"TAKE UP SPINNING-!"

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 135, 4 December 1935, Page 19

"TAKE UP SPINNING-!"

OVERWROUGHT NERVES

'Take up spinning!"- is the advice of London nerve specialists to women suffering from overwrought '■■'■ nerves. Surprising as it sounds at first, it is really quite a sensible idea, and this old, oIJ craft is being used as a means of remedying one of the most-trying of modern ailments, states a Melbourne 7/riter. As far as we know, "nerves" were a thing unheird of when the whirr, of the spinning wheel filled castle and cottage, in days when spinning was' a pleasing and fashionable hobby for the woman of leisure and a profitable and necessary occupation for the. cottager- Now today it is recommended as a soothing alternative to bridge or cocktail parties.

Spinning, among Mother handcrafts, for years has been.; advocated in England and America for its therapeutic value in the treatment of mental disorders, but only comparatively recently has it been introduced into Melbourne for the same < purpose.

Nurses in "one of the mental hospitals .-: in Melbourne are taught spinning,", arid they in turn teach their patients. The musical whirr of the wheel, the rhythmic movement of the treadle, the fascination of watching the yarn grow from a mass of wool or flax, all tend to produce a pleasant, comforting reaction on tired, troubled minds and frayed nerves..