There is something going on across America, and it feels familiar to many of us who grew up before the internet. According to Reader’s Digest, Knitting circles are packed. Needlepoint shops cannot keep canvas on their shelves. Pen pals are coming back. Bird-watching is booming. Independent bookstores are opening their doors in cities everywhere.
People are putting down their phones and picking up something they can hold in their hands. And for a lot of us, that is not a new idea at all.
A Movement With Real Staying Power
Madeline Alford, 35, co-owns Mimi’s Needlepoint in Dallas with her cousin Amelia Alford, 30. What started as an online canvas design company has grown into a brick-and-mortar store and, more importantly, a gathering place. On Wednesday evenings, women show up for Sip & Stitch sessions. They work on Christmas ornaments and bag charms. Some have become close enough friends that they coordinate their schedules and make plans outside the shop.
Alford calls it a third place, a term the sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined in 1989 to describe somewhere that is neither home nor work. It is simply somewhere to belong.
The demand has grown so fast that needlepoint shops are struggling to stay stocked. Canvas is in short supply. Thread is hard to come by. That is how quickly this has taken off.
What the Research Actually Shows
Those who study happiness are not surprised by any of this. A 2023 study published in the journal Nature Medicine found that people with at least one hobby showed fewer symptoms of depression and higher levels of happiness, health, and life satisfaction.
A separate study published in the Journal of Global Health in 2025 found that adults with regular hobbies had a 29 percent lower risk of mortality. The benefits, researchers noted, are not limited to any single age group or hobby.
Robert Waldinger, MD, is a psychiatrist and the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the longest-running studies of human happiness ever conducted. His research keeps pointing to the same thing: other people.
“When we asked people in their 80s what they were proudest of, it was always about people. It was always, ‘I was a good spouse. I was a good parent. I was a good mentor.’ It was never about winning a prize or making money.”
Dr. Waldinger also points to something many of us have been feeling without quite naming it. The digital world, he says, has left us uncertain about what is real. “Never before have we been as confused and uncertain about what’s real,” he explains. But in person, that doubt dissolves. “I see with my eyes. It’s tangible. I believe it. I see who this person is.”
Making Friends the Old-Fashioned Way
Lindsay Degen, 38, learned to knit from her grandmother as a child. The lessons were sporadic (her grandmother did not live nearby), but the love of it stuck. She went on to study textiles at Rhode Island School of Design. When COVID-19 hit, and she felt isolated at home, she launched a knitting club over Zoom.
That small group grew into an online community she named Knit Club. In 2024, she opened a brick-and-mortar store in Providence, Rhode Island. The calendar is full: beginner boot camps, knitting circles, Lord of the Rings marathons, Drag nights, and Purl and Swirl gatherings with wine from the shop next door.
Free Craft Circles meet twice a week, one on Tuesday that Degen describes as rowdy, and a chill, sweet one on Sunday. College students and folks in their 70s both show up. The motto is simple: “All Crafters Welcome.” You do not even have to knit. “You can show up and draw,” Degen says. “You can do anything you want, as long as it’s not wet.”
One of the things she values most about knitting is that it keeps her present. Having something to do with her hands stops the automatic reach for a phone. You can carry on a full conversation while stitching. You do not need to make eye contact if you would rather not. “You have an immediate thing to talk about,” she says, “but the very sweet thing about it is where the relationship ends up.”
One woman who joined Degen’s original Zoom circle in 2020, calling in from Waco, Texas, eventually moved to Providence. Her name is Vanessa Krebs, and she is now the manager of Knit Club.
Getting Out and Showing Up
Tina Roth Eisenberg, 52, had a similar instinct about 20 years ago. A Swiss-born graphic designer who moved to New York City in 1999, she wanted to meet other creative people and figured the best way was to bring them together herself. In 2008, she started a free monthly breakfast lecture series that has grown into the world’s largest face-to-face creative community.
Called CreativeMornings, it now has chapters in more than 252 cities across 70 countries. You can find a chapter near you at creativemornings.com.
Eisenberg believes the rise of AI has intensified the hunger for in-person connection. “It’s exhausting, this constant Can I trust this? Is this real?” she says. “The only thing that you can trust at this point is being present in front of someone.”
In 2024, CreativeMornings launched a volunteer-led series called Clubs, organized around single activities like sending snail mail, junk journaling, or swapping skills. The goal is something even more local and more recurring than the monthly breakfasts.
Nelson Luna, 37, was one of the first to start a CreativeMornings club. A self-described introvert, he launched PhotograPals, a casual photography walk that meets every other Saturday in New York City. The group gathers at a locally owned coffee shop, does a round of introductions, and then walks. They take photos, or they do not. Mostly they talk.
Luna deliberately does not mention during the walks that he shoots professionally. The cameras, he says, are beside the point. “The important part is spending time face to face in good company.” Club members have shown up to each other’s birthday parties. When one regular was featured in a photography exhibition at her church, a group of PhotograPals came to support her.
“Ever since I started my club,” Luna says, “I’ve been getting dragged into being more of an extrovert.”
Technology Helped Start This And That Is Fine
Here is something worth noting: technology is not the enemy of this movement. It helped fuel it. Social media is how needlepoint found its new audience. Mimi’s Needlepoint grew from a few hundred Instagram followers to 17,000 in just over a year. Degen posts YouTube tutorials to make knitting more accessible. CreativeMornings uses its digital platform for club sign-ups.
People are not rejecting screens outright. They are pushing back against the feeling of being always online, always reacting to whatever an algorithm decided to show them next. The hobby, the club, the walk, the Wednesday evening stitch-and-sip, feels more rewarding because it is something they chose for themselves.
Back in Dallas, Madeline Alford started doing needlepoint for the simplest of reasons: to make a handmade Christmas ornament each year for her goddaughter. One stitch at a time, it grew into something she never expected.
“We’re really proud that we’ve made a space where people are finding friendship,” she says. “It’s amazing to see the community and the pride of making something with your own hands. You can’t replicate that.”
She is right. And a lot of us already know it.
