When people think about knitting, it’s most commonly as a solitary, quiet activity. However, joining a knitting group is an excellent way to enrich your crafting experience!

Knitting has been proven to be beneficial for your mental health - and when you join a group those benefits can be multiplied! Knitting groups are a wonderful way to add social contact to your life. Since you’re also knitting, if you’d prefer to sit quietly and listen, you can enjoy the company of others without having to push yourself to actively socialize; on the other hand, social butterflies will enjoy the opportunity to gab about a shared interest. Whether you’re on the shyer side or you’re a chatty extrovert, everyone can bond over a natural shared conversation starter: yarn!

If you live alone or you lack family members who knit (or craft), it is a great chance to have all of those conversations about your latest splurge at the yarn shop, compare techniques, or show off your latest WIP without their eyes glazing over. In a knitting group, you’re among people who love and understand your enthusiasm.

Looking for a new pattern? Knitting groups are a great way to discover new patterns and techniques that you may not have come across otherwise. It’s a great way to find inspiration for your next project or, if you get stuck, get some help on a difficult stitch or with reading a challenging pattern.

A knitting community is a great way to get some help when things get tricky, other members will usually have ideas or advice to make a new technique easier. It’s also a fun push to try new techniques that you may not have tried yet - you’ll have a community of cheerleaders to encourage you and support you as you experiment.

As you develop your knitting community, you’ll discover how vibrant the fibre community is! You’ll likely find yourself meeting up outside of weekly knitting circles to collaborate on bigger projects (yarn bombing or charity knitting, anyone?) or having friends to attend fibre festivals with.

Have you attended a knitting circle yet? If you’re in Edmonton, I love going to The Yarning, which meets Tuesdays from 6:30-10pm at Common Ground Cafe (50 Brentwood Blvd, Sherwood Park).