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Professor Trisha Greenhalgh OBE, Professor of Primary Care, Queen Mary University, London; Dean of Research Impact at Barts and The London Medical School and GP:

"Knitters have been saying for centuries that knitting has health benefits – both physical and psychological. Whilst there is relatively little formal research on the therapeutic benefits of knitting, Betsan Corkhill, who is clinically trained in physiotherapy, has led the field in supporting the use of knitting and other crafts in therapeutic clinical practice. The stories in this book do not guarantee that everyone will experience exactly the same benefits, but they strongly suggest that much good and little harm can come when knitting is used as physical, psychological or emotional therapy.”

Paul Harvard-Evans, Award-winning radio producer. Producer of Airing Pain for the charity Pain Concern

"As assignments go, being sent to the Royal United Hospital in Bath to record a radio programme about therapeutic knitting with a group of chronic pain patients for the charity Pain Concern would challenge the most creative of minds. Too depressing an environment, and too visual for radio. How wrong could this producer be! Under Betsan’s guidance, the Stitchlinks group of patients with serious lifelong pain conditions who could have sunk in the misery and isolation brought about by chronic pain, contradicted all expectations. Needles clickety-clacking away, relentless banter and laughter, pain banished – at least for now. "

Professor Lorimer Moseley, Professor of Clinical Neurosciences and Chair of Physiotherapy at The University of South Australia

"Betsan kindly offered to send me a pre-print of her book, a book I had perhaps ungenerously referred to, when it was in the planning stage, as the ‘Knitwits’ Bible’. Her offer was not out of the blue - she and I first met some time ago and I have very much appreciated the conversations we have had, about pain, the brain, recovery and, of course, knitting, over the years. There is no doubt that Betsan is a Knitting Crusader of the highest order (are there levels of Knitting Crusader? 'Pearl 1' has a nice ring to it and would look good on a credit card), but it is her journey to Crusader that got me interested.

She has not, it seems, turned her passion into a treatment, nor has she made the very common mistake of presuming that ‘what appeared to work for me will work for everyone’. Instead, she has made a discovery - that of other people’s reflections of knitting - and integrated it with her training, her astute eye, her clinical reasoning, her open mind and, last but not least, her personal experience. She has then interrogated her new theory and enlisted the support of experts - scientists, knitters and patients - to satisfy herself that this is not a flash in the pan, but that it is a discovery with real promise.

Here, she has squeezed her formidable experience and startling journey into a book. On reading it, you will be reminded of the unexampled magnificence of your brain and the splendid simplicity of knitting it to good health. On one level it is seductively simple - there is no doubt that without a brain, one could neither knit, nor hurt and it really does seem that doing the former reduces the latter. But Betsan’s book is about so much more than knitting and pain. It is about embracing the complexity of how and why our brain produces experiences. It is about making things, giving things, sharing things, while you make your own journey to recovery.

I suspect you will have a rewarding trip."

Dr Patrick Hill Consultant Clinical Psychologist:

"Congratulations, what a wonderful book! I started browsing and found myself wanting to read on and on. You write really well and Lorimer's introduction puts it really well; reflecting how you have gathered people's experiences and ( dare I say it..) knitted them together into a compelling yarn.(Sorry couldn't resist it!)

Like all the best things, you have put some complex ideas together in a way that is simple to grasp and made me want to have a go - Steve Jobs was a master at this with his Apple products and you have pulled off a similar trick."

 

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