Michelle Obama: “I’m a Part of the Knitting Community”

Michelle Obama is touring to promote her new book, and she brought her knitting.

Above: Sandi’s copy of Mrs. Obama’s new book, together with her current work-in-progesss.

In an appearance on NBC’s TODAY Show, she proudly showed off sweaters she had knit for herself and President Barack Obama, then presented the hosts, Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb, with a basket of yarn and the promise of a knitting lesson.

Inside Michelle Obama’s New Book

In The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, [affiliate link] Michelle Obama shares the strategies she uses to stay hopeful and balanced in these uncertain times. In the first chapter, called The Power of Small, she talks about impulse online shopping early in the pandemic, including buying yarn, needles, and a couple of how-to-knit books. She shares the struggles she faced as her jam-packed schedule came to a screeching halt, and there was nothing to do but sit at home and worry about events she felt helpless to influence (sound familiar?)

Related: Healing Anxiety Through Knitting

As someone who had spent well over 50 years being an over-achiever, Obama found herself losing hope and suffering from what she called “low-grade depression”. Then one day she picked up those knitting needles. Between the books she had bought and some quality time with YouTube, she taught herself to knit. “After a time,” she writes, “something interesting started to happen. My focus narrowed; my mind felt a little splash of ease.”

Michelle Obama was discovering what so many of us already know: the calming power of knitting. She writes, “In all my decades of staying busy, I had always presumed that my head was fully in charge of everything, including telling my hands what to do. …(K)nitting…reversed the flow. It buckled my churning brain into the back seat and allowed my hands to drive the car for a while. It detoured me away from my anxiety, just enough to provide some relief.”

This feeling is deeply familiar to those of us who knit. Whether we’re sitting in a hospital waiting room, waiting in line at the DMV, or sitting up waiting for a teenager who has missed curfew, knitting has helped quiet our minds. Obama writes, “Something in that tiny and precise motion on repeat, the gentle rhythm of those clicking needles, moved my brain in a new direction.” We hear you, Michelle. We’ve been there.

In an hour-long ABC 20/20 special which aired Sunday November 13 (if you missed the broadcast, you can stream the interview on Hulu or Disney+), Obama showed host Robin Roberts her current work-in-progress—a coral top-down pullover sweater—and knit a few stitches (she is a thrower). She proudly declared, “I’m a part of the knitting community.” To which we’re happy to respond, “Pull up a chair, Michelle. We’re glad you’re here.”

Sandi Rosner
Technical Content Editor, Yarn

Related: Put Down Your Phone and Pick Up Your Knitting

Put the calming power of knitting to work with these great workshops and projects: