A Review of Human Factors Research on People Who Crochet

Abstract

Crochet is a handicraft which involves yarn and a single tool of similar size to a pencil, with a 180° hook at one end, called a crochet hook. The crafter employs different stitch techniques with the yarn and hook to create a variety of finished projects, from blankets to clothing to plush toys. In many studies that have been conducted, multiple fiber arts have been studied together (e.g., knitting, crocheting, embroidery) and there is relatively little work isolating individual fiber arts. It is expected that there are several knowledge gaps as a result of limited HFE work on fiber arts and crochet specifically. These gap areas include demographics, biomechanics, physical skill development, limiting factors within the learning process, and factors influencing continued engagement. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of existing literature on the physical, cognitive, and social effects of crochet on both experienced and novice crafters.

Introduction

Within human factors and ergonomics research, a substantial amount of work on fiber arts as hobbies has grouped several fiber arts together, with relatively little work isolating specific fiber arts to explore what may be similar or different for practitioners of these different arts. This paper aims to isolate crochet, to review what is known about the human factors and ergonomics of crochet, and make clear what gaps exist in the current body of work. Many studies reviewed were conducted by psychologists, but others were conducted by education researchers and social scientists.

It is expected that the social dimensions of crochet and other fiber arts are well-explored by various disciplines, and that participation in crochet is generally socially beneficial. The presence of in-person affinity groups can be greatly influential on a person’s experience with the hobby, and the advent of online affinity groups has increased the accessibility of finding like-minded community greatly.

It is expected that there are demographic gaps in current research, specifically gaps in data from people who crochet as a solitary hobby rather than a social one. This group would be less likely to be reached by targeted study recruitment methods. It is also expected that there is little work into the physical components of crochet, in terms of biomechanics of crochet actions or dexterity and proprioceptive skill development as a byproduct of learning the hobby.

In terms of learning crochet, there are also expected to be several gaps in the current knowledge. One such example is whether physical or cognitive skill development is the limiting factor in learning the hobby. Another gap regards which methods of learning crochet are most likely to lead to success; furthermore, what factors influence whether someone will remain engaged or become disinterested after an unsuccessful first interaction with the hobby.

The overarching question guiding this review is what human factors and ergonomics studies on people who crochet have learned about patterns and trends within cognitive, physical, and social dimensions of the activity.

Methods

A systematic review was conducted of research articles accessible via Google Scholar and Web of Science, including conference papers, journal articles, and theses, but excluding books. Date of publication was not an exclusion criterion. Search terms used to locate a preliminary set of papers for review included but were not limited to “crochet hobby,” “crochet skill,” and “crochet impacts.” From this preliminary set, papers were excluded if they were not in English or were not relevant to human factors and ergonomics (e.g., papers investigating crochet’s presence in fashion over time were excluded). After this round of criteria, papers were analyzed to ensure that none remaining were duplicates, and duplicates that were found were removed. Finally, full-text analysis was conducted on each paper to ascertain their findings, trends in results across papers, trends in methodology across papers, and implications for broader human factors research into crochet.

Findings

The first study analyzed, by Davide Rossi Sebastiano et al. (2022), explored the short-term effects of doing crochet on participant performance in the Attention Network Test (ANT), as well as evaluated magnetoencephalography data on global cortical functioning networks. They found that doing crochet, even for a brief session, increased participant alerting and orienting networks and resulted in an increase in the speed of information exchange between different areas of the brain. Notably, the effects of crochet on the Attention Network Test that this study found are different from those of meditation, which primarily improves the executive control attention network. The authors of the study focused on this new knowledge’s potential application to neurorehabilitation (Davide Rossi Sebastiano et al., 2022).

While their findings reveal important distinctions in what aspects of attention that crochet does and does not impact, the study did have several gaps of note, most importantly that all participants were female. While crochet is stereotypically a feminine activity, it is still important to ascertain whether these attentional effects are additionally correlated with gender. Also, this study only included participants who crocheted for at least an hour per day, 5 days per week, for the 2 months prior to the study (Davide Rossi Sebastiano et al., 2022). More casual or intermittent crocheters were excluded, leaving the question of whether the habituality of the activity as opposed to the unique act of crochet made a difference on the ANT results or the neural function. Furthermore, within their experimental setup, the control group was asked to rest for 20 min while the experimental group did 20 min of crochet. This is not an equitable comparison, as the control group was not receiving comparable physical or mental stimulation; the differences in ANT and neural functioning results may be attributed to boredom versus stimulation, rather than the specific activity of crochet. This study provides an excellent foundation and follow-up work is clear.

The next set of two papers investigated the spatial reasoning skills of people who crochet, and both utilized tests from the Educational Testing Service Factor Reference Kit. One study, conducted by Sims, utilized the Paper Folding, Surface Development, and Card Rotation tests to evaluate the overall spatial thinking skills of women with varying levels of self-reported expertise in knitting, sewing, and crochet (Bailey, 2011). More than 300 women participated in this study, and all participants were recruited through online craft forums or other online networking sites. Statistically significant correlation was found between crochet expertise, knitting expertise, and age with score on the Paper Folding Test (Sims, 2011). No significant correlation was found between crochet expertise and either the card rotation or the surface development tests. This study highlights the ways that crochet may benefit some aspects of spatial thinking but not others, as Sebastiano et al. highlighted that some attentional networks but not others are impacted by crochet. This study by Sims was straightforward and produced clear results that can effectively guide future work.

