Knitting as Therapy

I got an interesting email last week, and the author needs your help. She wrote:

"I am a student of Homeopathic medicine, I have an essay to do on holistic health ( 2000 words)... instead of the usual Reiki or Reflexology topics I found I had written Knitting, I am searching the web for Knitting & Holistic and Knitting /History -very few sites actually mention the two topics and when they do they are not actually linked, however your site offered me some hope. Do you believe that knitting can be a form of holistic therapy? and if so do you think there are any cultural differences ? I would really welcome your input/opinion . I would be grateful fora quick response.Thank you, Pat Wann"

I responded that a number of books had discussed knitting as a form of meditation, such as Susan Gordon Lydon, The Knitting Sutra and Knitting Heaven and Earth, Bernadette Murphy Zen and the Art of Knitting, Tara Jon Manning Mindful Knitting, and Lela Nargi Knitting Lessons: Tales from the Knitting Path.

Pat is hoping for some first-hand accounts/opinions of the therapeutic value of knitting. If you would like to share your experiences to help her with her essay, you can email her here. She needs to have her paper done by the first week in December, so if you can contact her soon, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help!

Comments

[M-H]

Interesting that she hadn't found any of the books - she had only done a web search, not a book-based search. This is not a criticism, but the new generation of students and researchers are doing things quite differently - see my recent comments on 'children of the book' (us) and 'children of the screen' (people under about 25) and they aren't necessarily getting a sense of the history of things.

[Pat Wann]

re the comments about web search and not book searching-unfortunately,due to time constraints,I have tried our local libraries they had nothing at all, and were unable to get me anything in time.I tried local knitting shops etc. with all the other studies I couldn't devote any other time. I could have purchased books from America, I couldn't justify the expense for a 2000 word essay and would have on guarantee that the books would,one have arrived on time and two, would contain the information I needed.The internet was the quickest way to contact people. I would like to thank everyone who has helped me in my quest. I will post my essay here if anyone is interested Pat Wann