Some people will just never understand how something like knitting can be so relaxing but the truth remains that many knitting jobs are extremely relaxing in addition to being very rewarding on a personal level. What it is about knitting jobs may be difficult to accurately define but there are many common factors that can help to explain the phenomenon. Whether you are looking at the physical aspects or the psychological ones, the fact is that knitting jobs really can be very relaxing in a very real way.
From a purely physical aspect, many studies have concluded that certain people are calmed by low-impact, repetitive tasks. While many high-impact, repetitive tasks will actually increase the heart rate, smaller tasks such as those while doing knitting jobs, which do not require excessive energy or effort, actually help to slow the heart rate allowing the person performing the action to relax while working. While this may not hold true for everybody, especially not people who have a very short attention span or those who get easily bored or frustrated, it is in fact, scientifically held to be true for a great many people.
When you look at the psychological aspects regarding why doing knitting jobs is so relaxing, you can come up with a lot more information. In all fairness though, much of it will be speculation and “theory”, though in reality, many of those theories are sound enough to stand up as evidence in any court of law so there may be a little more to them than what meets the eye. Whether or not you believe all that “psycho-babble” or psychological analyses, it does show that there are numerous things about knitting jobs that make them relaxing.
One of the most relaxing aspects of most knitting jobs is knowing and understanding that there is going to be some type of reward when you complete your knitting project. Whether you are knitting something so relatively simple as a bracelet or headband or even that hand-knitted, full-length cape that you always wanted, when you are done you know that you are going to have a knitted product that is (at least relatively) unique and made with your own hand. The satisfaction that you get from completing your personal knitting jobs may stem in some part from the fact that you will now have a lasting memory that you created from scratch and made by hand.
Many people these days listen to “soothing sounds” that are repetitive and soft, allowing the listener to relax as the sounds are played. Sounds like waterfalls, rain showers and running streams are among the most common. The same can be said for most knitting jobs that you take on. The smaller, smooth and repetitive movements create a sense of calm for many people. There is a deep psychological comfort in doing something familiar and the end result is very soothing for many people … even those who may not be a little quick to get bored.
Whatever the reasons though, and whether everybody will ever truly understand it or even have the same reasoning behind it, when you are working on your knitting jobs, I bet you are relaxed.