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You may or may not have noticed, but crafts of all kinds are
making a comeback. People the length and breadth of the country are
turning to them as an activity to be learned, improved upon and
enjoyed.
You may have noticed articles about knitting in the glossy magazines
telling us that anyone who is anyone is now knitting everything from
baby mittens to sweaters, that cross stitch is the new ‘in thing’
and that activity breaks where people revive crafts such as
dry-stone walling are incredibly popular.
Why is this? Well, there are many benefits to taking up or
continuing to undertake some form of craft. Depending on which
one you choose to do, the benefits might include the following:
• Enjoyment
• A sense of achievement
• Keeping the brain active
• Maintaining the dexterity of the fingers
• A moderate amount of physical exertion
• Meeting other people
• Having something useful and/or beautiful when you finish
• A nice warm glow, knowing that you’re helping to maintain
traditional skills that are in danger of being lost to us
More and more people are turning to crafts in order to gain some
of these benefits. The chain of craft shops, Hobbycraft, now has
28 ‘superstores’, including another three opening this year,
which gives an indication of how popular crafts are becoming.
So, what follows is your personal guide to some of the crafts
that you can pursue. We haven’t listed all of them by any means
– the list would be almost endless, but we have included the
most popular and accessible of them for you to try. If you are
successful with your chosen one(s) from this list, you can
branch out on your own and be even more adventurous! You can
find, through the links, more details on the following:
Knitting
Scrap booking
Cross stitch
Wood turning
Card making
Willow weaving
Dry Stone Walling
Activity breaks
So let’s have a brief look at these things in just a little more
detail. Maybe we can whet your appetite so that you might just
give one or two of them a try.
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