Knitting| Products
January is funny, isn’t it? New year’s resolutions have everyone suddenly aspiring to become a brand new person – setting goals, overhauling routines, picking up new hobbies and generally trying to ‘fix’ themselves overnight… And whilst I do love a habit tracker and a bit of goal setting (if you haven’t read Atomic Habits by James Clear, you absolutely should), I don’t particularly love the whole ‘new year, new you’ pressure to completely overhaul your life and become a brand new person just because it’s January 1st.
I am, however, very much here for a ‘new year, new hobby that makes you feel 100 times better in all of the ways’ kinda thing.
Which brings me very nicely to this: if there’s one New Year’s resolution I think you should make for 2026, it’s to learn how to knit – especially if you’ve been toying with the idea of picking up a calming, creative hobby.
Obviously here at Baa!, we love knitting and want everyone to love it as much as we do. There’s nothing we like more than getting our local Stonehaven crafters set up with their first pair of knitting needles and a couple of balls of yarn when they come into our knitting shop wanting to learn how to knit – and that love extends to enabling all knitters to stitch to their heart’s content.
Knitting is great.
Like… really great.
And I want to tell you why.
See, knitting means a lot to me personally. Don’t worry, I’m not about to turn this blog post into a therapy journal thing, but it saved me. I know that sounds dramatic, but it really, really helped me during times where I… well, really wasn’t okay.
Long story short (‘cause I need to get onto this list that convinces you learning how to knit is going to be the best New Year’s resolution you can make, right?!) but I first started knitting properly back in 2014 as a coping mechanism for my mental health. I graduated university with a first class degree in Performing Arts and an eating disorder (yeah… even I do a little eye roll at that), and that came with some intense bouts of anxiety and depression – particularly in the early stages of recovery. I needed something to do with my hands and found that the meditative rhythm of knitting helped me deal with the torrent of noise from my busy busy brain.
And it’s not just me saying this.
There are actual studies showing the mental health benefits of knitting. One cool study from the University of Oxford looked at how effective knitting can be for managing anxiety in those with eating disorders and found that 74% of people reported reduced anxiety, with patients saying knitting “cleared their minds” and had “a calming and therapeutic effect”.
Now, it goes without saying, you don’t need to have an eating disorder or mental health struggles for knitting to help. Life is busy. Our brains can get chatty. We could all use something that helps us to slow down and experience some of those calming and therapeutic effects. And there’s sooo many other reasons why learning how to knit is something you won’t regret.
So, without further ado, here’s my list of reasons why learning how to knit should be your New Year’s resolution for 2026.
I’ve already touched on it, but let’s start with the big one: knitting is therapeutic.
There’s something to be said about just sitting down sometimes. We live in a society of ‘do do doing’ all the time, so to sit down and indulge in a few rows of knitting can be exactly what you need. The repetitive motion, stitch after stitch, is so meditative and calms your nervous system in a way scrolling your phone never will.
Knitting is mindful, it gives your hands something to do and encourages your brain to just. slow. down. It keeps you focused and engaged without being taxing or stressful (well, sometimes – there’s a reason why I love an easy knitting project…). Knitting is grounding, comforting. It forces you to stop, to get off your phone, to slow down and actually breathe.
Honestly, if you’ve had a busy day, a really crappy week, or your brain just won’t switch off at the end of the day, knitting helps. It really does
Remember that Oxford Uni study I mentioned before I started this list to convince you to learn how to knit? Well 53% of those people felt “satisfaction, pride and a sense of accomplishment” through knitting.
And as a knitter who can knit a decent sweater, let me tell you – it’s impossible to not feel good when someone asks where you got your knitted jumper from and you can turn around and say “Oh…I made it”.
(SUCH a good feeling)
One of the best things about learning how to knit is that you can make things you can actually wear. Alright, so maybe the first thing you knit won’t be a work of art, but once you get going, your new hobby can fill all those woolly gaps in your wardrobe.
