<p>Handicrafts such as crochet, knitting, and embroidery—traditionally practiced by women and by the elderly—carry passive associations.</p>
<p><i>Counting the movements of hooks and needles, row after row, requires patience, focus, and persistence. This, combined with the mental health benefits of crafting, is needed to weather a disaster that's defined by waiting.</i></p>


Crafts

<ul>
<li>In Ireland, during the famine of the 1840s, crochet schools were established to train impoverished farming families to make lace for export that grew into an art form.</li>
<li>During World War I, French peasant women cross-stitched military scenes that were sold to raise funds.</li>
<li>After the war, shell-shocked soldiers were prescribed embroidery therapy.</li>
<li>In London, people sheltering from the blitz were encouraged to pass the time by knitting.</li>
</ul>


Crafts during difficult times

<p>Many have turned to yarn crafts as a form of stress relief.</p>
<p>You can learn too. To crochet, or knit, or cross-stitch is to make something and to make sense of it, creating something lasting out of solitude.</p>


Make something

<div>
<p>To spend a pandemic making soft and pretty things may seem silly in certain ways-frivolous or impractical, maybe, and certainly a privilege when my life and livelihood aren't (yet) directly at stake. Handicrafts such as crochet, knitting, and embroidery-traditionally practiced by women and by the elderly-carry passive associations that defy most American notions of bravery. I think of Jo March, the heroine from Louisa May Alcott's <em>Little Women</em>, lamenting that she can't fight for the Union Army in the Civil War but must "stay home and knit, like a poky old woman." And yet that dismissal belies the quiet strengths embedded in every stitch. Counting the movements of hooks and needles, row after row, over the hours or days it takes to complete a project, requires patience, focus, and persistence. And these cognitive skills-to say nothing of the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19367130">proven</a> <a href="https://experts.umn.edu/en/publications/everyday-creative-activity-as-a-path-to-flourishing">mental-health</a> <a href="https://blogs.psychcentral.com/crafting/2018/10/benefits-of-crochet/">benefits</a> of crafting-are just the ones needed to weather a disaster that's defined by waiting.</p>
<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/03/tedious-cooking-best-distraction-pandemic/608188/">Read: Tedious cooking is the best distraction during a pandemic</a> <p>That might explain why, aside from material need, needle arts appear throughout history as responses to collective trauma. After all, even the "blue army sock" that Jo shakes in frustration is destined for the war effort, an allusion to real <a href="https://www.interweave.com/article/knitting/sock-knitting-in-the-civil-war/">mass donations of hand-knitted stockings</a> in both the North and South. In Ireland, during the famine of the 1840s, philanthropists across the country established crochet schools; they trained impoverished farming families to make <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/lace-at-the-end-of-union-1.1197051">lace for export</a> in a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100601222756/http:/lacismuseum.org/exhibit/Irish%20Crochet%20Lace.pdf">relief scheme that grew into an art form</a>.</p>
<p>During World War I, French peasant women with their homes under fire <a href="https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/embroidery-under-fire">cross-stitched military scenes</a> that were sold as part of another fundraising effort. When the war ended, shell-shocked soldiers were prescribed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/25/how-embroidery-therapy-helped-first-world-war-veterans-find-a-common-thread">embroidery therapy</a>. World War II brought a <a href="https://centerforknitandcrochet.org/u-s-knitting-propaganda-wwii/">"Victory Knitting" campaign</a> to aid service members and refugees, during which the Red Cross <a href="https://www.historylink.org/File/5722">published patterns</a> of mitts for riflemen and stump covers for amputees. In London, people <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=9jg9DwAAQBAJ&amp;ppis=_e&amp;lpg=PA91&amp;dq=blitz%20knitting%20wartime&amp;pg=PA91#v=onepage&amp;q=blitz%20knitting%20wartime&amp;f=false">sheltering from the blitz</a> were encouraged to pass the time by knitting. In photographs from the time, women knit in air-raid bunkers and apartment buildings and on ambulance running boards, side by side in even rows like the stitches made by their own needles.</p>
