Crochet as Spiritual Practice: Being a Beginner

In case you missed it, here's a summary of the five previous posts about Crochet as Spiritual Practice:

A spiritual practice is an activity that you do regularly which either pulls you into your inner space or connects you with the greater universe. Try spending 10-15 minutes each day crocheting and only focusing on the yarn and pattern in front of you, pushing other thoughts aside.

Incorporate some special breathing to help relax yourself at the start.

1. Breathe in deeply and let it out slowly

2. Count your breaths up to 10 and then start over.

3. Alternate nostril breathing. (see how here)

4. Three short breaths in, one slow breath out.

Three is a common part of many religions, faiths, and spiritualities, as well as quite pervasive in our culture. In crochet: shells of three, repeats of three stitches or rows, three loops or pull throughs for a stitch. Think about how you can incorporate 3 into your crochet practice and how it already is a part of your crocheting habits. More examples on the original post.

Remember to keep your hands and wrists happy while you work! They carry our intentions from our minds & hearts into the work.

Some suggestions: warming them up before you work; stretching before, during, and after; taking regular breaks; stopping if they hurt; giving yourself a massage before and after an especially large or difficult working.

Silence is beautiful. It can be difficult to find true silence, but it's necessary for clearing the mind. The mind gets cluttered with thoughts, so we need to find quiet time for emptying it out. Having a task during meditation allows the quieting of the mind without feeling like you're doing nothing.


Be a Beginner
Some of you readers may be beginners, and some of you may have been crocheting so long you don't even know when you started. For those experienced in a craft (or any repetitive task), it can sometimes be done mindlessly, without looking, or really paying attention. When using crochet as spiritual practice, it needs to be done mindfully. To help you focus on the work at hand and to help quiet your mind, practice being a beginner.

Remember when you first started to crochet? Every stitch was a labor. It had to be slowly pulled out of your hands. The yarn painstakingly took shape. To encourage your meditation, imagine you're a beginner. You'll slow down and and focus more on what you're doing. It can be frustrating, so you can alternate between rows of beginner concentration and rows of your normal pace. Good luck!

Crochet as Spiritual Practice: Silence

In case you missed it, here's a summary of the four previous posts about Crochet as Spiritual Practice:

A spiritual practice is an activity that you do regularly which either pulls you into your inner space or connects you with the greater universe. Try spending 10-15 minutes each day crocheting and only focusing on the yarn and pattern in front of you, pushing other thoughts aside.

Incorporate some special breathing to help relax yourself at the start.

1. Breathe in deeply and let it out slowly

2. Count your breaths up to 10 and then start over.

3. Alternate nostril breathing. (see how here)

4. Three short breaths in, one slow breath out.

Three is a common part of many religions, faiths, and spiritualities, as well as quite pervasive in our culture. In crochet: shells of three, repeats of three stitches or rows, three loops or pull throughs for a stitch. Think about how you can incorporate 3 into your crochet practice and how it already is a part of your crocheting habits. More examples on the original post.

Remember to keep your hands and wrists happy while you work! They carry our intentions from our minds & hearts into the work.

Some suggestions: warming them up before you work; stretching before, during, and after; taking regular breaks; stopping if they hurt; giving yourself a massage before and after an especially large or difficult working.

Reflections on Silence

The silent spaces between musical notes and between the words we speak are what give them meaning.Continuous noise does not carry a message and often hurts our heads with the overload of information. Many groups recognize the importance of silence. Quaker meetings are based on the importance of silence and contemplation. Many sporting events, school days, and special events include a moment of silence.

It can be very difficult to find true silence in our world. Modern life involves many machines. Those for communication, entertainment, and convenience all make noise at us, some of them constantly. If you manage to be quiet in a room by yourself, you'll hear the fridge, a clock, cars going past, the neighbors. Many people turn to nature and solitude in order to find silence. There's nothing so loud as a pond in the evening, a forest in the morning, or a thunderstorm in summer. Winter is the quietest season, with many plants and animals resting, but even then you may hear snow crunching, owls hooting, bats flying, or trees bending and breaking.

All of these sounds can be beautiful, but our minds need some quiet time. Imagine your brain like a water bottle. It's about 1/4 full with daily thoughts, worries, and tasks. Something wonderful happens, you're excited, and you think about it. Now the bottle is half full. You learn something new, your friend has a problem, and you do the grocery shopping. Now the bottle is full. There's no room left for any more thoughts. We've all experienced that "my brain is too full to do anything else" feeling. That's when we really need to take some time to quiet the mind and release some of those thoughts. Pour them back out into the universe.

Meditation is highly useful for resting and emptying the mind. However, sitting still, being quiet, and thinking of nothing can be very difficult. It's called practice for a reason. Many people feel they don't have time for meditation. One way to help give your mind some quiet while still being productive is to use your crochet as a meditation. Concentrating on the pattern, the yarn, and the hook allows you to do something repetitive (maybe even relatively mindless), while still giving your brain down time.

Spend time this week noticing the silences around you. Take some quiet time and realize how many sounds are still happening. Practice being quiet and stilling your mind while crocheting. If possible, spend some time being quiet with other people. There's a big difference in the feeling being quiet alone, with one other person, in a small group, or in a large gathering.

Crochet as Spiritual Practice: Taking care of your hands

In case you missed it, here's a summary of the three previous posts about Crochet as Spiritual Practice:

A spiritual practice is an activity that you do regularly which either pulls you into your inner space or connects you with the greater universe. Try spending 10-15 minutes each day crocheting and only focusing on the yarn and pattern in front of you, pushing other thoughts aside.

Incorporate some special breathing to help relax yourself at the start.
1. Breathe in deeply and let it out slowly
2. Count your breaths up to 10 and then start over.
3. Alternate nostril breathing. (see how here)
4. Three short breaths in, one slow breath out.

Three is a common part of many religions, faiths, and spiritualities, as well as quite pervasive in our culture. In crochet: shells of three, repeats of three stitches or rows, three loops or pull throughs for a stitch. Think about how you can incorporate 3 into your crochet practice and how it already is a part of your crocheting habits. More examples on the original post.


On to your hands!
They are integral to crochet. Without them, you'd have taken up a different art. Our hands allow us to use the hook for shaping the yarn into something beautiful. They carry our intentions from our minds & hearts into the work.

Ways to keep your hands happy: warming them up before you work; stretching before, during, and after; taking regular breaks; stopping if they hurt; giving yourself a massage before and after an especially large or difficult working. Also, remember your wrists. They do a lot of the work, too.

Suggested Massage:
Hold your hands together to warm them up, maybe even pretend your washing them slowly. Put your left hand down flat on your knee/thigh. Using the palm of your right hand, slowly rub up from your finger tips to the back of your hand, over your wrist, and up your forearm. Repeat a few times. Use the thumb and fingers of your right hand to gently and slow rub between the bones of your hand. Then gently pretend to pull a ring off each finger. Flip your hand over and rub the plam a bit with your thumb. Let your left hand rest for a minute, then do the same things to the right hand.


This massage was adapted in part from Cindy Crandall-Frazier's book Comptemplative Crochet. It's a good read if you're interested in learning more about connecting crochet to your faith or spirituality. It includes 10 lovely patterns. My favorite pattern is for LovingKindness Wristers: show your hands some love and kindness by keeping your wrists and hands warm while you work. Here are mine, front and seam views.

Additional Stretches:
Jan 16, 2012: I just found this neat collection of stretches to help your forearms, wrists, and fingers.
Top 5 Stretches for Knitting (or Crochet) Pain