Knot online: young textile artists choose knitting over doom scrolling
Students say knitting, crochet, and sewing have helped them focus better academically
By AVERY ST. GERMAIN
To escape the stress of the digital age, young people are pursuing old-fashioned hobbies such as knitting, sewing and crocheting.
Brooklyn Jones, UBC geological engineering student, discovered crocheting through her friend in 2020.
Knitting in class helps Jones, now an employee at Urban Yarns, a knitting supply store in West Point Grey, deal with stress. But it also has helped her academically.
“Which is kind of crazy,” said the 23-year-old Jones. “I get so entranced in the motion that I focus on what they’re saying. So, I’ve actually been doing much better in classes.”
The growth of textiles
She is one of the growing numbers of young people who adopt traditional hobbies like knitting, crocheting and sewing to escape the stress of the digital era. According to Statistics Canada in 2022, knitting and sewing sales increased 30 per cent.
Based on a Canadian study conducted in 2019 and 2023, 37 per cent of a cohort of teenagers exceeded the two-to-three-hour screen time guidelines.
As someone who needs constant stimulation to avoid becoming “stir crazy,” Jones usually has eight crocheted projects going on at a time. She says it replicates the same stimulation that 15 second TikTok video would give her.
She learned how tactile stimulation is good for a person’s long-term mental and physical health, “You can ward off Alzheimer’s … which runs in my family,” Jones said.
Group knitting at UBC
Lyn Scatchard, 22, the president of the UBC Knit and Sew club, said the importance of social interactions while knitting with a group helps avoid the isolation brought upon by doom scrolling.
Scatchard said what really gets them away from digital life is the ability to have a scheduled time each week with a group of other textile artists.
“I think I found myself more easily able to unwind. Like when I get stressed or anxious, I know I always have my knitting project, whatever I’m working on in my bag, that I can pull out and start working on it,” Scatchard said.
Holly Hames, a knitting and sewing instructor at Langara who is also experienced in photography and textiles, said textiles are a good hobby.
Hames said her students are happy to get offline because they’re saturated with social media.
Looking at screens constantly altered the way a person’s eyes operate over time and narrowed thinking processes; tactile work does the opposite, said Hames.
“We have more younger students now, but it fluctuates…I get a lot of people who took [textiles] in high school, they didn’t take it seriously and now they’re like, ‘I wish I could remember more,’” Hames said.
Undoing the damage of social media
Penny Stewart, who has been weaving for over 40 years, believes in keeping traditional arts alive as an alternative to screen time and loves to see people who are eager to learn.
“Social media has made people really feel like something has to be happening all the time,” said Stewart, a volunteer at Fibre Art Studio in Granville Island.
“Even the young people themselves know that it would be a good idea,” said Stewart. “Most people recognize that it’s a societal addiction.”
As textile artists get more experience, some take their passion to the next step and sell their work.
The UBC Makers Market is a five-day fair held biannually where UBC artists get a chance to show off and sell their crafts. Crafts on display include crocheted plushies and keychains.
Lucy Lu, a neuroscience alumna of UBC, began crocheting three years ago to avoid procrastination while studying for exams.
Lu started her business called ScareDee Cats when her crocheted passion projects filled up her house and her schedule became more flexible.
“I guess it’s a little different because some people crochet for profit,” said Lu, who was selling her projects at the market last week. “I’m trying to make my craft money from crocheting so I can buy more crafts.”
Christina Nieh, 23, is a graduate of UBC and works for her family’s crocheting business, Ggümm Studio, that her sister started in 2022
She said in recent years crocheting has become trendy, something that her sister, whose been passionate about crocheting since she was nine, never expected.
Ggümm Studio has gone to multiple markets and sells products through the market at UBC.
Nieh’s family is hustling and it’s difficult for them to not always dedicate their life to crocheting. Despite constant work, Nieh adds that it is very rewarding.
“If you’re talented in crocheting and you know how it works, then you can make anything,” said Nieh.
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