By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News

Continuing their ongoing mission of improving the lives of individuals and families within the community, Utah State University Extension is preparing to host two classes as a part of their ‘Creating Connections’ series of events, which encourage the community to unite through creativity.

Christina Pay and Vikki Ori from extension joined the KOAL newsroom to preview the organization’s Adult Sewing Classes and Fiber Arts workshop, which run throughout the fall.

Starting with the Adult Sewing Class, Pay explained,” We had some community members contact us, adults who had never learned to sew and wanted to learn to sew and asked if we couldn’t put together some sewing classes. So we put together some basic sewing classes. They’re going to learn basic stitches, how to operate a machine, learn about different fabric types, and they’re going to be creating things they can actually use. And we wanted to make this accessible to everybody.”

To aid in this accessibility, Extension will offer both morning and night classes for the series. Attendees will also receive a sewing kit for the class.

Speaking on how to register, Pay shared,” the easiest thing to do is to jump onto Eventbrite and just do a search for USU Extension Carbon County. You’ll be able to find all the classes that we’re teaching, including the sewing and fiber arts classes.”

The USU Extension Adult Sewing class will begin on Sept. 16 and run through Oct. 23. A full schedule for morning and night classes can be viewed online. Registration for these classes costs $60.

Moving to the Fiber Arts Workshop, Ori explained,” We’re starting to see fashion trends toward crochet and knitted items, and the fiber industry as a whole has come a long way over the years. I learned to knit and crochet from both grandmothers and my mother, and I was about 10 when I started, so it’s a good segue to sitting down with children and teaching them. Once you have the skills, it’s a good segue for those kinds of activities.”

Ori discussed what participants can expect to learn during the 12-week course: “We’re going to talk about sheep breeds and wool and blends and how to take care of your fiber, and we are offering crochet and knit simultaneously, so you can be in the same class and learn either or, and we’ve put together a nice crochet or knit bag kit with all of the items you need to do two projects, and so over the 12 weeks, you should learn some things about sheep breeds, fiber, and those kind of things, along with the skills.”

The Fiber Arts workshop will have both a Price and Helper group. For Helper, classes will be held in the Juliano Group building from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays beginning on Sept. 2 and running until Nov. 18. In Price, sessions will be held in the USU Extension office from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays beginning Sept. 3 and going until Nov. 19. The class will cost $170 and include a knitting or crocheting project bag.

Pay jumped back into the conversation, sharing the benefit of participating in these classes,” We want to teach these life skills, obviously, but the benefits of the life skills in any kind of crafting, whether it’s crocheting or knitting or sewing or needlepoint, they’re finding have tremendous health benefits for those that are involved in doing so. Such things as boosting mental health, reducing loneliness and social isolation, and we’re still trying to recap after COVID, get people back together to socialize and to reconnect, so this is a great opportunity for that.”

She added,” These things improve your mood, support resilience, so when hard times come, you can bounce right back, but we found the research also shows it reduces stress and lowers blood pressure, helps reduce depression and anxiety. I can go on and on because there are so many positive health and mental health benefits to doing these types of activities.

Closing our conversation, Pay stated,” I just wanted to add that this is part of our ‘Creating Connections’ series. So these are just two of the classes we’ll be offering in our ‘Creating Connections’. Again, they’re to promote connection and mental health, and just keep your eyes open for things coming further down the road.”

For more information on these and other upcoming events by USU Extension, you can visit the organization’s Facebook page or find them on Eventbrite.