Is knitting good for your brain and mental health?

Knitting has had a quiet comeback, and it arrives with big claims attached: rewires your brain, beats anxiety, wards off dementia. So, is knitting good for your brain and mental health? Probably, in modest ways. But the research is thinner and softer than the claims, and it is worth knowing exactly what it does and does not say.

Is knitting good for your brain?

Probably, but what we have is association, not proof. The best-known study comes from the Mayo Clinic’s long-running research on ageing in Olmsted County, Minnesota. Researchers asked 1,321 people aged 70 to 89, some with normal thinking and some with mild cognitive impairment (an early stage of memory and thinking problems), how often they did various activities in the past year. Craft activities, such as knitting and quilting, were linked with lower odds of having mild cognitive impairment, as were computer use, playing games and reading books.^[2]

The caveat is a big one. It was a cross-sectional study: one snapshot in time. It cannot tell us whether knitting kept people’s thinking sharp, or whether people whose thinking was already sharp were simply more likely to keep up fiddly hobbies. Both are plausible.

Does knitting help with anxiety?

Many knitters say it does, and that is real information, even if it is not a trial. In a 2013 study, researchers ran an online survey through an internet knitting site and heard from 3,545 knitters around the world. Relaxation, stress relief and creativity were among the most common reasons people gave for knitting. There was a significant relationship between how often people knitted and how calm and happy they felt.^[1]

The caveats: the people who answered were mostly white women who already knitted often and liked it enough to fill in a survey on a knitting website. That is not a random sample of anyone. And it is self-report, collected at one point in time. Knitting is not a treatment for an anxiety disorder. If anxiety is getting in the way of your daily life, please speak to your GP. This is general information, not medical advice.

Is knitting good for mental health?

It seems to help many people feel calmer and more connected. The same survey found that more frequent knitters also reported better thinking, and that knitting in a group was linked with feeling happier, more social contact and better communication with others.^[1] The authors concluded that knitting has psychological and social benefits and therapeutic potential, while saying clearly that it needs further research.

That group finding is worth underlining. A knitting circle is not only a craft; it is a regular, low-pressure reason to sit with other people. Some of the benefit may be the company as much as the yarn.

Does knitting help prevent dementia?

There is no proof that it does. The Mayo Clinic study above is the one usually cited, and it found that crafts were associated with lower odds of mild cognitive impairment in people aged 70 to 89.^[2] It did not follow people over time to see who developed dementia, and it did not test knitting as an intervention.

So the honest position is: knitting is a good, absorbing, sociable hobby that may be part of a mentally active life, and a mentally active life is linked with healthier ageing. It is not a dementia prevention plan. If you are worried about your own memory, or someone else’s, the place to start is your GP.

Why is knitting so relaxing?

Our best guess is rhythm plus a small, steady demand. The research shows that knitters report feeling calm; it does not pin down why. But knitting has qualities that make it easy for attention to settle:

1. It is repetitive. The same small movement, over and over, with a pleasant sound and feel.
2. It always has a next step. One more stitch, then one more row. There is never a blank page.
3. It keeps your hands busy. Which leaves less room for the phone, and less room for idle grazing, a habit we look at in why do I eat when I’m bored.
4. It ends. Rows end, projects end. A feed never does.
5. It leaves something behind. A scarf, a hat, a pair of slightly odd socks. Proof the time went somewhere.

That combination is close to what psychologists call flow, the absorbed state where time disappears, which we cover in what is flow state. The same ingredients turn up in jigsaws, which have a little more research behind them; see are jigsaw puzzles good for your brain.

Is knitting or crochet better for your brain?

Neither, as far as the evidence goes, because no study we could find has compared them directly. The Mayo Clinic work grouped crafts such as knitting and quilting together.^[2] Pick the one that suits your hands and your patience. The hobby you keep doing is the one that does you any good.

How do you start knitting for calm rather than perfection?

One small project and no deadline is the best start. A few gentle suggestions:

• Start with a scarf or a dishcloth. Straight rows, no shaping, nothing to get wrong.
• Borrow before you buy. Friends, charity shops and libraries are full of needles and spare yarn.
• Leave it out. A project in a basket by the sofa invites you back. One in a cupboard does not.
• Try a group. Given the survey’s finding on knitting with others, a local knitting circle might be worth more than any pattern.

If you would like more ideas in the same spirit, our guide to analogue hobbies has a longer list, and The Slow Sunday Reset is our gentle way to make room for one each week.