Need a warm hat ‘cause it’s freezing and your ears feel like they’re gonna fall off? You can knit it.
Want a little snood for cycling in winter? You can knit it.
Fallen in love with a jumper on the high street, but don’t want to pay a bajillion pounds* for it? Yep – you guessed it, you can knit that too!
* I’m not going to lie to you – it is also possible to spend a bajillion pounds on yarn for a handknit sweater. Sometimes it’s so worth it.
The more you learn and the more confident a knitter you get, the more you can tailor your knits to fit your body specifically. That’s what I love about knitting my own things. Of course, I like to follow a knitting pattern and be told what to do, but I also like being able to adapt said knitting pattern to make it perfect for me.
If you’ve got long arms, you can knit the sleeves longer. If you have a short body, you can crop your sweater. Yes, there’s an element of skill involved and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend going too far off piste if you’ve only just learned how to knit, but simple tweaks like adjusting length is easy peasy.
Once you become a more confident knitter, you can customise your knitting projects and make knitting patterns work for you in all sorts of ways. You can make yarn substitutions to achieve different fabric characteristics, more drape, less pilling, one that’s machine washable or something that fits your budget. The knitting possibilities are endless.
Let’s be real: giving someone a handmade knit gift is basically the gold standard of gift giving. To receive something someone spent hours making with their own hands, especially for you… that’s not just a present – that’s love! – and it’s (probably) waaay more thoughtful and personal than something from the high street.
If you make learning how to knit your New Year’s resolution in Jan, just imagine Christmas 2026: you’ll be wrapping up handmade Christmas gifts a plenty. What a woolly legend!
Oh the knitting community is excellent.
I might be on the extreme end of knitting nerd, but even if you’re not someone who stores shade numbers and knitting pattern/stitch counts/yarn amounts in their brain, chatting knitting is fun.
Having a hobby, whatever that is, is exciting – and the connection that can come with it, well, it’s totally underrated. Just a simple chat with your local yarn shop owner (like Janice at Baa!) or an evening spent with a knitting group, making some crafty friends, working on your WIPs. Even something as simple as a knit and chat with a pal. Grabbing a coffee, maybe some cake and sitting, sippin, catching up, connecting. Those couple of hours, in a world where many of us can feel isolated, lonely… It genuinely matters so much more than we realise.
Because, for me at least, this is the thing.
I’m going to be honest. It took me a fair few days to sit down at my laptop to start writing this post. Oh I’ve got loaaads of things to say about knitting, I absolutely love it. Cannot get enough. 12/10 recommend. But to actually find the words to describe how so… (brace yourself for the cheese).
Knitting is something special. For me at least, it’s more than a hobby, it’s like a form of self care. It forces me to stop.
To sit down.
Slow down.
And actually stop.
All it take is a few stitches for you to instantly start to feel better, and there’s loads of studies that support this. The repetitive, rhythmic, movement can help shift your attention away from anxious thoughts, help quieten a chatty brain and start to reduce feelings of stress, slow your heart rate, and generally make you feel calmer.
I hope so.
‘Cause if you’re after a New Year’s resolution that you’ll actually enjoy sticking to, I really do reckon picking up a pair of needles is a lovely place to start. If you’ve already got some yarn and needles lying around – cracker! It’s time to get stitchin’. If not, I’d start with a DK weight yarn and a pair of 4mm knitting needles, and you’re pretty much good to go.
There’s loads of ways of learning how to knit, too, it just depends on what type of person you are. You could grab yourself a nice book like The Beginner’s Guide to Knitting by Lynne Rowe or find some knitting tutorial videos on YouTube (I really like the Purl Soho videos). If you really get yourself in a pickle, then a knitting for beginners class could be a great idea – especially if you have a pal to bring along too.
And who knows? By this time next year you could be cosied up in a handmade jumper, knitting a gift for someone you love, feeling calmer than you have in ages.
And, really, isn’t that the best kind of result a New Year’s resolution could have?
