Extract from ABC News
Feel good
Crafts can help improve brain health, neuroscientist says (ABC News: Loretta Lohberger)
In short:
Crafts like knitting and crochet provide an ideal mix of challenge and repetition that can help with attention span and mood.
A neuroscientist says some crafts can be an important part of a broad brain health regime, along with other considerations like exercise, diet and sleep.
Knitter Will Seager says he finds attempting difficult patterns both calming and stimulating.
Will Seager taught himself to knit nine years ago. Now, it's something he does every day.
"I'm naturally a little bit of an anxious person so for me it's really nice to let go of any other worries or things that I need to be thinking about and focus entirely on my knitting," Mr Seager said.
Will Seager says knitting is both relaxing and challenging. (ABC News: Loretta Lohberger)
"I do it also because it's very intellectually stimulating for me … I like to choose patterns which are technically quite demanding and quite difficult."
Neuroscientist Sarah McKay said crafts like knitting and crochet were "deceptively good for the brain".
"It's like this ideal mix of repetition plus cognitive challenge,"Dr McKay said.
Will Seager says he likes to continually challenge himself by seeking out more complex patterns. (ABC News: Loretta Lohberger)
"You have to remember where you're up to, you have to problem solve, you have to make decisions, you're constantly challenging yourself if you're doing more and more complicated patterns.
"But at the same time, it's challenging but it's low stakes … which I think might be one of the best kinds [of cognitive challenge] we can have," she said.
Dr McKay said craft activities could help with attention.
"What they're doing is they're almost training us to pay attention to something for quite a long time," she said.
Will Seager enjoys knitting socks. (ABC News: Loretta Lohberger)
Researchers have also studied how useful craft activities could be for mood regulation and stress reduction.
"We're mastering a skill, we're getting better at that and we're kind of just doing the task for the sake of doing the task … it's quite a simple form of mastery and there's something really soothing and good for our mood about that," Dr McKay said.
Mr Seager is constantly looking for new ways to challenge himself as a knitter.
"I like to choose patterns that enable me to learn new skills … Most recently I've got into a type of [ribbed] knitting called brioche knitting," he said.
"It took me a long time to get the hang of it … [but] after a little while you settle into the rhythm and your fingers and hands do the work without you having to think too much about it."
Brioche knitting is a technique Will Seager has recently become interested in. (ABC News: Loretta Lohberger)
Mr Seager likes to knit alone so he can focus.
But, for others, craft is a way to connect with people.
Looking after each other through craft
Once a week in Hobart's northern suburbs, the Glenorchy Library Knitting Group meets. Its members mostly knit and crochet items to donate to local charities.
"Some of the ladies [who come], this is their only outing apart from the supermarket," Carolee Marino, who started the group in 2011, said.
"It's all about looking after each other … we all help each other."
Carolee Marino started the Glenorchy Library Knitting Group in 2011. (ABC News: Loretta Lohberger)
One of the group's newest members is Gill Shilling.
"It's awesome, I've met all these amazing ladies with interesting stories,"Ms Shilling said.
"But the fact that we're actually making things to give to people in the community who are in need, that's really important to me."
Gill Shilling says she enjoys the social aspect of the group, as well as contributing to charity. (ABC News: Loretta Lohberger)
Another relatively new group member, Irina Bridges, learnt to knit after moving to Australia from Russia seven years ago.
She said she was looking to share her love of knitting with others.
"I dreamt to knit for my whole life, but I couldn't because when I was a kid in Soviet Union all stores were empty without yarn so I couldn't," Ms Bridges said.
"I enjoy our group and showing off what I [have] knitted."
Irina Bridges enjoys sharing her love of knitting with others. (ABC News: Loretta Lohberger)
Miriam Ritchie has been part of the group for about two years.
"This is it, this is my social, and I get pretty lonely so I can't wait to get here," she said.
Miriam Ritchie (right) looks forward to catching up with the other members of the Glenorchy Library Knitting Group. (ABC News: Loretta Lohberger)
Norma Kelaart joined the group after moving to Tasmania in 2024.
"I needed some company of other women to chat with and relax with and have a joke and a laugh," she said.
One part of a broader brain health plan
Dr McKay said there was not enough evidence to prove that activities like knitting and crochet helped prevent dementia — many of the studies were observational and self-reported, not randomised clinical trials that look specifically at dementia risk.
But she said the many clear benefits meant craft activities could be an important part of a broader lifestyle brain health program.
"Alongside exercise and diet and sleep and stress reduction … [and] taking care of your cardiovascular health, your metabolic health — all of the things that we know are good for our mental health in the short term and our brain health long term — this can sit really nicely and neatly in there," she said.
"We know that social connections are a really important part of long-term brain health, we know that having purpose and meaning in life are a really important part of brain health, so it can fulfil those requirements in a really lovely, non-digital way."
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