How Meryl knits her way into the zone

On BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Meryl Streep recently talked about getting prepared for inhabiting the characters she portrays in her films, and likened some of her scenes in her latest film, Doubt, as being akin to "gladiatorial combat".

When asked if she prepared, as the film's director has claimed, by "getting in the zone" like an athelete, Meryl replied almost indignantly that she looked at it as "so not sport" and declared that she spent all her time on set knitting. In fact she claimed to have taught her co-star Amy Adams, to knit and even knitted the shawl she wears in the film.

The knitting helped Meryl get into the role she was playing: "For me it was a place to gather my thoughts and understand the contemplative (life)". She went on to say "It's a sort of clearing out place".

Meryl Streep is not alone in seeing knitting as a road to contemplation and a way of keeping calm and grounded. It is not just a way to get into a role , but has other great beneficial effects - read our resident psychologist, Hilary Bruffel's piece on our Make it and Mend it website on how knitting can help cure depression.