World Crochet Day, celebrated on 12 September, is an opportunity to celebrate a craft passed down through generations. But crochet offers more than the satisfaction of creating something with your own hands.
Increasingly, research is pointing to the potential benefits of creative activities for our wellbeing.
An international study* involving more than 8,000 people who crochet found that creativity, relaxation and a sense of accomplishment were among the main reasons people picked up their hooks. Almost 90% of respondents said crocheting made them feel calmer, while 82% reported feeling happier after crocheting.
For Re.Bag.Re.Use founder Regine le Roux, this is something she has seen first-hand through the initiative’s crochet workshops introduced earlier this year.
“There is something wonderfully grounding about sitting down, picking up a crochet hook and focusing on creating one stitch at a time. You have to concentrate on what your hands are doing, which gives your mind permission to switch off from everything else for a while. And when you crochet with others, it creates space for conversation, laughter and connection too.”
This year, Re.Bag.Re.Use has taken its workshops into the workplace, including participating in employee wellness days. Instead of conventional yarn, participants learn to crochet using plarn, yarn made from clean, used plastic bread bags.
The result combines wellbeing with sustainability. Participants learn a new skill while discovering how something generally regarded as waste can be transformed into a useful resource.
Recently, The Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town hosted an employee Wellness Day, and Re.Bag.Re.Use was thrilled to be part of it. The Vineyard Hotel has a strong commitment to responsible business and sustainability, and its employee wellbeing programme includes an annual wellness day and other initiatives that support the mental, physical and emotional health of its team.
“What stood out most to me at The Vineyard was the warmth of their team,” says le Roux. “Every person who visited our table was friendly, engaged and willing to give something new a try. It speaks volumes about the culture they have created and the value they place on the wellbeing of their employees.”
“Our Wellness Days are about giving our team opportunities to pause, connect and focus on their wellbeing. The Re.Bag.Re.Use activity brought another dimension to this by combining creativity and connection with sustainability, something that is particularly important to us as a business,” says Tana Pickering, Group Head of HR at The Vineyard Hotel.
Re.Bag.Re.Use offers customised crochet workshops for companies, conferences, team-building sessions and wellness initiatives. Workshops can be adapted to the group size, available time and the organisation’s objectives. Participants also keep what they make, taking home a tangible reminder of the experience and, hopefully, the beginning of a new skill and hobby.
For individuals and smaller groups, Re.Bag.Re.Use workshops are also available in Hout Bay. Over a cup of tea and a slice of cake, participants learn the basics of crocheting with this unusual material.
The workshops help keep plastic out of the environment, while also creating opportunities for creativity, learning and earning. A percentage of every sale and workshop is donated to the Neighbourhood Old Age Home (NOAH) and the SPCA.
For more information about Re.Bag.Re.Use crochet workshops, visit rebagreuse.com/workshop.pdf. Or, book your session here: new dates added each month: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CrochetatTheCollective
For more about Re.Bag.Re.Use Visit www.rebagreuse.com or follow Re.Bag.Re.Use on social media.
*Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32245337/