Stitchers Alert!

I've discovered a simpatico website: http://www.stitchlinks.com/. It's a UK-based global support network focused on the health benefits of knitting, crocheting, and other needle arts.


I've had some great email exchanges with the director, Betsan Corkhill, who later this month will be talking about the health benefits of crafting at the Craft & Hobby Association meeting in California. She feels, as I do, that crafts are finally being recognized for their therapeutic benefits--something we crafters have known intuitively all along. Crafts are starting to receive attention from researchers and others (even pharmaceutical companies, she says) as ways to improve overall health and well-being, manage stress, and reduce pain and depression.


Betsan is asking stitchlinks.com visitors to post to the "my story" channel about how stitching or knitting has improved their health. Gathering ancedoctal evidence like this is important to convincing researchers to study the connections between health and crafting, and to discover new ways we can use our crafts to further improve our health and well-being.


Check it out!