Stitch Away Stress and The Health Benefits of Crochet | Podcast Episode #58

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Do you Stitch Away Stress and Unwind with crochet and knitting?

When was the last time you picked up your current project after a long hard day? I’m guessing the answer to this question was sometime this week. We all have so many stressors in life and getting through them means we need to have something we can go to that melts them all away. Sometimes we don’t even realize we stitch away stress! For me, this is crochet and knitting – “stitch time” I call it and it is an absolute must.

April is stress awareness month and the Craft Yarn Council is celebrating the Stitch Away Stress movement once again. I feel so compelled to share the health benefits of knit and crochet that I’ve aligned April’s podcast topics around it! Crochet has the power to change our life, I strongly believe that because it has changed my life in so many ways. Let’s pass that along – give someone else the gift of crochet this month.

Episode Transcript

Brittany: 0:00
You’re listening to the B Hooked Podcast, session number 58, with Brittany. Come celebrate Stress Awareness Month with me. Welcome to episode number 58 of the B Hooked podcast and the very first episode in the month of April. Well, as you know, I have been focusing in on some themes for each month to really keep all of the content that I’m throwing at you kind of centered and focused and a lot more actionable.

So this month, I wanted to align my theme with the Craft Yarn Council’s Stitch Away Stress campaign because I think that I am certainly not alone in feeling the health benefits of knitting and crochet. And to ring in our first episode of the month of April, I brought on somebody directly from the source of that campaign. We’re going to be speaking with Sarah of the Craft Yarn Council, and she’s going to talk about the campaign, some of the research that has gone behind it, which is really interesting to me. And then we get into some ways that you can participate, that you can help spread the message, and more importantly, why that’s such a big deal.

Thank you so much for tuning in. and uplift the community as a whole. Because we love this, right? If you’re a blogger, you’re doing it because maybe it’s your job or maybe you want it to be your job. And the industry has to do well in order for you to continue doing what you love. Makers, you’re doing it because you find some kind of maybe meditative opportunity feelings when you’re creating those items. You’re looking for additional income or primary income for your family. These are all really important things to us.

If you’re a hobby crocheter or a hobby knitter, you’re right at the core of this message. We all feel drawn to this craft for some reason or another, and that is at the heart of the message of this episode and the future episodes in the month of April. As you can tell, I’m so excited about this topic because, again, it’s one of those things that we can all relate to so well, and it stands to really help our community because we can share not only the how-to, we can teach people in our circle of friends how to knit or how to crochet, but we can also share with them why they should want to learn.

And we do that by example, right? We can’t hide why we love doing what we do. And when somebody can see that, then they feel directly tied to a reason, a reason that’s going to propel them into taking on a new hobby. You never know what that could become for that person.

So before we get into the show today, I want to take a quick moment to thank Yarnspirations for sponsoring this podcast. Yarnspirations is the online destination for inspiration and the yarns you love. And just because you’re a listener of the Be Hooked podcast, you can get a special offer to redeem at their website, yarnspirations.com. You can save 20% off your entire order of $40 or more at Yarnspirations just by using the coupon code BHOOKEDPOD. That’s B-H-O-O-K-E-D-P-O-D. You’ll enter that code at checkout the next time you make a yarn order and you can save 20% just because you listen.

The last thing I want to mention real quick before we talk with Sarah is that the show notes page can be found at BeHookedCrochet.com slash session 058. We do talk about a few things and there are definitely some resources that we would like for you to check out when you have the time and I will have all of those linked in the show notes page. So you don’t have to memorize any of the links or resources website that Sarah and I talk about today. Just remember the show notes page BeHookedCrochet.com slash session and you can find all the info there.

Now, Sarah is so excited about this message, about her hobby, about her craft. And I’m so grateful that she is here with us on the show. Hi, Sarah. How are you doing?

Sarah: 5:14
Hello. Thank you so much for having me.

Brittany: 5:16
Well, it is an absolute pleasure to have you here because this month we’re going to be talking about your Stitch Away Stress campaign with the Craft Yarn—

Sarah: 5:27
Yes.

Brittany: 5:28
And I love this theme. I feel very passionate about the health benefits of knitting and crochet. So I really wanted to dedicate an entire month to the different ways that people can utilize this craft to either de-stress or whatever it may be to help them through a problem in life and I’m so glad that you are the first episode because I want to talk about this Stitch Away Stress campaign. But before we get into any of that, I want to give people a chance to get to know you a little bit. So can you tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do for the Craft Yarn Council?

Sarah: 6:00
Yes. So I graduated college last May and pretty much immediately started working for the Craft Yarn Council. So I studied journalism with an emphasis in public relations, and I am the public relations coordinator for the Craft Yarn Council.

So I don’t know, some of your listeners may be familiar with our blog that we launched last summer, but I write all the blog posts for the CYC blog. I try to to get CYC and Warm Up America, our partner charity, in the media, both locally in industry magazines and sometimes try to get national media. And then I also kind of work on our blogger outreach. So I reach out to different bloggers within the community and let them know about all of our campaigns throughout the year and tell them the different ways that they can get involved.

