Hands on Knitting Center

Why You Should Teach Your Kids Knitting

Choosing Knitting Essentials: Tools You Can't Live Without

Everyone needs a hobby that can enhance their practical, intellectual, cognitive, and motor skills. Fortunately, art-based hobbies, like sewing, knitting, crocheting, and weaving, have significantly helped people specialize in artistic hobbies.

Like any activity, knitting requires a set of mandatory tools. Whether you’re new to the idea of knitting or are considering attending your first knitting class for beginners, here are three must-have knitting tools every knitter should purchase.

Yarn

One of the components that makes knitting an attractive hobby for beginners to pursue is the wide range of colorful yarn. People love the opportunity to play with fiber and its colorful texture. While some individuals might not be familiar with the significance of yarn during knitting, it’s critical to purchase a high-quality yarn if you’re looking for a smooth and trouble-free knitting experience.

However, it’s not the best idea to splurge on yarn as a knitting beginner. For your first few projects, you must seek an expert’s help in picking an affordable yarn without being scratchy, uncomfortable to work with.

An excellent way to pick the suitable yarn for your project is by determining your knitting project’s specific needs. It’ll help you determine the ideal yarn weight, quantity, texture, quality, and fiber type that fits your needs the best.

Needles

While it’s not the wisest idea to splurge on yarn as a knitting beginner, you can save some dollars when purchasing needles for your knitting kit. Needles are the most critical knitting tool you must have. Fortunately, you can find a wide range of needles in the market, available in materials like bamboo, rosewood, casein, aluminum, and more.

Knitting needles are beautiful for a sewing or knitting kit. However, as a beginner, you should choose plastic or aluminum needles for a more effortless knitting experience. The knitting pattern instructions can help you determine the suggested needle size.

Additionally, it’s crucial to understand that you may have to purchase a new set of needles for every knitting project. It’s because every project requires needles of different sizes for ultimate perfection. Therefore, it may take a while for you to complete your needle collection.

Crochet Hooks

Contrary to popular belief, knitters often need crocheting tools too. One of such tools includes crochet hooks. These are essential for providing a knitted garment a delicate touch with a crocheted border. The best part about them is that you don’t necessarily have to specialize in crocheting to use a crochet hook.

Additionally, crocket hooks are valuable alternatives for when a sewing needle can’t weave a short yarn end. Every knitter can easily use a size G or H crochet hook after some practice. These hooks come in handy in fixing store-bought knitted items too.

You can now order knitting supplies online at Hands On Knitting Center. We’re a leading online knitting shop offering online knitting classes for beginners, signature needles, cotton yarn, and crochet hooks. Get in touch with us to learn more about our products and events.

Here's How Knitting/Crocheting Saved People's Lives (and Sanity) During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the most severe public health crises faced by people worldwide. Apart from its inevitable and apparent physical health implications, the policies and their strategic implementations that resulted from COVID-19 caused many mental health issues for people too.

The pandemic led to an increased need for people to stay sane and happy during tough times. Read on to learn how knitting and crocheting helped people during the pandemic.

Emotional Healing

The COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on many people’s mental health. When most people found themselves confined within their homes, they ran out of enjoyable ways to stay productive. However, knitting became the holy grail for many crafters during this time.

The British Journal of Occupational Therapy surveyed 4,000 knitters worldwide in 2013. According to this study’s findings, 3,545 knitters who regularly engaged in this hobby experienced significant changes in their well-being. The respondents reported enhanced wellness, calm, productivity, and happiness after at least two hours of knitting every day.

Similarly, knitting promoted emotional healing among many people dealing with issues, like anxiety and depression, during the pandemic. According to a 2010 study review by the American Journal of Public Health, adults prefer engaging in art-based interventions, like crocheting or knitting, due to their emotional healing properties.

Connecting With the Outer World

The pandemic was challenging for most people because of the indefinite lockdown guidelines that prevented most people from networking, meeting, and connecting with their friends, family members, and loved ones. Many people had to spend memorable holidays, like Christmas and Thanksgiving, at their homes all by themselves to ensure everyone’s safety.

Knitting and crocheting helped such individuals in remaining connected with the outer world during this time. Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness is an incredible book written by Ingred Lee, in which she explains how crafts like knitting are an excellent source of staying in touch with the outer world.

She explains how staying indoors for an extended period can result in a lack of sensory input, and tangible activities, like knitting, can help compensate for this loss. The sensory stimuli are replaced with the texture of the yarn and holding essential tools during the knitting process.

A Mental Cleanse

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a lot of panic and anxiety among people who were either infected or had to take care of loved ones who were sick. Such circumstances increased the need for people to adopt therapeutic hobbies like knitting and crocheting.

Fortunately, beginner and intermediate-level learners have widely appreciated online knitting and crochet classes during the pandemic. People struggling with anxiety chose to attend many knitting and crocheting classes to calm their nerves and get a much-needed break from everything going on in the world.

In other words, knitting has been a productive hobby for people, helping keep their minds occupied, reducing their stress levels, and improving their self-esteem by allowing them to create something useful with their hands.

One of the silver linings of shutdowns was the creative response of Yarn Shops building online gathering places through Zoom and other platforms. All of a sudden, your LYS did not have to be right down the street—it could be in another state or even country! And this ability to gather and meet other knitters from all over brought us together, increased our understanding, and provided much-needed relief from the tedium of the lockdowns.

If you’re looking to begin your journey of learning the art of knitting and crocheting, feel free to sign up for the online knitting and crocheting classes at Hands On Knitting Center. We offer weekly online classes, events, and knitting supplies online to help you perfect your artistic craft. Contact us to learn more today!