The second paper focusing on crochet and spatial thinking, authored by Bennett-Pierre and Gunderson (2023), broke down spatial thinking into sub-categories, and conducted a broad review of the documented applications of crochet that demonstrate correlation with these sub-categories. The four sub-categories discussed are intrinsic static, intrinsic dynamic, extrinsic static, and extrinsic dynamic spatial thinking. Focus is also given to crochet’s application to non-rigid mental transformations, which are less commonly studied in classrooms and in research. What Bennett-Pierre and Gunderson found was that professionals in various areas of mathematics have used fiber arts in various ways, from knots to weaving to crochet, and there is also research showing correlation between children’s participation in fiber arts and their basic math skill development. In both adolescents and adults who participate in a wide variety of fiber arts, there is a positive correlation between participation in those activities and their aptitude at the Paper Folding Test.

Furthermore, research has been done by education researchers into fiber arts as a vehicle for teaching STEM to girls, but no discussion was made of non- gendered studies into crochet as a STEM teaching tool (Bennett-Pierre & Gunderson, 2023). The integration of fiber arts into STEM learning is growing, and shows promise based on existing research. As the students complete their STEM learning objectives, the other skills that they develop along the way such as patience, resilience, and communication are not as highly studied, and are a worthy direction for future work. Finally, both papers reviewed that investigated crochet and spatial thinking provide a starting point for ergonomics research into the impacts of crochet on physical spatial abilities such as proprioception.

The fourth study analyzed included a video-recorded session of a teacher teaching students how to crochet chain stitches, the first foundational skill of the craft (Lindwall & Ekström, 2012). Various paradigms of instruction are identified in the video, including verbal directions, demonstrations, and physical manipulations. The individual student who received the bulk of the instruction went from being unable to perform the skill to being able to do it themselves at a basic level within less than 3 min. Initially, the teacher asks the students to do the chain stitches with her as she demonstrates, and many of the verbal instructions that she provides leave details implicit. It was intended that the physical demonstration and verbal instruction work in tandem. The research team noted there are visual constraints to in-person crochet learning, of students being unable to discern relatively small movements and details in the hands and yarn of the instructor from a distance, that may make group learning challenging for beginners.

After the initial demonstration with explanation, and the teacher’s assessment of the novice’s initial attempts, the teacher begins corrective instruction. This initiation of corrective instruction leads to a dialog between the student and the teacher, including physical manipulation of the student’s technique by the teacher. This back-and- forth process is what leads to the student’s eventual success in the skill (Lindwall & Ekström, 2012). Overall, this study shows that more individualized, dynamic instruction has the potential to be more effective for teaching novices than more generalized, explanatory group instruction. This was the only study reviewed that analyzed the effectiveness of a particular method of learning crochet; many other studies collected data on how participants learned to crochet, but in those studies participants had already progressed past the beginner stage so evaluating the efficacy of the reported learning methods was not appropriate.

The final subset of papers reviewed explored the cognitive and social effects of crochet on its practitioners. In all these studies, participants were overwhelmingly female, and age range across all studies creates a very broad picture of crochet’s cognitive and social impacts throughout adulthood. In a study by Hermann (2023), a survey was distributed on Facebook for participants to self-report multiple facets of their mental wellbeing. Wellbeing was assessed via the Rosenburg Self-Esteem Scale, the Emotional Regulation Scale for Artistic and Creative Activities, and the Subjective Happiness Scale. Participant demographics included a relatively balanced spread in age from 16 to 64+, 90.7% were women, and 37.1% of participants were crocheters. This study found differences in participants’ preferred fiber art based on age, and that total time spent crafting, both cumulatively and per week, had a positive impact on self-happiness. Specifically, statistically significant differences in happiness were reported in those who crafted for less than an hour per week compared to more than an hour per week (Hermann, 2023).

Multiple potential confounding variables were noted by Hermann as a result of the correlations between age and reported wellbeing, including that older participants’ happiness and self-esteem could be influenced by other life experiences beyond their crafting experience, that older adults may have more available time to devote to crafting than younger adults, and that young adults are known to be more stressed and have lower self-esteem than other life stages, potentially skewing the results for that age group as well (Hermann, 2023). This study establishes a sound, broad baseline of how various fiber arts impact mental health for different age demographics.

