​Member of the St Andrews Disabled Students' Network knows from experience that handwork - knitting, crocheting - can be a source of comfort during painful days or periods of limited mobility. The rhythm of repetitive making is calming; the slow accumulation of stitches is satisfying; and the finished object is evidence of skill, effort, and presence.

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Rachel Garrick (pictured left), councillor for Monmouthshire in Wales and a wheelchair user, knits during meetings. Her story made the news in 2023 when a fellow councillor publicly criticised her for this practice. In an 27 January 2023 interview for the BBD, Garrick commented that “knitting is one of those things that makes my mind relax and allows me to focus – it doesn’t interfere, but enhances my focus and performance. It also helps me cope with pain from sitting with arthritis in my cervical, thoracic, lumbar spine and sacroiliac joints.”

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These insights from lived experience are not new. Medieval women in religious communities produced embroidered vestments, woven textiles, and devotional objects. Like ELS215, some of them lived with significant physical impairment. The work they did contributed to the life of their communities - perhaps used in liturgy, exchanged as gifts, given in commemoration. It would also have contributed to their wellbeing.

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