Friday 16 August 2013

Blogging about Craft and Mental Health

I've long talked about the link between craft and wellbeing. It's not a simple link. Sometimes on a bad day I get really crafty. As I write this, in August 2013, I've just learned to crochet (for about the third time!) and I've made bunting, an amigurumi, some letters for an appliqué project and I'm working on some plarn. Sometimes a bad time is the last time I'm going to want a project. If I do, I tend to want something new. The Works in Progress Box is a law unto itself.

When I learn a new knitting technique or find an absorbing new project, it's addictive and fun. I become absorbed and for that time the intrusive thoughts can't find a way in. The craft is all. It helps if I have some radio, telly, or a book to concentrate on as well but it seems to take up the bit of my brain that the intrusive thoughts seep into when they're left empty.

I have explored the connection in blog posts before, and I have posted a fair bit from the archives - so although this is my first post here, you'll find some posts that were written in the past three years. Look around, enjoy, comment.

I'm also on Twitter and Pinterest, I'm rowleypolybird on both.