OK, it’s official. There’s yet another stupendous reason to learn to knit and crochet. Of course, it’s not really news to those of us who have been producing stuff with needles all these years. We already know that when we are camped in a favorite chair knitting socks or crocheting an afghan we are in the zone of la-la land. Now it’s a scientific fact: Knitting and crocheting reduce stress.

According to research conducted at the Harvard Medical School Mind-Body Institute, the repetitive action of knitting and crocheting create a relaxation response. The institute’s research shows that a knitter or crocheter’s heart rate can drop 11 beats a minute and that blood pressure also drops.

The basic ingredients needed to reduce stress – besides some really great yarn and maybe a silver crochet hook and hand-carved knitting needles – “found to be present in [certain] practices in almost every culture, are the repetition of a sound, word, phrase, prayer or movement, and the passive setting aside of intruding thoughts and returning to the repetition.”

The research shows that by using your mind in a certain way to elicit the relaxation response “measurable, predictable and reproducible physiological changes occur that can be useful in countering the unhealthy fight-or-flight or stress response.”

Believe me, when you’re all wrapped up in some yummy yarn, crocheting a mile a minute or cruising toward the completion of a sweater, fighting and flighting just aren’t an option.