Knit or Crochet for Charity

Quick Win

Crafting with yarn helps relieve stress — and when you finish a project, you can donate what you’ve created to someone in need.

Try This Today

• Decide what you’ll make. Warm Up America! is a national nonprofit that delivers handmade afghans and clothing to people in need, including children living in homeless shelters and residents of hospice care facilities. WUA! accepts donations of knitted and crocheted blankets, hats, gloves, scarves and 7-by-9-inch sections year-round, or you can check Warm Up America’s current needs to see if they have any specific requests. If you’d rather donate locally, call an animal shelter, community center or other facility near you and ask if they need anything.​
• Set a schedule. Determine how long it will take to finish your project, then carve out some time each week. Enjoy the process: Repetitive movements, like those used in knitting and crocheting, can help you relax and neutralize stress in as little as 10 minutes, according to the late Herbert Benson, M.D., a Harvard Medical School professor and a pioneer in the field of mind/body medicine.​
• Enlist a friend. Crafting with a friend lets you enjoy the added benefit of social engagement, which “helps maintain thinking skills and slows cognitive decline in later life,” according to AARP’s Global Council on Brain Health report, “The Brain and Social Connectedness.”

Why

This feel-good activity may benefit your brain in several ways. Crocheting improved people’s attention in a study of 53 adults ages 32 to 73 published in Scientific Reports in 2025. After working on a granny square for about 20 minutes, experienced crocheters improved their performance on tests designed to measure attention, and brain imaging revealed they had greater connectivity between brain regions. A control group of non-crocheters sat and rested for 20 minutes and saw no changes to their test scores or brain activity. Doing something nice for someone else has perks for you, too. People who did acts of kindness for others were less anxious and lonely than those assigned to a self-care group in a study of 777 adults between the ages of 18 and 57 published in Emotion in 2026.