Because CYC’s goal is to, you know, promote yarn crafts and educate people about yarn crafts and all of the benefits that come along with that. So we’re always trying to work with as many people as possible within this community and even people not necessarily, not necessarily directly involved in the yarn community so that we can get, you know, our message out there to as many people as possible. So as many people are, you know, aware of what yarn can do for you and what knit and that’s still around and that people are still doing.

So that’s kind of my job for the Craft Yarn Council and Warm Up—

Brittany: 7:49
America as well. what it was about and I think a lot of people might be in that same situation where they’re like well what is this thing called the craft turn council what do they do and and why is that important to me so thank you for sharing all that I think that’s that’s great for people to know and one of the ways that you help promote the the craft industry is through national stress awareness month so can you tell me a little bit about that

Sarah: 8:24
Yes. So every single year um Stress Awareness Month is kind of, I guess, celebrated and promoted by usually a lot of people in the health industry. And it’s just, you know, we have different awareness months every single month throughout the year and even days.

So April is just a time to educate people about, like, what is stress and how does it affect people and what are ways that you can kind of beat stress or reduce your stress or take care of it. So I did a little more background research And Stress Awareness Month has kind of been around since the early 90s, you know, been celebrated in April. So that is more about Stress Awareness Month.

And Craft Yarn Council, we decided to kind of get in on this month because we at the CYC know that knitting and crocheting and yarn crafts are very therapeutic and help, you know, they have a lot of different health benefits and—

A few years ago, you know, CYC conducts research a lot of times on research for yarn retailers and consumer yarn buying habits and things like that. But we were like, hey, I mean, we know about the health benefits of knit and crochet. They help relieve stress and reduce anxiety and different things like that.

So, you know, why don’t we survey the people who are doing these crafts and see what they have to say about it? So for the first time in 2014, we conducted research online.

Wow. Wow. We kind of were inspired by a woman in the UK named Betsyn Corkill. And she’s kind of considered like the mother of research into the wellness benefits of knit and crochet. And she kind of started the movement of promoting, you know, why knit and crochet are good for your health.

So we wanted to find out from our own audience. you know, how does knit and crochet help you, you know, benefit your health and things like that. And so we found some amazing statistics from that research. We found that 85% of the respondents said that it helps knit and crochet or yarn crafts in general, help them to relax. 81% said that yarn crafts help them relieve stress and 57% said it helps decrease their anxiety.

So, Just these three stats alone are amazing, especially the 85% helps them relax, 81% said it helps them relieve stress. So we got a really good sample size, over 3,000 people who responded to our survey. So we were really blown away by these results, and we wanted to share that with the world.

So that’s where we started with getting into kind of the wellness benefits of knit and crochet. So that’s our background with that.

And then in 2015, we kind of wanted to create our own wellness campaign centered around the health benefits of knit and crochet. So we did research and found that April is National Stress Awareness Month. So we came up with our Stitch Away Stress theme, and we conduct this campaign in April as well to tie in, obviously, with National Stress Awareness Month.

And really our goal through this campaign is is to just get knitters and crocheters involved. We want more people knitting and crocheting. We want people who are actively knitting and crocheting to maybe if they haven’t done it in a while to start doing it again and then to share the benefits that they get from the craft with other people.

And so, you know, it’s a social media campaign and we partnered with Twinkie Chan who is a really awesome crochet designer and blogger. She’s been around for a long time. She just has really great work.

And so we decided to, you know, there’s the thing with lemons—

Brittany: 12:32
lemonade out of out of a bad situation lemons

Sarah: 12:35
Yeah, yeah there we go there we go out of life lemons you know the bad things are difficult things in life so uh twinkie really a lot of times she designs food crochet patterns so we were like hey let’s make like little lemon stress balls because stress balls are a really good way you squeeze it it’s something to do with your hands to relieve stress but let’s get people really involved in knit and crochet so let’s Twinkie designed a crochet pattern for a lemon stress ball.

And then we also had someone create a knit pattern. And so this really blew up. We started this in 2015, the Stitch Away Stress campaign.

And so basically we want people to know, hey, you’re going to be knitting or crocheting this lemon stress ball. And while you’re knitting and crocheting it, you may experience some therapeutic benefits of it. decrease stress, decrease anxiety, things like that.

But then once you have finished your knit or crochet lemon stress ball, you can then use it like forever. Uh, and you can squeeze it and squeeze life’s lemons into lemonade with your, uh, your, your stress ball.

So that’s kind of where it came from. And here we are, you know, three years later, we’re still, we’re still doing it and we’re excited for this year’s campaign.