<p>Those scenes of companionship, of course, are unthinkable in a time of social distancing. The risk of transmitting the virus complicates donation campaigns, and has led some organizations to <a href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/programs/knit-your-bit">stop</a> <a href="https://warmupamerica.org/make/current-needs/">accepting</a> scarves, blankets, and other handmade goods. Even so, crafting remains a communal activity. <a href="https://www.makevictorymasks.org/">Volunteers</a> across the U.S. are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/business/coronavirus-masks-sewers.html">sewing masks for health-care workers</a>, and more and more <a href="https://www.deaconess.com/How-to-make-a-Face-Mask">hospitals</a> <a href="https://www.unitypoint.org/madison/covidhelp.aspx">are seeking</a> these <a href="https://news.lvhn.org/to-sew-or-not-to-sew-you-can-help-supply-face-masks-and-other-ppe-to-lvhn/">donations</a> to mitigate shortages. Many others have turned, like me, to <a href="https://www.interweave.com/article/knitting-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-knitted-vest/">yarn crafts</a> as a form of <a href="https://www.cnet.com/how-to/relaxing-activities-to-help-you-cope-with-coronavirus-stress/">stress relief</a>, hoping to lose themselves in a simple, repetitive activity or to make the most of their time in quarantine by learning a new skill. As the founders of the Madrid-based company We Are Knitters explained <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/loisaltermark/2020/03/27/knitting-has-become-the-cool-activity-during-the-coronavirus-crisis/#fa3aab2921c8">in a recent Q&amp;A</a>, "Knitting keeps your mind occupied ... it also improves your self-esteem when you realize that you are able to create something with your own hands."</p>
<p>You can learn, too. The internet abounds with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+crochet">tutorials</a> and <a href="https://www.yarnspirations.com/patterns?start=0&amp;sz=12">free patterns</a>. All you need are the materials for whatever medium you choose: needle and thread, crochet hook and yarn. You can find inspiration online, in the loosely woven communities of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/coronacrafts/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/quarantinecrafts?src=hashtag_click">Twitter</a> users sheltering in place with their craft supplies. Their photos, under hashtags such as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/quarantinecrafts/">#quarantinecrafts</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CoronaCrafts?src=hashtag_click">#coronacrafts</a>, show <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B99P51glB-2/">elaborate</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/smdetar/status/1240435638853345285">crochet shawls</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/thomatoson/status/1240340014657081344">tentative</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B97gZ3bpNt_/">first rows of knitting</a>, soft <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B98M0LkHFNR/">felt</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B98fqDGgWFp/">creatures</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B97qJymh3kg/">blossoming</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B99cEzaBdt7/">flowers</a>, and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B98Da4YJiDk/">public-health samplers</a>: " <a href="https://twitter.com/Sarlicious/status/1239542387506122761">Wash Your Damn Hands</a>."</p>
<p>Above all, they show creation. To crochet, or to knit, or to block out an image in cross-stitch or needlepoint, is both to make something and to make sense of it, turning a slack piece of string into something with recognizable function and form. All of us amateur crafters alone in our rooms are filling our empty spaces, each shaping a single tenuous strand into something with strength and body. We are making something lasting out of solitude.</p> 
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</section> <address>
<div><figure><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/rosa-inocencio-smith/"><img src="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/iQLWhvNUWIl97x50_-pWdwxNEHU=/200x200/media/None/headshot1-1/original.jpg"> </a></figure> </div>
<div>
<p> <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/rosa-inocencio-smith/">Rosa Inocencio Smith</a> is an assistant editor at <em>The Atlantic.</em> </p> 
</div>
</address> </div>

To spend a pandemic making soft and pretty things may seem silly in certain ways-frivolous or impractical, maybe, and certainly a privilege when my life and livelihood aren't (yet) directly at stake. Handicrafts such as crochet, knitting, and embroidery-traditionally practiced by women and by the elderly-carry passive associations that defy most American notions of bravery.

Getting Through a Pandemic With Old-Fashioned Crafts

Crafts

Crafts during difficult times

Make something

Ishank R's ideas are part of this journey:

Related collections

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