How knitting can weave calm and joy into your life

Sporting star Tom Daley inspired the nation to dust off their old knitting needles after he was spotted stitching between dives at the Paris Olympics last year.

- By CAMILLA FOSTER

If you are looking to start knitting again or take on your first ever stitches, here's what the hobby can do for your wellbeing...

“Before I started knitting I was in a depressed state,” says Shelby Fuller, founder of London-based knitwear brand Elizabeth An'Marie, who started teaching herself how to knit in 2014.

“However, when I started to teach myself how to knit I remember one of my friends asked me how I was and for the first time in a while I could actually say yeah, I'm OK. The whole downcast feeling I had was gone, and I feel like knitting did help with that.”

PROMOTES MINDFULNESS

“If you're doing something that's a little bit challenging, you solely concentrate on what you're doing and can switch off from what's going on around you,” says knitting designer and teacher Monica Russel, founder of The Knit Knacks, which sells knitting kits, patterns, wool and more.