Busy Hands, Calm Brain — Knitting & Neurodiversity

When Emmi Salmikangas turned 30 recently, she invited friends round for a party — a knitting party. “We chatted for hours, drank about five pots of tea and knitted. I loved it,” she says. Emmi lives with her husband and young child in Klaukkala, to the north of Helsinki, Finland, and is a specialist in digital education. As with most Finns, she learned to knit as a child, but it only was at university that it became part of her life. Finding it hard to concentrate during lectures, she began knitting — something encouraged by her lecturers.

Emmi didn’t know then that she was neurodiverse, but she instinctually knew she needed to do something with her hands in order to quieten her “ever-racing mind” and pass her degree. Since her diagnosis with ADD (attention deficit disorder) three years ago, it all makes sense.

Neurodiversity — the ways in which someone’s brain can work differently to a neurotypical person’s — is often in the news these days. Rapidly rising numbers of people, particularly women, are being diagnosed with autism or ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) later in life. In the UK, for instance, there was a 787% rise in autism diagnoses between 1998 and 2018. This isn’t down to a rise in autism itself, but in awareness and the demands of modern life. In terms of ADHD, the charity ADHD UK says that the condition is underdiagnosed: only 1 in 9 people with ADHD in the UK have had a diagnosis, meaning that many of us might be neurodiverse without knowing it.

Laine conducted its readers’ survey in 2023, and when asked about the benefits of knitting, dozens of respondents mentioned how it helps them cope with their autism or ADHD: it calms them, helps them focus and gives them an acceptable way to fidget in public. Whether it’s as a “fidget” (a way to deal with the feeling of excess energy) or a “stim” (a form of calming stimulation), knitting seemed to be the perfect activity.

’Every element has to be linked’

And for some neurodivergent people, the self-employment possibilities in the fibre arts are also the right fit. The name Woolly Wormhead will be familiar to many knitters, particularly lovers of hats and short rows — the British-born designer is known both for their brilliant designs and for being vocal about their mental health and diagnoses, as well as wider issues of inclusivity in the knitting industry.

Woolly, 54, lives in the Italian mountains with their partner and son, works as a knitting designer and teacher and is building on the success of last year’s hit book, Short-Row Colorwork Knitting. Originally qualified as an electronics engineer and later as an arts teacher, they began designing after being medically retired as a result of severe autistic burnout. “After I lost my teaching job, it was a very good way for me to keep my brain occupied — in a way that was actually helping me recover.”

Alongside earlier diagnoses of CPTSD and OCD (both forms of neurodivergence), and suspected autism, Woolly had an ADHD diagnosis six years ago. For Woolly, their neurodivergence is an inseparable part of being a designer. “I didn’t have the patience to sit and knit jumpers — hats were perfect. They are small, and I could experiment. I like things to have a mathematical structure that starts on the crown and every element has to be linked to one another: it feels really jarring when I see a brim and then a body and a crown that don't have any kind of mathematical relation.”

As a designer, Woolly often felt as though they didn’t fit in, partly because of the way they design “on the needles” rather than by sketching first. “I feel like I’m fitting in much better now, because there is more open discussion about neurodivergence. In the last decade there's been massive changes in the designing industry: lots of different people coming in, working in different ways.”

After 20 years in the industry, Woolly also has a clear understanding of their customers’ needs: their patterns are written to be extremely clear and logical, explicitly “neurodiverse-friendly”, and also with layouts that are accessible to visually impaired people. Another result of this journey is an insight into why knitting benefits a neurodivergent brain: “You have to be in the moment with it — whole-hands involved.”

The science behind it

When it comes to research into the overlap between neurodiversity and knitting (or any craft), the subject is “understudied”, says the Danish psychologist and author Dr Anne Kirketerp. Speaking from her home in Aarhus, Denmark, she explains that she has reviewed all the existing research into psychology and craft, as well as conducting her own, and has compiled all of this into a new book, Craft Psychology: How Craft Promotes Health.

Anne says that it has been proven that the small, repetitive movements in crafts such as knitting help the brain to move into a different, more restful state. And there is something about these crafts that soothes our brains, she says: the “micro success experiences” that come from each stitch, each row, each turned heel or bound-off cuff produce dopamine — something that ADHD brains in particular need more than others. An additional factor is the textural feedback from the materials in our hands, placing us firmly in the physical moment as well as capturing what would otherwise be “surplus attention”.

