I can still remember the clicking of needles and the feeling of chunky strands of cotton passing silently between my fingers. It was early in my elementary school epoch, and we tiny people sat cross-legged in a circle, knitting cozy hats for charity during story time. This being Canada, we called them toques.
The activity was relaxing, even for a kid, and quickly became an obsession. I was pretty good at it too, if I say so myself, and loved everything about the process. Deciding what to make. Going with Mom to the knitting store. Casting on, casting off, stitch after stitch, creating something from nothing. Or just watching our two kittens, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, destroy perfectly good balls of yarn.
All these memories came flooding back when I happened upon a short film shared by the New York Times. It featured British crafters ruminating about how knitting had given them greater acceptance of life’s messy imperfections, and helped them heal, even at their most broken.
One talked about stress reduction, and how knitting taught her to relax into the flow of the moment. Another said the “distraction blanket” she was making helped keep her mind positive when things were falling apart. A third inherited a basket of yarn from a friend who’d passed away, and celebrated that person’s life with every stitch.
For all of them, the lessons of the craft were profound. They’d discovered that big mistakes aren’t necessarily permanent, that you can learn from them and simply start over from the same raw materials. When frozen in inaction, knitting was proof of concept that taking small steps can overcome seemingly impossible challenges. Because in the world of needles and yarn, nothing that’s unraveled can’t be restored.
Sadly, the lads of the ’90s rock band Weezer posited a less constructive perspective, giving knitting a bad name with “Undone (The Sweater Song).” Perhaps you recall the tragic story, how the protagonist’s metaphorical sweater was destroyed by a heartless villain who pulled a single thread while walking away. Hopefully, the songwriter/victim eventually understood the excitement and opportunity of stitching things back together, rather than just lying on the floor and wailing about how “I’ve come undone.”
Decades after discovering the joy of knitting in that grade-school classroom, I’m thinking seriously of bringing it back into my life, and maybe you should do the same in your long-term care facility. After all, what says teamwork more than knitting? It’s the weaving together of disparate strands into something beautiful and essential, where the whole becomes greater and stronger than the individual stitches.
Knitting also encourages selflessness, another core value of any successful team. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever known a knitter who was doing it for him or herself. The finished product is almost always intended as a gift, and when it’s done and delivered, the recipients are universally grateful.
I know, because I’ve been one. One of the warm hats I treasure most was made by a dear friend, and though separated by distance and time, I feel our bond snug on my scalp every cold winter day. A group of nursing home residents I got to know a few years back volunteered hours of time to make knitted caps for a nearby children’s hospital, then hopped in the facility bus to deliver them personally to patients and families. Fortunately, there was plenty of spare yarn nearby to help soak up the tears.
Next time I visit your facility, I hope/expect to see a circle of staff, peacefully knitting their way through the stresses of stand-up, or huddled around an activity room table making hats or scarves for or with residents. I’ll grab my needles from the car, and together we’ll be reminded, with every stitch, that the focus of life and work should never be on the inevitable moments of unraveling.
It’s all about the restoration.
Things I Think is written by Gary Tetz, a two-time national Silver Medalist and three-time regional Gold and Silver Medal winner in the Association of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) awards program, as well as an Award of Excellence honoree in the APEX Awards. He’s been amusing, inspiring, informing and sometimes befuddling long-term care readers since the end of a previous century. He is a writer and video producer for Consonus Healthcare in Portland, OR.
The opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News guest submissions are the author’s and are not necessarily those of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News or its editors.
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