Similarly, a study conducted by Burns and Van Der Meer (2021) included a survey that was spread through various social media platforms to determine the impact of crochet on participant happiness . This study had a participant count almost 10 times larger than that of Hermann’s but had a less balanced spread of age and gender, with over 99% of participants being female and 49.5% being between 41 and 60 years old. The survey asked participants about mood, cognition, and social aspects of their craft, as well as their use of online forums for crochet. This study found that most participants feel motivated to crochet to be creative, to relax, and to feel a sense of accomplishment. It was found that the finished creation was fairly or very important to 82.4% of participants, and that 54.2% of participants planned their crochet projects in advance (Burns & Van Der Meer, 2021).

Additionally, it was found that participants are most likely to crochet in their own homes, but over 40% of respondents also crochet while waiting for appointments, at other people’s houses, and in the car. Over 80% of participants reported feeling calmer and happier as a result of crocheting, and over 70% reported that they felt crocheting benefited their memory and concentration (Burns & Van Der Meer, 2021). Overall, this study shows a significant boost to people’s mental health and self- esteem as a result of their participation in crochet— however, >90% of participants had been crocheting for at least a year and were connected enough to online crochet spaces to find the survey, and this may have impacted results. While the Hermann study was more robust in its use of established scales of wellbeing, this study provided insight into more practical aspects of how people crochet, including whether texture, color, and finished product were important to their experience.

Investigating cognitive and social impacts in a slightly different way, a study by Mayne recruited female participants via social media into a closed Facebook group run by the research team. This Facebook group was designed for participants to share their views on their senses of wellbeing, isolation, and connectedness within crochet (Mayne, 2016). Perhaps impacted by the usage of Facebook as a study facilitator, 59% of participants were 35 to 55 years old, and were from multiple countries. Researchers found that engaging with other women who knit and crochet online was correlated with higher self-reported wellbeing.

Participants reported that the friendships formed via these online connections were often meaningful, and prominently featured transactional praise, which was viewed by participants as more meaningful than praise from others who may not understand the craft and the work required to reach a finished product as much. Furthermore, many participants reported that online spaces are the only spaces where they feel they can share their creative works with peers who will understand and appreciate them. It was noted, however, that many participants were anxious or doubtful of how much they should share about their work or their emotions in relation to it. Participant responses were mixed about whether the solitude that is often a part of the experience of crocheting created negative loneliness feelings or positive “alone time” (Mayne, 2016).

While the findings from this study are meaningful in understanding the specific mechanics of socially connecting via crochet, the results may be skewed via a strong precedent of polite interaction and consistent structure provided by the research team. Furthermore, the closed nature of the group where members were committed to and agreed with the idea of the group may have made the participants’ experience more positive and meaningful than a more public online space.

In the eighth study reviewed, women aged 40 to 75 participated in a series of unstructured interviews to understand how crocheting and craft impact their lives (Kenning, 2015). All participants were part of the Lace Study Center at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia, or the Epping Craft Center in New South Wales, Australia. Participants were also observed while participating in a craft day as a normal part of their calendar of activities. The majority of participants felt that crochet was beneficial for them, that it was enjoyable and relaxing, that it kept them mentally and physically active, or provided them with a challenge.

Something else that participants noted was the experience of the hands being able to carry out the craft activity with minimal cognitive engagement toward it, allowing for participants to be stimulated while still being relaxed and allowing their minds to drift. Many participants also used their hobby of crochet to cope with and process through negative life events, such as personal illness or the death of a loved one. Furthermore, crochet was reported to help the participants begin engaging with community again during and after bereavement (Kenning, 2015).

For participants, “being a maker was inextricably linked to [their] self-identity and it was how they wished to be perceived by others” and the hobby of crochet was a source of pride. Crochet also played a role in participants’ views on how they show care for their loved ones, and distinctions were made between times when they felt like they needed to create as compared to times when they had more choice over when they wanted to create. Many participants gave their creations as gifts to friends and family, but few exhibited or sold their creations. Most participants reported being taught the craft by a family member, and it was often during childhood (Kenning, 2015).

Overall, the interview style of this study combined with the age and experience of participants in this study provided a very in-depth look at the impact of lifelong crochet involvement. While little quantitative data was collected in either of the last two studies, the qualitative data collected provides an important contextualization and deepening of meaning when viewed in conjunction with the more quantitative studies.

Conclusions

In the existing body of work, there is reasonable evidence that crochet promotes individual cognitive wellbeing and has the potential to promote social wellbeing as well. More specifically, the work reviewed shows that crochet can benefit self-esteem, stress relief, and creativity. However, these findings would benefit from verification via studies that recruit from broader populations and attempt to reach more crocheters who do not engage with the hobby via social media or in- person affinity groups. Significantly more research can be done into method of learning crochet, as no studies were found that compared different learning methods, nor that explored how crocheters at different stages of learning engaged with online or physical teaching materials versus seeking out other people as teachers.

Current gaps in knowledge in this field include but are not limited to exploration of how the cognitive and social benefits of crochet evolve as a person progresses from novice to expert in the craft, and more could be learned about how different social and cultural identities impact how crocheters view themselves and their craft. Human factors has much to gain from studying hobbies such as crochet, including a better understanding of how cognitive and physical skills developed in hobbies impact performance in tasks that recruit similar skills for an athletic or occupational application.