Crochet Health Survey with Kathryn Vercillo

Kathryn Vercillo is passionate about crochet. She's a crochet author, a crochet columnist, and a crochet blogger over on Crochet Concupiscence (awesome name!). As if she weren't accomplished enough, Kathryn is conducting an interesting survey about the health benefits of crochet. I totally took the survey. Who doesn't love taking surveys? It can be fun to share a bit about yourself, even if it's with an online form :) The issues this survey addresses are important and I'm so glad that Kathryn is investing time and energy into studying them. Here is her official statement on the survey.

A new crochet health survey has been launched to study how crochet heals people. This is a 27-question survey (mostly multiple choice) designed to gather detailed information about the physical and mental health issues that are helped through crochet work and to what degree the craft is helpful. The survey is produced by Kathryn Vercillo, an expert in the topic of healing through crochet.

Kathryn Vercillo is the author of Crochet Saved My Life, a book about the craft’s health benefits. In the book she shares her own story of crocheting to heal from chronic depression. She also interviews two dozen other women who share their stories of hooking to heal. In addition, she aggregates the available research into crafting to heal.

Several formal studies have been conducted that show crochet to be healing. The new study is designed to add to the available information on this topic. One unique thing about it is that the study focuses specifically on crochet as opposed to lumping it in with other crafts. Another unique feature is that it goes beyond asking the question “does crochet help?” (because we know that it does) and explores how it helps, to what extent and for what symptoms.

Kathryn Vercillo will do an in-depth analysis of the results of this study. She will use that information to publish a full report on the health benefits of crafting. She will also use the information in future publications and it will serve as the foundation for continued research into this important topic.

A survey like this has the potential to lead to a number of benefits including:

• Credibility to get crochet into more settings including hospitals, recovery centers, in-patient therapy groups, prisons and schools
• Information that can be given to doctors and therapists to help them understand how crochet can heal
• Help for individuals who want to learn how crochet can help them heal
• Lays the groundwork for additional research opportunities into the topic

You can help support the craft of crochet by contributing your response to this new survey. The survey is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/crochetsaveslives.

Think Kathryn is cool? So do I! Make sure to drop in to Illuminate Crochet next Wednesday for a great interview with her. Now, go take that survey! I'm very demanding aren't I :p