
https://creativerestoration.podia.com/the-healing-power-of-knitting-live-webinar-july-2026

This week Paula and I discuss a research paper about knitting and attention in children.
Sonnier F, Lussiana E and Gueraud S (2023) Boosting inhibition control process by knitting at school. Front. Psychol. 14:1062001. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1062001
This study is specifically focussed on whether knitting can affect our executive function skills, and found that primary school children had significant better scores on a test of inhibition after 20 minutes of knitting compared to spending 20 minutes at recess. They also found that knitting reduced the impact of emotion on response times.
You can read the full text here
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🧶 If you'd like to learn more about how to use knitting for your self-care, check out our course Self-Care One Stitch at a Time.
🧶Catch up on our on-demand webinars:
The Healing Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting
Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout
Knitting for Attention and Focus. We explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.
Here's how to stay in touch:
💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter
📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond
Mentioned in this episode:
Join us to learn more about the mental health benefits of knitting!`
We are running our popular webinar The Healing Power of Knitting on Tuesday 14th July 2026 at 7pm BST and we'd love you to join us. Click the link below to find out more:
https://creativerestoration.podia.com/the-healing-power-of-knitting-live-webinar-july-2026

For the final episode of series 9 I am joined by Simon, also known as Veteran Knitter and one of the contestants from Game of Wool, the knitting and crochet based TV show in the UK.
Simon speaks about how he first came to pick up some knitting needles and his journey from a secret knitter who handed out hand knit gifts to his surprised friends and family, to going public on Instagram and then taking his knitting onto our TV screens.
We speak about his experience of telling his work colleagues on a building site that he is a knitter, and how he uses knitting to help him bring his focus into the present.
Connect with Simon on Instagram and TikTok
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🧶 If you'd like to learn more about how to use knitting for your self-care, check out our course Self-Care One Stitch at a Time.
🧶Catch up on our on-demand webinars:
The Healing Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting
Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout
Knitting for Attention and Focus. We explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.
Here's how to stay in touch:
💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter
📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond
Mentioned in this episode:
Join us to learn more about the mental health benefits of knitting!`
We are running our popular webinar The Healing Power of Knitting on Tuesday 14th July 2026 at 7pm BST and we'd love you to join us. Click the link below to find out more:
https://creativerestoration.podia.com/the-healing-power-of-knitting-live-webinar-july-2026