Brittany: 13:46
Oh, that’s so cool. Well, first I want to mention Twinkie is amazing. We had her back on the show in episode 33 as she talked a little bit about batch producing. So you definitely check out that episode with her. I remember when that pattern came out, I was still pretty new to, well, I guess not really new to the blogging world. I’d actually started my website in 2013, but I was still very much in like a transitionary phase where I was trying to find my place in the community and in the industry.

But I do remember seeing that stress ball. And I think it was about that time that I first learned about the campaign. And I didn’t realize that so much research had gone into the back end of that. And I love that you shared that because I’m definitely a data person. And that just– it solidifies your suspicion that this is a real thing, that knitting and crochet can– is proven to help people with these certain things.

And so I love that you guys provided a pattern that is catchy because of what it is, but it’s also practical. So that’s really cool. Are you guys still using that same pattern?

Sarah: 15:04
Yes. So, you know, we came out with it in 2015 and we used it for the next couple of years. So this year we’re sticking with the lemon theme, but we’re also kind of putting a new twist on it. So we’re still going to provide that free knit and crochet pattern for the lemon stress ball. But this year Twinkie designed a new lemon and this time it is a lemon pillow.

So it’s basically just a bigger version of the lemon stress ball and so kind of we’re going with a new theme this year and we’re calling it pillow talk which we’re going to be doing on social media and so we’re going to have we’re going to update our stitchawaystress.com website with the lemon stress ball pattern and now the new lemon pillow pattern and so we’ll also be sharing on our YouTube and website and then on social media we’re doing video interviews with a few different people who are really instrumental in promoting the health benefits of knit and crochet.

And one of those interviews is with Betson Corkill, who really kind of got this research going in the early 2000s. But then on social media, we’re also going to be sharing quotes from a lot of different people, bloggers, people like London Kay. She has a quote. So people who are in the community who are knitting and crocheting and who have directly benefited from yarn crafts and, you know, experience the health benefits.

So we’re going to have that lemon pillow pattern and we’re really excited for this year to provide all these quotes and interviews from real people who have been knitting and crocheting and who want to share how, you know, their experience and how they’ve experienced the therapeutic benefits of name crochet.

So that launches April 1st on all of the Craft Yarn Council social platforms. And then we also have our health tab on our website, which will have new videos and new information as well.

Brittany: 17:00
Oh, cool. So a lot of, a lot has actually gone into this that people don’t even realize. So lots of resources that people can tap into. Before we talk kind of about those and why somebody might want to get involved or and how they would get involved. I want to circle back around to the research a little bit because I think that through the understanding of your findings, if people are able to relate that to their own personal situation, it’s one thing to say that A lot of people are stressed, right? We all feel stress at some point or another.

But if we’re able to directly relate that to a solution to that stress, then I think that’s really going to hit home for people. So is there any other details, like further details that you found throughout this study, maybe specific examples of the health benefits that people are seeing through knitting and crochet?

Sarah: 17:56
Yeah, so the health benefits that we found, they weren’t just related to, you know, stress and anxiety, but people, you know, we ask about mood, how knit and crochet affects mood. And I don’t have the number, you know, the percentage off the top of my head, but a lot of the people that we surveyed said that, you know, before they knitted or crocheted something, maybe they didn’t have a very great mood. Maybe they were experiencing some kind of negative emotion.

And then after spending some time knitting or crocheting something, they noticed an improvement in their mood. Maybe they were just happier. They didn’t feel as bad or sad or whatever it was.

And then we’ve also looked at how knit and crochet help with pain. And pain and then also just generally mental health as well. So we have done research ourselves, but we’ve also looked at research that a lot of other people have done.

There was research done. Let me bring up who conducted the research, but I’ll tell you what it is. They talked to women with anorexia nervosa and they interviewed these women and they found that 74% of the women said that knitting lessened their fears and kept them from ruminating about their eating disorder. And 74% also talked about the calming aspect of the craft.

So it helps you. It helps you feel better. It helps you feel calm. It helps you feel less stressed out. And then, you know, as well as mental health benefits and mood and stress, it can also help with stress, memory and cognitive impairment and things like that.

So there was a study done by researchers at the Mayo Clinic, and they surveyed over 1300 adults aged 70 to 89. And 197 of those adults had been identified as having mild cognitive impairment.

So they found that things like knitting and crafting and other kind of therapeutic activities resulted in 30 to a 30 to 50% decrease in the odds of having mild cognitive impairment.

So like a lot of times, people who are older, they’re looking for something to do with their time. And so knitting and crocheting, you know, there’s been other research that’s been done, but it can help with memory and cognitive ability and function.

But not only that, knitting and crocheting gives you something to do with your hands. So, you know, maybe you’re knitting or crocheting while you’re sitting in front of the TV, because a lot of people do that. We found that in other research too, because it’s, you know, it’s easy to do both.

But if you’re knitting or crocheting, you’re not just sitting there watching TV, you’re moving your hands. And so you’re keeping your hands busy, but you’re also creating something.