A keen crafter herself, Anne describes different crafts in terms of “structure”: something such as knitting from a pattern is “high structure”, with plenty of guidance. Something such as painting a picture would be “low structure”, relying instead on creativity. Simple stitches allow for “coupled activity”, combining different forms of stimulation — we all know about Knitflix, or knitting miles of stockinette while listening to a podcast. At other times, our brains need a more engaging project, which can allow us to enter the deliciousness of a “flow state”, achieved when there is the perfect balance of skill and challenge. In this mode, we are truly absorbed in what we are doing and anxieties fade away. For a neurodivergent person, perhaps used to being told they are wrong, inadequate or unproductive, this is a neurologically healing space.

A feeling of belonging

As knitting is such a perfect partner with other activities, Anne says, it also leads to the mental benefits of “social relatedness”: the feeling of belonging that comes from a shared activity, where two people are joined together by a “common third”. Knit nights have a basic format — sit down and knit — and attention is on knitting, not on small talk or making eye contact. This makes them ideal events for neurodiverse people, who often find it hard to know the invisible rules of less structured, more face-to-face, social interactions.

Emmi says she still struggles with heading out to events: “My husband is amazing, he reads me like an open book. I always go through the same phases with going to a meeting, even if I know that my friends will be there. I love my friends, but I still am like, ‘Oh no, I can’t do this.’ And then I just go, and I’m all smiles, and I'm so happy and bubbly and sunshiny when I come back home. And he will say: ‘Why do you do this to yourself?’ And I say: ‘I can’t help it, it’s my process.’”

For those who can’t get out of the house, online meetings can provide the forum for valuable social connections or even the “body doubling” experience of doing the same activity at the same time, with minimal interaction. The crochet designer Liv Scott, 33, from Asheville, North Carolina, runs online peer-support sessions for neurodiverse knitters and crocheters. Liv was first diagnosed with OCD, later autism and ADHD. After that she asked her employers to make reasonable accommodations for her. Instead, they fired her. After reaching a settlement with them, she set up NeuroStitches, and now runs a variety of weekly sessions on Discord.

How quiet is a quiet room?

Liv has been involved in the public discussion around inclusivity at yarn festivals, in terms of accommodations for neurodiverse people and the provision of quiet rooms that are clearly signposted and actually quiet. As with Emmi’s knit-night “process”, neurodiverse knitters will be familiar with the feeling of wanting to go to a yarn festival to meet friends and explore yarns — but at the same time dreading the sensory and social overwhelm.

“This is not just from a consumer perspective, but from a vendor and maker perspective,” says Liv. “I know several dyers, designers or notions makers who are autistic or neurodivergent, who will not vend at events because it’s too much for them.” Having designated quiet rooms, with lower lighting and reduced noise, as well as early shopping hours before the main audience is admitted, she says, would go a long way.

For neurodiverse people, a further challenge at yarn events is to do with impulsive or compulsive behaviour. There has long been an emphasis on the latest yarns, colourways and patterns. This understandable focus on novelty can lead to impulsive over-spending or a compulsion to “collect” everything in a particular category. And even with good organisation and planning, existing craft supplies can become forgotten, or duplicated — the so-called “ADHD tax” of unnecessary outlay.

Emmi says her diagnosis has helped her with impulsive choices: “I have got better at spotting those moments and waiting a while, because I know where it comes from now. It’s easier to stop myself before making such big, impulsive decisions.”

Make the most of your hobby

Neurodiverse people are statistically more likely to suffer from stress, anxiety and other mental illnesses and this is before we add in intersectionality with race, sexuality, gender and economic circumstances. So it is no wonder that a neurodiverse brain needs an extra bit of calming — exactly the kind that knitting can provide.

Emmi deliberately uses knitting as a way of “regulating my emotions whenever I feel overwhelmed. It gives me more time to process things before I have to verbalise them.” So once a neurodiverse knitter understands how and why knitting is helpful, what further steps can they take to get even more benefit from it?

Anne has these tips: “understand the difference between a high-structure project and a low-structure one and know when to do each; embrace your extra ability to go into a flow state; and make the most of the potential for social connection through knitting”.

Emmi welcomes the examination of the overlap between neurodiversity and knitting. “It can help us build communities that truly welcome everyone. We can more easily find like-minded people and have discussions that lead to many different places. This can be the power that brings us together, and then we can find more similarities and differences,” she says.

“After getting my diagnosis, I went through a very long and winding thought process about my own identity and which parts I want to share with people. I've come to the realization that I don't care as much anymore about what people think — if they have any negative thoughts — but I believe in the power of making good things happen. So, for anyone who reads this, if their thoughts resonate with mine and if I can offer them some kind of comfort, then I have done my share. I know there are a lot of us, and now I know that I am ‘one of us’.” 

TEXT: AMELIA HODSDON
PHOTOS: MAIJA ASTIKAINEN

This feature was first published in Laine issue 26.