Millions of people around the world have taken to knitting through the years, and their reasons are as diverse as they are from one another. If you’re looking for an activity to do with elder care, this is one that is not just for women, but something that men can do as well.

There are many things that you can learn through the process, or act, or knitting. Perhaps the first and foremost thing is patience. When you’re knitting, you are going to be taking time to intertwine yarn and create something, whether it’s a piece of clothing, a work of art, or anything else. In order to be successful with knitting, it requires patience.

The calming essence of knitting

Knitting can also provide you with a way to calm your nerves and clear your thoughts. Having to focus on the tiny stitches that will eventually come together to create something of substance requires time and patience, as noted, but it also requires some semblance of concentration.

For that, when you’re focused on the knitting, you’re not going to be thinking about other things and for seniors, that can be a great relief.

You learn about creating something from nothing.

For many people, their jobs, their careers might have been in sales or marketing or something of that nature where they didn’t actually build something concrete. The process of taking something from nothing and creating a work of art, a scarf, or some other item can have a great deal of reward for the individual.

Elderly home care is not solely about making sure that the individual is healthy or safe; it’s also about helping them find activities that they will enjoy. Knitting can offer that, and still so much more.

It can teach teamwork.

Some knitting projects could require more than one person, each working on a different pattern or aspect of the larger piece. This can provide a great lesson in teamwork as you and the elderly individual, or their friends, bring together something that they might not have accomplished on their own.

Knitting can help you put things into perspective.

When you’re knitting, you’re not generally thinking about the problems of the day. That can help you put life into a better perspective.

So when you’re providing elder care and you’re looking for things to do with the senior, consider encouraging them to take up knitting. It may just be one of the best activities for numerous reasons.