And other research we’ve done has found that knit and crochet really gives people a sense of accomplishment and kind of improves their confidence.

So I can actually speak to this as well. I went out of town for a wedding a few weeks ago, and I was hanging out with some friends, and we were just kind of talking, you know, about… whatever we were talking about.

And I was with my friend and she was crocheting and I was knitting simultaneously while we were having this conversation. And so I was keeping my hands busy. I was talking to people, you know, I was multitasking.

But in the midst of our conversation, one of my friends kind of just paused and he said, you know, I think it’s really cool that you guys are knitting and crocheting right now. Like we’re having a conversation and the rest of us are just sitting here not really doing anything. We’re just sitting and talking.

But you guys are able to talk and carry on this conversation, but you’re also creating something with your hands simultaneously. And he said, that’s just really cool that you are making something.

And I was like, you know what? You’re right because I’ve done that many times. Like I will knit something or crochet something. I have people over at my house. We have days called craft Sabbath where we just have friends over and we just craft.

And I’ve never thought about like, I’m just spending quality time with someone, but I’m also creating something. And when I see that finished product, when I’m done, not only was while I was making that, whatever I was making, I felt kind of like I was able to clear my mind from whatever was going on that day.

And I definitely myself have experienced that. improved mood and less stress from knitting and crocheting. But then when I’m done, I get to see what I made. That was me. That’s not something that I bought. Someone else didn’t make that.

And sometimes I get discouraged because I think… You know, I’m not that great at crocheting or knitting. But then when I see that finished product, it’s like, wow, that’s like, that’s pretty crazy. I made that.

And when I can, even when I can give that to someone else, it just makes me feel really good about myself. And yeah, it definitely kind of increases my confidence and just makes me think like, yeah, you know, I’m good at this. Like I can make something with my hands out of like this strand of yarn.

That’s kind of an overview of the research that we’ve done and the things that we found. But also on our website, if you go to our health tab or we go to our wellness tab and then you go to the health page, we have a place for people to submit questions. their own experiences of how knit and crochet have helped them.

So we have responses from dozens of people who just kind of talk about the different ways that knit and crochet and yarn crafts have helped them. And so our goal with this campaign is to not only show you the hard evidence and the research and the stats behind it, but we also want to give you stories and anecdotes from real people who back up this data.

Brittany: 24:00
Yeah, I love that. Gosh, there’s, there’s so much goodness right there, like within that, that whole statement. So I first want to address that, your personal story, because I think we all have a really great personal story. But at the same time, I feel like sometimes we, we almost take it for granted a little bit.

And like, for me, crochet is, is such a a way of life. I mean, it’s something I am doing constantly. Now, I actually don’t crochet while I’m doing these interviews because I need to concentrate.

Sarah: 24:35
I’m not crocheting right now either.

Brittany: 24:37
Yeah, I think there’s probably a few people that have wondered that. If I’m doing a project with one stitch, maybe I could make it work, but I have a tendency to talk with my hands, so I’m not sure how that would work in an interview style. But you can always find me—I’m very known for crocheting while I’m cooking dinner because there are points when you’re waiting for something to boil or you have a timer set and you’re just kind of waiting for things.

I always have a project right there when we’re sitting on the couch, watching TV. I always have a project in my hand and in the car. I mean, I’m always crocheting. So it’s so easy to kind of lose touch with those genuine benefits that we’re getting from this craft. And I think all it takes is what you did—to have somebody maybe point it out to you or just to take a minute to slow down and think about what you just did, what you just accomplished.

And I’m not saying we need to do that every single time, but I think just tapping into that every now and then, it’s really going to help us to understand and put into practice kind of what you’re preaching here. Yeah. Because there really are some serious benefits.

I also love how you’re not only giving people the information through this campaign, but you’re also giving them… sort of like a community, a way to connect. They’re reading these stories from other people and they’re able to relate that situation maybe to their own, and that kind of helps them figure out where they are.

And for the people who kind of already know where they are, it’s helpful to know that you’re not the only one who might feel stressed or who might feel frustrated or might be going through whatever you’re going through. Just knowing that you have a community is one step in that healing process.

So I’m curious now, we understand all of the greatness that’s here. And you’ve mentioned a few things already, definitely checking out the website, you’ve got the new pattern and when it launches and that sort of thing.

Sarah: 26:46
Yeah.

Brittany: 26:47
What are some other ways people can get involved? We do have an audience of bloggers, makers, and hobbyists. So I kind of maybe want to touch on each one of those three areas because I really want everybody in the community to be able to contribute and uplift this message because like you said, it only stands to help our industry as a whole. And the better our industry does, well, we all get to continue doing what we love, right?

Sarah: 27:27
Yeah, exactly. So it’s a joint effort here. Let’s talk about the bloggers who may have an audience of their own. What are some ways that they can get involved to help promote this message?

