Yarn Harlot

Last evening my daughter and I drove to Rockland, on the coast of Maine, to hear a talk by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka the Yarn Harlot.  Stephanie knits, writes books and blog posts about her life as a knitter, and travels the continent telling stories about her knitting life.  She is hilarious.  I haven't laughed that much in a very long time.

The topic of last night's talk was "Your Brain on Knitting."  There is a fair amount of research, carried out at Harvard and Princeton and MIT and Cambridge, about how repetitive visual-spacial tasks enhance brain function and aid the brain in repairing and building neuropathways.  While most of the research doesn't specifically list knitting as a repetitive visual-spatial task, the process of creating items out of yarn with needles meets all of the criteria.  I plan to track down the research because I want to know more.

I am a beginner knitter of the basic knit and purl variety.  Thirty years ago I made a few simple sweaters.  More recently I've knitted scarves and small cotton dishcloths.  While I was visiting Martha's Vineyard I bought yarn to make a scarf to ease my way back into the craft.  My daughter is encouraging me to pick up my knitting needles again.

She has good reason to ~ knitting helped her get through medical school.  I showed Kristen how to knit simple squares when she was in elementary school, and she made doll blankets.  Years later she picked up needles and yarn again because she said keeping her hands busy helped her concentrate when attending lectures in medical school.  I don't know how she knew to do it, but the research bears out what Kristen knew ten years ago, that knitting makes your brain work better.

And I'm all for more brain power ~