Have a look at the Jigsaw Pieces document. It's a brief summary pulling together some of our findings so far.

We have collected a large amount of anecdotal evidence. Some of the stories we’ve received have been traumatic, most are highly moving. What they all have in common is knitting and stitching and the dramatic effects these crafts are having on people’s lives.

Here are some examples of the Stories that have been sent in to us.  Members obviously get to see ALL of the anonymous ones, but these will provide you with a taster of the extraordinary stories we hear.

These stories are anecdotal, so are not received under laboratory conditions, but we’ll leave you to make up your minds about whether knitting and stitching work or not.

Click here for the first analysis of the online questionnaire so far

In reading these stories we have become fascinated at how some people stay afloat despite intense trauma and severe illness while others sink under seemingly lesser pressures. We’ve identified four issues which we believe are key in determining whether people cope or not.

These are

• Loneliness/social isolation
  
  
• Self esteem
  
  
• Stress/anxiety/worry
  
  
• An unoccupied mind left to ruminate

It’s our opinion that these issues should be dealt with alongside medical treatments. Those who are fit and healthy should also pay heed to theses issues as a preventative measure.

The strong anecdotal evidence suggests that knitting and stitching can be used as tools to deal with these issues treating the mind and body as a whole.

In addition skills developed and feelings experienced whilst knitting and stitching can also be used to learn techniques taught on Pain Management courses or in the treatment of depression and enable these to be taught more easily. These experiences can also be remembered and recalled to successfully transfer them to other areas of life.

Click here for to read Therapeutic Stitching in brief and here for the Benefits in Brief document.

Expert in depression, Dr Ulrich von Hecker and psychology researcher Jeni Brown from Cardiff University have been running a pilot study. They’ve been looking at whether the automatic nature of knitting is pushing out automatic negative thought cycles and rumination.

Experts in pain management, depression, primary care, dyslexia and education are also interested in our work and are in regular contact. Future projects are being planned.

There is a distinct possibility that if our theories are correct, knitting and stitching will be recognised as a valuable therapy for a number of conditions. That’s exciting, so thank you to all of you who are sending in your stories. Please keep them coming in as they are helping us to target future research programmes.