Well, you can write a blog post about the Stitch Away Stress campaign. We’ve had so many bloggers write about this campaign in the past. You can even reach out to me if you’re interested in writing a blog post because a lot of times we like to highlight when bloggers that we work with write about our campaigns to kind of cross-promote each other.

So you can write a blog post about Stitch Away Stress and something that I suggest for that is maybe you make the pillow or the lemon stress ball yourself and maybe kind of talk about your process of making that or maybe reflect on ways that knit or crochet have benefited your health in the past, or maybe you have some kind of story or anecdote from your life or someone you know who’s experienced some of these benefits of knit or crochet.

And then even posting about it on social media. We’re going to be posting all throughout the month on Facebook and Instagram. We’re going to have our interviews on our YouTube. We’re going to have great resources on the Craft Yarn Council website and on our stitchawaystress.com website.

So all of those things that we’ll be posting are great content that you can use to post as well. So posting on social media, sharing your own stories, maybe posting a video on YouTube about your story of how knit and crochet has benefited you.

And then I do, you know, if you do post on social media, we have some hashtags. We have hashtag Stitch Away Stress that we suggest you use on all your posts so that, you know, at the end of the month, we can go to the hashtag and see all of the involvement that people had in the campaign.

And that just kind of helps us see the impact the campaign had because, you know, it’s mostly promoted on social media. So social media posts, videos, blog posts—all of those are really great ways for you to get involved.

And then, you know, making the lemon stress ball yourself. And then maybe if you are a blogger or something like that and you make the lemon stress ball this year for next year’s campaign, maybe you write a blog post of how you’ve used the lemon stress ball over the last year.

We went to a trade show in January, which I saw you there. And in 2016, when we went to the trade show, we actually handed out lemon stress balls. And so this year it was really awesome because a lot of the people still had some of those lemon stress balls around. People saw them and they’re like, “Oh my gosh, you’re the lemon people,” and they would tell us stories of how like, “That’s my dog’s favorite toy,” or “I still have that on my desk at home.”

So it’s really—the lemon stress ball is a really cool and easy way for people to get involved but it’s also like people recognize that as like that’s what goes with this campaign and it’s the lemons.

And so yeah, making the lemon, blogging about your experiences, making videos, posting on social media—those are all really great ways for bloggers to get involved.

Brittany: 30:23
Yeah. And even if you find yourself overwhelmed right now, if you have too many obligations, too many things on your plate at the moment, it only takes a couple of minutes to reshare something that you guys have already published.

So you don’t have to create anything new at that point. If that’s all you can do, then I believe that it’s really going to help probably more than you realize.

Yes. Okay, so for the bloggers, do they need to get in contact with you to do these things or can they just kind of do it on their own?

Sarah: 30:56
They can do it on their own. If you are writing a blog post, it would be awesome if you shared it with me just so that I can, you know, if we just, you know, sometimes we repost bloggers’ blog posts. So maybe we can repost or share your blog posts.

But it’s also really great for me to know because, you know, I do go online and look for things that have been written about the campaign. But it’s really great for us because at the end of the month, we like to go back and keep track of everything that was posted or shared or written about the campaign so that we can have an overview of the impact of the campaign on social media and online.

But you know what? So many people do just share, you know, we’ll have a post about the campaign on our blog on the Craft Yarn Council blog. So if you just share that or if you make a social media post, just make sure to use the Stitch Away Stress hashtag. And that’s, I mean, really, that’s all you have to do.

Brittany: 31:54
Because you’ll be monitoring that, yeah?

Sarah: 31:56
Yes, we will be monitoring the hashtag throughout the month. And in May, when we’re kind of looking back, we’ll be looking at that hashtag.

So yeah, I mean, really, as long as you use the hashtag, I’ll probably be able to find it. But yeah, but again, if you are writing a blog post, if you want to share with me, that would be awesome.

Brittany: 32:14
Yeah, and I think it only stands to help you if you do that. Help the person who is sharing. Because like you said, it’s a way to cross promote too.

So if you’re trying to build an audience, the best way to do that is to get exposure to other audiences. And the Craft Yarn Council has a big one. So if you need any incentive other than the fact that it’s a great cause, that would be it right there for me.

Yes, exactly. Okay. So for makers, what can makers potentially do? And makers being the people who are selling their goods at either markets or on Etsy or any other like online store kind of platform.

Sarah: 32:49
You know, I hadn’t really thought about that a lot, but I think for makers, you could maybe come up with your own pattern, your own knit or crochet pattern or anything like that that you find helps relieve stress.

I know that there is someone online called Mobius Girl—

Brittany: 33:09
Yeah, we actually talked to her next week—a little preview for everybody. I’ve already interviewed her, but yeah, it’s oh, it’s a great chat. She’s awesome.

Sarah: 33:17
I just really heard about her actually earlier this week, but she does a lot of work with mandalas and I know those—like, I don’t really know a lot about them, but I definitely have read about how they like kind of are tied to stress and stress relief, especially making them.

