Why your GP might recommend a knitting group

We regularly talk about knitting groups on this blog. We are big fans of knitters and crocheters meeting to craft together, share knowledge or just to squish each other’s yarn.

Groups can be merely social or come together for a major project or to focus on creating items for charity.

But it isn’t just us that have been praising knitting groups, one of the top medical organisations in the UK has also given them the thumbs up. It has been reported that at the launch of the Royal College of GP’s manifesto on tackling loneliness, the body’s chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard listed knitting groups as one of the community activities GPs should be directing lonely patients to.

Picking up your needles in the company of others can be good for everyone’s health

According to the RCGP, social isolation has more impact on a person’s chance of an early death than obesity and helping people feel more connected in the community has measurable health benefits. This means by welcoming a new member to your knitting circle, you could be making them healthier. If we ever needed a strong argument for knitting groups, that one is hard to beat.

One of the issues for GPs can be knowing what local groups exist, but many surgeries have community boards so if you run a knitting group why not see if you could add a notice to the boards in your local surgeries.

And if you are looking for a knitting group, you can see if there is one local to you by checking our online directory and we are always keen to add more groups to the list.