Is cross stitch good for you?

The short answer

People who make things with their hands tend to say it calms them, and the studies that have asked them agree. What the research cannot yet say is how large the effect is, how long it lasts, or why it happens. Treat cross stitch as a pleasant, absorbing hobby. It is not a treatment, and this page is not medical advice.

What the studies report

Each study below says which craft it looked at. None of them is about cross stitch alone.

Crafts used as therapy: a review of 19 studies (2025). Researchers searched five databases for studies in which a craft was used as a treatment. Nineteen met their standard. The crafts included pottery, embroidery, knitting, papercraft and woodwork, and the treatment lasted from 10 minutes to 16 weeks. All 19 reported that people felt better soon afterward, on measures such as anxiety, stress, mood and satisfaction with life. The reviewers also found that the quality of the studies varied a great deal, and that only one of them checked whether the improvement lasted. Their conclusion: there is some evidence of benefit, and better research is needed.

Crochet: a survey of 8,391 people (2021). People who crochet answered questions online. Most said they crochet to be creative (82.1 percent), to relax (78.5 percent) and for a sense of accomplishment (75.2 percent). Most said it made them feel calmer (89.5 percent) and happier (82 percent), and they rated their mood higher after crocheting than before.

Arts and crafts in general: 7,182 adults in England (2024). In a national household survey, people who took part in arts and crafts reported slightly higher life satisfaction and happiness, and a stronger sense that life is worthwhile, than people who did not. That held after allowing for age, gender, health, work and deprivation. Taking part did not go with feeling less lonely.

Embroidery: an eight-week program for 80 adults (2026). In Guangxi, China, adults aged 55 to 65 either joined a program of traditional embroidery with storytelling and group talk, or waited. Straight after the program, the embroidery group had improved more on a measure of psychological well-being. Twelve weeks later the difference had weakened.

Attention and self-control, in children who knitted (2023). Two experiments with elementary school pupils found that a session of knitting helped on a test of inhibition: the ability to stop yourself partway through an action. In the first, the pupils who had knitted did better than a comparison group.

What knitters say (2019). In interviews, 21 members of knitting guilds described what the craft gives them: it makes them happy, it is a mental challenge, it joins them to other people, and it is a creative outlet.

What the studies do not show

• Not cause. A survey can show that crafters report feeling better. It cannot show that the craft is the reason. The authors of the England study say so themselves: causation cannot be determined from it.
• Not a random sample. The crochet survey was promoted through social media, and the people who answered chose to.
• Not lasting effects. Almost all of the evidence is about how people feel straight afterward.
• Not the craft by itself. The embroidery program also gave people stories and company. The study cannot tell which part helped.
• Not cross stitch. The findings are about knitting, crochet, embroidery and crafts in general.

Why stitchers say it calms them

The reasons makers give in these studies are plain ones: it is relaxing, it is creative, and there is something finished to show at the end. Knitters add the mental challenge and the company of other makers.

Cross stitch has the same ingredients. The movements are small and repeated, the counting holds your attention, and the picture grows square by square. That is a resemblance, not a research finding.

If you are struggling with low mood or anxiety, a hobby is not a substitute for help. Talk to a doctor.

Where to go next

To try it, start with cross stitch for beginners and choose something small from the Easy patterns. To keep it comfortable, see stitching in comfort.