And there’s a lot of different things that you can do with those like color combinations and varying up patterns and things like that.

So for makers or people who have their own shops, if you want to like create your own pattern and kind of tie it to the campaign and say, hey, this is something that I feel has to do with stress or stress relief or in the process of designing this pattern and then using it to actually make something, I found that it helped me relieve stress.

That would be really cool because then we’re just, again, we’re just promoting the campaign even more and giving people even more ways to potentially relieve stress or experience any other type of health benefit in relation to this campaign.

So, and then of course, like the bloggers, sharing on social media or writing about it, whatever way that looks like for your platform and everything that you do, just sharing about the campaign so that, like I’ve said, we get as many people as possible to be aware of the campaign and the health benefits of knitting crochet.

Brittany: 34:39
Yeah. A couple of things that came to mind for me is a lot of people who have shops or markets, they tend to have some kind of theme that helps them drive the type of product they create.

So I’m thinking, and it may be too late at this point to kind of plan out an entire theme, but next year, I know that you guys are going to be doing this campaign again.

So maybe for future shops or campaigns that you’re planning yourself, maybe you try to make that your theme to where you are creating products that are tied directly to stress-relieving kind of things.

And stress balls are a really good thing that come to mind. It’s something that’s quick and easy for people to make. And it’s something that people who may not knit or crochet could use and it might introduce them to these things.

So I think there are ways that you can position your shop to help promote the message maybe indirectly if maybe they don’t have a blog or some other kind of platform to share the message on.

I think that they’re able to take that and turn it into a physical message too for their customers.

You know, the other question I have too, and it’s totally okay if the question is no or if the answer is no, but I think there may be some people wondering if they could make the lemon and sell it in their shop or at their market. Is that okay? You know… I don’t quite know the answer to that.

Okay, that’s okay. We can find out.

Sarah: 36:15
Yeah, I don’t want to say for sure either way because, you know, I’d have to check with some people.

Brittany: 36:23
Yeah, you’d have to check with the people and the designers. We’ll include it in the show notes. How about that?

So after we’ve concluded the episode here, we’ll check back with the show notes page, and then we’ll have the answer for you there.

So if that’s the way that you can contribute– then we’ll have the answer if that’s what you choose to do.

Now, how about the people who are hobby crocheters and knitters? I feel like these people are probably the ones who are going to be closest to the message because the whole reason why this is their hobby is because they’re getting some of these benefits for it, whether they realize it or not.

So what are some ways that people who crochet and knit for a hobby can get involved with this and help spread the—

Sarah: 37:09
Yeah. So for people who do this as a hobby, definitely follow along with the Craft Yarn Council on social media throughout the month, especially on Facebook and Instagram. And something that I do want to highlight is we will be having a contest giveaway on Instagram in April. So on the second, third, and fourth weeks, we’re going to have one contest each of those weeks on our Instagram. And we’ll have posts talking about it.

But basically, you’ll participate in the giveaway by liking the photo and tagging other people. And then the prizes—so we’ll have three different prizes for each of those weeks. But the prize for that giveaway contest on Instagram will be a prize pack of new yarns from different yarn manufacturers. So you can definitely participate in our contest. And then you’ll be seeing our content on Instagram.

And then if you tag other people, maybe those people don’t know who the Craft Yarn Council is, or maybe they’re not even super involved in yarn, but then you’re exposing them to our message into the campaign as a whole. So maybe that person that you tag, seeing everything that we have going on in the month, maybe that could inspire them to take up knitting or crochet and then potentially also experience these awesome health benefits.

So definitely follow along with Craft Yarn Council on our website, on YouTube, on Instagram, and Facebook. But then I think another way for you to get involved is maybe you, you know, you are a hobby crocheter or knitter, but maybe you haven’t been able to find time lately in your life to dedicate to crocheting and knitting.

So I highly suggest that during the month, try to set aside some time each day, or maybe not even every day, but try to set aside some time that is just for you where you’re knitting or crocheting. And, you know, it doesn’t even necessarily have to be like a specific project that you have in mind, because there are people who knit and crochet, not necessarily for the end result of, “Hey, I’m crocheting something because I’m going to have this really awesome scarf at the end.”

But this is something that I do too. I love creating projects and I love making things, but sometimes I just want to crochet something just for the heck of it. Like I just, I want to crochet and I’m not necessarily like, you know, because there is a learning curve when you first start learning to make crochet. So sometimes it can be like frustrating trying to figure out a pattern or figure out how to make something.

So sometimes I just sit down, I pick up a hook and some yarn and I just like start crocheting whatever is in my head. And then, you know, I don’t, I’m not necessarily having that project in mind or some kind of goal, but I’m just crocheting. I’m just sitting there crocheting because it really helps me to clear my head and to just kind of have some time to myself where I’m not working or I’m not thinking about all the things that I have to do, but I’m able to just do something with my hands and try to find time to do that.

