Are you a knitter? Want to share your love of knitting with others? Maybe you're not a knitter, but inexplicably inherited your great aunt Sigrid's knitting stash. Want to learn to knit? Perfect, let's yarn bomb the library and relieve some stress! Drop-ins and all skill levels welcome, some supplies provided.
What’s yarn bombing? It’s a little bit renegade and a little bit grandma. From Mandy Moore’s book, "Yarn Bombing", it is defined as merging "the disciplines of installation art, needlework, and street art, yarn bombing takes many forms. It generally involves the act of attaching a handmade item to a street fixture." In our case, each participant will knit a square to be stitched together into a collaborative yarn bomb. It will be installed around one of the columns in the library’s lobby, in time to celebrate International Yarn Bombing Day, Saturday June 7th.
Can knitting really relieve stress? Yes, it can! According to a study published by Riley, Corkhill, and Morris in the February 2013 issue of The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, “The results [of the study] show a significant relationship between knitting frequency and feeling calm and happy. More frequent knitters also reported higher cognitive functioning.” I’m pretty sure you’d like to feel calm and have higher cognitive function during dead and finals weeks.
Knitting can also help you achieve what Csikszentmihalyi refers to as a state of “flow.” He found that people engrossed in activities, such as knitting, experienced a loss of fear and anxiety. This melting away of everyday worries is one of the characteristics of the “flow” state of mind.
Want to be a part of the yarn bomb? Stop by the Starbucks entrance in the library, Monday through Thursday of dead and finals week at 2pm. We’ll be knitting up a storm! Can’t make it to one of the sessions, but still want to participate? Just knit a square on your own time, and drop it off with me before the end of the semester. I’ll make sure it gets included in the finished collaborative piece! We've even created a guide with links to knitting videos, patterns, books, and articles on the connection between knitting and stress relief. Check it out here, http://guides.boisestate.edu/stressrelief.
Happy knitting!
Deana Brown,
Assistant professor/Librarian
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