Have you heard about twiddle muff? Did you ever knit a twiddle muff before? If you have no idea about it and came to know about it from someone, we will discuss them in detail. If you’re an art and craft lover, you must know how to make patterns and decorate these muffs. A keen knitter or crochet lover can easily make these in their free time.

What Are Twiddle Muffs?

Twiddle muffs are captivating handmade sensory tools designed for Dementia and Alzheimer patients to keep their hands warm. These knitted muffs contain buttons, ribbons, beads, and various textures of wool for the restless hands of the patients. Dementia patients always want their hands occupied, and twiddle muffs help keep their hands busy and active.

These beautifully decorated muffs keep them calm and active in their free time. Many fundraising companies are helping the patients by providing them with free muffs. The people related to the art and craft knit twiddle muffs on a large scale. If your loved one has dementia, a twiddle muff will be a great helping tool for them.

Experts say that patients may develop fidgeting during dementia, which is an alarming situation. Muffs provide them sensory, tactile, and visual stimulation with snugging and warming the hands. These are also beneficial for patients receiving chemotherapy and patients with learning disabilities.

Benefits of Twiddle Muff

• Helps Fidgety Older People

Twiddle muffs help fidgety older people because these are highly effective and safe sensory tools that help reduce stress and increase brain function. Elderly patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia and children with autism love to play with this tool.

• Helps Soothe Former Pet Owners

Twiddle muffs make an excellent option for former pet owners and animal lovers. They assume that the twiddle muff is a real animal and can sleep with the soft muff. In addition, twiddle muffs assist in regaining motor skills and improve strength and agility.

• Helps Older People Remain Calm

The decoration of the twiddle muff plays an important role. The soft interior of the muff and the exterior decoration keep hands and minds busy and aid the patients, so they remain calm. You can use multi-colored beads, buttons, textured ribbons, and loops. And yes, make sure to stitch twiddle muff firmly because the patient may also swallow buttons and beads.

• Ideal for Home and Clinic Therapy

Twiddle muff makes an ideal tool for home and clinic therapy, and it meets all the safety standards. It must have a hole on both sides so that people can get put hands in and rest easy. You can wash and dry it to keep the germs away.

• Provides Tactile Sensation

Twiddle muffs provide tactile sensation and a variety of fun activities to relax the nervous system of older adults. It gives convenience to hands by keeping them warm.

How to Make a DIY Twiddle Muff at Home?

To easily DIY a twiddle muff at your home, you need to have some materials for it, including:

• Acrylic yarn
• Plain wool
• Thick and thin wool
• Mohair yarn
• Chunky wool
• Ribbon
• 8mm circular needle
• 6.5 straight needle
• Buttons
• Beads
• Bows

Directions

If you’re a knitter and know how to knit yarn, wool, and other stuff, then it will be a super easy thing for you to learn. You can see a few patterns and craft them according to your color scheme. But if you don’t know anything you should read the instructions carefully. Start with muff cuff, then forward to muff body and in the last cast off.

Muff Cuff

• Cast on 40 stitches using two standards of double knitting wool or one standard of chunky yarn.
• You can use one plain color; it works better.
• Knit in stocking stitch for 11 inches
• Knit the row, then pearl the row.

Muff Body

• Continue with stocking stitch.
• Use different colors and wool textures like mohair, ribbon, acrylic, and chunky as you love.
• Measure until 23 inches.
• Use two standards of double knit for two rows to give a beautiful assortment of colors.
• Cast off.

Finishing

• Iron the long strip if you are working with straight needles.
• Join the sides together by using an edge-to-edge stitch.
• Turn the muff inside out.
• Push the one color cuff up inside the muff body.
• Sew it again by using a sleek edge to edge stitch.

Decoration

• Decorate your twiddle muffs as you like. You can use ribbons, buttons, bows, pearls, flowers, zips, pompoms, and other safe decoration pieces.
• Decorate from both inside and outside but make sure to attach these ornaments carefully.
• Be creative with the decoration

A Few Things to Consider When Making Twiddle Muff

• Include bobs and bits on the inside too. This way, the agitated hands of older people can then be kept calm and soothed at the same time.
• When making a DIY twiddle muff, try to include at least four decorations on the inside and six on the outside. There’s no problem in adding more as well.
• Choose a good variety of decorations, such as colors and beads, so the twiddle muff can attract the senior.
• Ensure to sew everything tight so there are no loose threads, and the decorations cannot be pulled off.

Conclusion

We know it is difficult to see your loved ones in distress and snatching things and crying for hours due to fidgets. They feel loneliness and anxiety and don’t remember what they are doing. Never leave them alone in such a situation. They need you; they need something to keep themselves busy and calm.

Make a cute twiddle muff for the elderly loved one who has dementia or Alzheimer’s, and you will feel a difference in their behavior. There are many companies and health care institutions that knit twiddle muffs for people with dementia. You can also help them by knitting a twiddle muff, but if you don’t know the knitting and crafting thing, you can participate in a donation.

If you are buying a twiddle muff from the marker, ensure to get the high-quality one. Bad quality twiddle muffs can create a problem for older people because they can tear up the muff in anxiety and hurt themselves unintentionally.