Whether for you that’s making a project or just crocheting because just crocheting to crochet. And then, you know, I suggest… you know, I’ve kind of already said this, but attempting to make that lemon stress ball or even lemon pillow as well, because again, maybe while you’re making the lemon stress ball, you’ll find that you feel calmer or your mood improves or something like that. And then at the end of it, you do have that finished project.

But this one is, you know, scarves are great and all, but this one is something that you can, you know, when you’re feeling stressed, maybe have it on your desk at work or have it somewhere at home where you can just take it out, squeeze that lemon stress ball for a minute. And then you’re like, “Okay, I feel a little bit calmer.”

I know that I experienced good things from making this, but I can also take that with me. And then when you see that lemon stress ball sitting on your desk, you think of how it made you feel when you were making it and then you pick it up and you can still feel those benefits.

Yeah. So, and then also another way, like tell other people about this campaign and not only about the campaign, but like share how you have experienced all of the good things that come with knit and crochet. Like share that with people, share it on social media, share it with someone in your life. Like just talk about it throughout the month.

Brittany: 41:39
Enthusiasm is contagious.

Sarah: 41:41
Yes, exactly. Exactly. Like, so something that I found, I, um, before I started working for the Craft Yarn Council, like not even a year ago, it was actually funny because I have three roommates and all of them knew how to either knit or crochet or both. And I didn’t know how to do either.

Um, but I knew how to do PR. So I was the one working for Craft Yarn Council, but I started learning to crochet last summer. And then I started learning to knit last fall. And just in my less than a year of doing these crafts, I myself have already experienced a lot of the amazing benefits of knitting and crochet.

And not only that, but kind of with my friends and the people I know in my life, now I’m kind of known as like the yarn girl because I started that crafting group, you know, a few times a month, even in my church or social circles.

Sometimes if I’m hanging out with people, I’ll like, take out some crochet project, or I’m talking about yarn, or I’m talking about the things that I’m doing at my job and like sharing it with people. And they’re seeing that because they’re seeing how enthusiastic I am.

And I’ve actually had a few people—I’ve taught people how to make pom poms. I had actually a friend text me a few days ago asking for tips on how to get started crocheting. So just like talking about it within your circles and the people that you know—if you’re enthusiastic about it or passionate about it or you just love it—that can really catch on with people.

Yeah, just—I just know that from my personal experience in my less than a year, you know, participating in yarn craft. So not only sharing about it on social media and doing it, but like talking about it and sharing it with other people, I think is a really, really great way to participate in the campaign.

Brittany: 43:25
And what I love is that people right now can feel that because I can sense how passionate you are about the topic. It is like bleeding through here and I know it’s palpable for people—they can feel that.

And just realizing that what they’re feeling from listening to you right now—if they have that same drive and that same passion—it’s going to be just as easy for them to share this message with their friends, their family, their co-workers, a stranger, whoever they might encounter.

And it’s a big deal because we’re not just—we’re not just teaching somebody how to do something. We’re kind of sharing a gift with them because there are these benefits that are attached to our hobby.

And I think we’re really blessed in that way that not only can we occupy our hands, we can be creative, we can make something really cool and practical or functional, but we have all of these other benefits that are tied in with it.

And I think that’s why it’s so important to not just share this campaign—necessarily the Stitch Away Stress campaign—but the yarn industry as a whole.

I think that’s the big one. If we know anybody, and we all know, we all have a network, right?

Sarah: Yes, exactly.

Brittany: We can dedicate some time to share this gift with them. And we can not only… Because that’s therapeutic for you to be able to teach somebody and share this with them. Thank you so much. Cool. And a lot of people are doing it, but it’s also beneficial for us personally on a personal level too. And I think that’s the big one.

Sarah: 45:53
Yeah, definitely. And I do just want to highlight one more thing. We have a lot of pieces with this campaign, but throughout the month of March, we have been doing a little bit more research. We created a survey and we’ve been sharing it on our social media.

And we’ve already, I don’t even… know the exact number, but I think we’ve already gotten over 2,500 responses.

But we are just asking people about their yarn habits, like what time of day do they prefer to knit or crochet? Like where’s their favorite place to knit or crochet?

But we’re also asking people about the ways that they experience the health benefits of knit and crochet. So we kind of just ask people like, what are the top three ways that you experience any type of wellness from knit and crochet?

So we’ve been promoting that survey on social media since March 1st, and we’re going to go until the end of the month.

And then throughout the month of April, not only are we going to be sharing all these cool pictures and patterns and quotes and interviews on social media, but we’re also going to be sharing the results from this survey that we’re doing this month.

And so those results are from people who follow us on social media and people not necessarily, you know, it’s not the research that we did a few years ago but it’s like people who are involved with Craft Yarn Council and bloggers and things like that.

So that I think that’s going to be really cool too because it’s also going to be like pretty much as recent as you can get—like conducted the month before—and there’s also some like really interesting stuff like we asked where’s your favorite place to knit or crochet and we left that as an open-ended question.

