It is no secret that college students are in a constant battle with their short attention spans, social media addictions and artificial intelligence dependency. Alongside that, hustle culture is of no help with this cultivated narrative that if we’re not rapidly growing or creating fast enough, then we are behind or have failed.
With so much chaos, it is easy to succumb to scrolling as a break. However, the numbing effect only lasts as long as you continue and when the night becomes quiet with your thoughts taken off of the stimuli, the worries come swirling back.
Speaking from personal experience, when I feel paralyzed by feelings of inadequacy but also helplessness in the face of stress from school and the looming question of whether or not what I do is worthwhile, I pick up my crocheting project and get to work, following an already preselected pattern even after casting it aside for days or even weeks.
At least for the night, you can go to bed feeling somewhat accomplished and successfully put the emotional turmoil outside the physical body and onto something you can see. It is like pacing back and forth to ease anxiety, except this time, a few rows of the crochet tapestry have been casted.
The concentration of repetitive motions, no matter your energy level or state of mind, will result in the end product of feeling a sense of progress, the exact type of grounding college students need. Both knitting and crocheting have been great methods for reducing anxiety and stress in the body.
The philosophy behind such an act against other forms of coping mechanisms is that it eases the pressure off of the performance of one thing. Much like stocks, relying on one outcome or source of identity and sense of accomplishment is ill-advised and unsustainable. So to place all your bets – aligning all of your identity – on your academics will do more harm than good.
Truly, life does get more exciting when looking forward to the new confined creative project that can range in terms of difficulty depending on learning status.
However, I’d be lying if I said these crafts are these simple, relaxing and calming solutions to stress all the time. In fact, knitting has been likened to coding in the way that a set pattern has been made but also that if a mistake were to be made, the entire project is ruined and hours worth of rows must be undone and made over.
Many in the knitting and crocheting community have even noticed the lapse in operations from their job and craft. The automation of weaving was the foundation of modern computing. Those working in computer science and software engineering fields have made the connection between their chosen hobby of knitting and coding, as they say it tickles the same part of the brain.
The skill builds up self-confidence and assurance in oneself that your worth does not lie in the hands of others – whether that be teachers passing out grades on their terms, fair or not, or a company that sees their employees as replaceable and disposable.
Another added bonus of cultivating your skill in a textile craft of your choice is that it brings a new sense of identity outside of your major, career and grades. You feel like a person with more to you than just a single note of academics, which can make for more meaningful conversations and connections.
There are clubs on campus that provide spaces to get to know and build community with others who are working on similar projects. However, if socializing while creating is not your ideal scenario, textile crafts can be done in solitude or through parallel play (working on the same task alongside someone else) with your roommates as you gossip and relax.
For everyone who is tired of the constant belittling of art and design with the threat of AI overtaking them, now is the time to shine with any of these choices of hobbies. The intentionality of slowing down your days manually creating something that many will say can just be manufactured or produced cheaply at the expense of the environment and exploited workers is resistance in itself.
To prize something and actively keep the craft alive is to reject the notion that time toward creation of the arts is a waste or that an hour spent crafting is an hour lost of wages and not a “mindful” use of time.
—
Featured Image via Adobe Stock
