Knititation
Knititation® is about finding a little peace in a busy world, one stitch at a time.
Created by James McIntosh, it encourages you to slow down, focus on the rhythm of your knitting, and enjoy moments of calm, creativity, and reflection.
Many people talk about mindful knitting® as being present in the moment while they knit.
Knititation is different. It goes a step further. It uses knitting not just as a mindfulness practice, but as a tool for self-worth and emotional awareness. Rather than using the breath as the anchor to the present moment, Knititation uses the stitch.
In Knititation, a stitch becomes a breath, the next stitch becomes a feeling, and the next stitch becomes an emotion.
As your hands work rhythmically and the knitting grows, you are encouraged to acknowledge your thoughts, feelings, and emotions rather than ignore them. Just as every stitch is real, tangible, and essential to a knitted project, your thoughts, feelings, and emotions are real and essential to your well-being.
If a stitch is missing, broken, or ignored, the fabric weakens and can eventually unravel. In the same way, when we neglect our thoughts, suppress our feelings, or refuse to acknowledge our emotions, we risk becoming disconnected from ourselves.
Knititation teaches that every feeling has value, just as every stitch has value. By accepting each stitch as part of the project, we learn to accept ourselves as we are.
Knititation builds upon the principles of Mindful Knitting and goes a step further.
As James McIntosh explains:
"A stitch becomes a breath, the next stitch becomes a feeling. I realise, just as a stitch is tangible and integral to a knitting project, that my feelings and emotions are real; I am worth something. If that stitch was not there the project would fall apart. If my feelings and emotions are not there, then I fall apart."
I call it Knititation.
James McIntosh presented a TEDx talk at Kings College London about Knititation entitled "Is hand knitting a mindfulness based approach for fidgeters?”
You can watch his TEDx talk HERE.
So, what is Knititation and how does it work?
Dr Thomas Ernst FRCP explains:
Traditional mindfulness-based interventions can be seen in the busy, modern Western world as old-fashioned, unproductive or negatively spiritual. Hence in the West, alternative ways of creating benefits similar to meditation have been explored. One of them is the practice of knitting in a mindful way, rather than knitting as a distraction technique.
So, before going any further, a quick reminder of what the benefits of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) are:
- Stress and anxiety reduction
- Improved sleep
- Prevention of relapse into depression
- Chronic pain reduction
- Better type 2 diabetes control
- Improvements in blood pressure
As well as other benefits relating to better personal relationships.
Many may see MBSR as a fairly rigid research tool in meditation, and boring to practice! In fact, my patients tell me this.
Knititation and other mindfulness-based interventions provides these patients potential access to the benefits of MBSR in a friendly and enjoyable way. Knitiation specifically evolved as a result of observing the effect knitting had on James’s gradual recovery. Furthermore, a sense of ‘self-compassion’ is also felt when you wear your knitted items. This all leads to a sense of personal well-being and in turn self-empowerment.The use of the breath in traditional mindfulness techniques as your present moment anchor is simply replaced by a new stitch in Knititation, which is also in the present moment.