And some people have had some really interesting, you know, like there’s a few that have a majority of the people but some people have some really interesting responses of where they like to knit or crochet.

So I think that’s going to be really fun and really interesting. I mean, not only is it going to back up all the things that we’ve already talked about, but I think it’s just going to be cool because the research is very recent and still relevant and I think interesting as well.

So yeah, I just wanted to highlight that. So definitely stay tuned on social media because we’re going to have just a lot of awesome things to share with everyone.

Brittany: 48:05
Yeah, I think at the time that people are listening to this, because we do record a little bit in advance here, that sounds like that survey will already be closed.

So hopefully some of you have already found that and participated in it, but at least they’ll be able to have access to those results, which is fun if nothing else to read.

I think that’s another great thing. Yeah, yeah.

Next month, I don’t think we’re going to have a shortage of really fun, cool things to share.

So the thing that people could do today, right now, is go to the website, maybe check out some of the resources that are already available there.

So at this point, the new pattern is already available.

And maybe even just reading some of those responses for all the people who have given their response to how knitting and crochet has helped them in these areas.

And… and I think that’s the first step is, like you said, just getting the message out there and sharing it in any way that you can.

And I’m also, I’m always here to help. I’m sure, Sarah, you’re always there behind the scenes helping too.

So if people need to connect with you, maybe they are curious about how they can get involved even more.

Is there a way for them to reach out to you directly or do they just need to go through the Craft Yarn Council?

Sarah: 49:41
You can go through the Craft Yarn Council website. If you’re on the contact form and you choose a topic of press, that will go directly to me. But you can also email me at sarahg, S-A-R-A-H-G, at craftyarncouncil.com. And that’ll just go… directly to my email and you know that’s where I encourage bloggers if you are planning on writing a blog post or something like that go ahead and give me an email or send me an email and include the link or when you intend on publishing that post and that’s definitely a great way for me to like for sure see your post and you know keep track of that. So yeah definitely, and anyone who really has questions or anyone who is interested in ways that they can get involved with this campaign and with the Craft Yarn Council too, just go ahead and send me an email and we can definitely talk because we have a lot of different ways that we work with people and we want to get people involved. So shoot me an email.

Brittany: 50:39
What I’ll do is I’ll link to all of that on the show notes page so people don’t have to remember the web addresses or anything like that. I’ll have all of that included for you as well as your email address. The last question I have for you is about the Craft Yarn Council on social. Can you give me your handle for Instagram and Facebook so people can find you there?

Sarah: 51:00
Yes. So on Instagram, we’re just Craft Yarn Council. And then on Facebook, if you search Craft Yarn Council, we’ll come up. But our full name is CYC—Craft Yarn Council.

Brittany: 51:10
Okay. I’ll link to that in the show notes too, so you don’t have to try to fumble through and find it. I know sometimes handles are not very user-friendly. So you’ll find all of that information on the show notes page. And Sarah, I want to say a big, huge thank you for spending so much time with us today and sharing this message and being so genuinely excited about it that I know people are feeling it and they’re going to be excited to share it too.

Sarah: 51:34
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed sharing all this awesome stuff with you and your audience. So yeah. Thanks.

Brittany: 51:41
I told you she was so excited about that. And man, it was so much fun to chat with you, Sarah. Thanks again for coming on the show, for sharing the message. And I wish you nothing but the best with this campaign.

And I also want to thank you. You are my driving force. I show up week after week for you. And thank you. If you haven’t done so already, I would be so grateful if you had a few minutes, you can leave an honest rating and or review in iTunes. You can get to that really easily by typing in BeHookedCrochet.com slash iTunes. You can leave a review, which is a great way for you to give me some feedback about the show.

And if you don’t have time to do that, because I know we’re all short on time, just leave a star rating. That actually helps out just as much as a review. I see those numbers and it lets me know that I’m on the right track. And so I’m so grateful for your time if you’re able to do that for me today.

I also want to thank our sponsor, once again, Yarnspirations, for sponsoring this podcast and for giving you the opportunity to save 20% on your order of $40 or more. Yarnspirations, as you know, is the perfect place to find inspiration online, free patterns, and of course, the yarn you love, like Patons, Bernat, Caren, and Lily Sugar and Cream.

Well, just in case you missed that coupon code at the beginning of the episode, when you go to make your purchase at Yarnspirations.com, that’s $40 or more, use the coupon code BHOOKEDPOD at checkout to claim your discount. That’s B-H-O-O-K-E-D-P-O-D.

And I also have to tease next week’s episode just a little bit more. You heard a little glimpse of it in the interview. But next week, we are talking to Sandra. She is behind the Instagram account Mobius Girl, which is such an inspiration for me. I just adore looking through her feed and seeing all of the beautiful things that she creates. But I’ll be honest and say that I was quite surprised to find out that…

I’ll see you then. Bye-bye.