Making Stitches Podcast

It's Christmas Eve, so here's my Christmas gift to you dear listener! This year I'm splitting my Christmas Special into two halves, the first one is here for you today, and the second one will be out one week from today on New Year's Eve. In Part 1 I look back at a few of my personal highlights of the year so far on Making Stitches and feature little snippets from interviews wi...

When Alyson Chu spotted a gap in the market for a high-end crochet magazine, she decided to draw on her publishing experience and put one together herself. With Kick-Starter backing of over 600 individuals and the support of a group of crochet designers, Moorit was born this autumn showcasing beautiful crocheted garments to make as well as articles and a very cute sheep project too.   A podcaster...

When Freya Gilbert and Sarah Wadey met at a sewing workshop in 2014, they knew they had met a kindred spirit. Within months they followed their dreams of setting up a sewing business and opened their bricks and mortar shop Crafty Sew and So in Leicester selling fabric haberdashery and offering award-winning workshops. They used their skills gained in retail and the fashion industry to build their...

I have been wanting to share this episode with you for a very long time. Back in the darkest days of Covid and lockdown in the Spring of 2020, one of the things which kept me going was watching the series of videos posted by Sara Mulvey from Black Sheep Wools. They ranged from chats about yarn supplies and things which could be ordered from the shop to projects she and the rest of the team were wo...

When I sat down to chat with the self-named 'Queen of Colour' & crochet designer Emma Leith, I was in for a treat. Emma's enthusiasm for creativity and colour is infectious and she was a delight to speak to. She started out teaching mosaic but a couple of large scale yarnbombs brought Emma to prominence and two books of crochet patterns soon followed. Emma's mindful creatio...

For many of us, our crafts take a back seat as we concentrate on our careers and creativity can be stifled by everyday life. For novelist, Elaine Everest, a childhood growing up with a mother who made clothes and sewed for friends and family, that creativity stayed with her. From dressmaking as a young girl to making designer garments on a knitting machine for London boutiques to then setting up h...

After  a hiatus due to the pandemic last year, Yarndale returned to Skipton Auction Mart on 25th & 26th September and I was thrilled to be able to go along! As well as my mask and hand sanitizer I took my microphone and met so many truly lovely people. This episode is my experience of Yarndale 2021, which in a nutshell was wonderful, friendly, colourful and utterly uplifting. In it you will he...

Hello and welcome to the first episode in series four of Making Stitches Podcast. It has been a very busy summer for me researching stories and makers to share with you on the podcast as well as working on my own creative projects too. It's a real joy to be back with you! In this episode we hear from Christine Perry, who you may know better as Winwick Mum, a champion of sock knitting who has...

Hello! Making Stitches Podcast is returning with a brand new series very soon. I'm looking forward to bringing you more inspiring maker stories and sharing more inspiring conversations. Among my first few guests will be the a a queen of colourful crochet, a sock-knitting champion who wants to teach the world to knit socks and a novelist who has used her love of patchwork quilting and sewing a...

Hello there! Although Making Stitches is supposedly on a summer break, here's a little bonus episode all about a project I've been involved with recently which began with a previous episode of this podcast. Back in May, I released Episode 25 of Making Stitches which featured a chat I had with Sarah Corbett from the Craftivist Collective. In it, she told me about her plan for a summer of...

Back in the days before Covid, when the notion of being able to pack up a camper van and do a road trip of Europe was a thing, former BBC Brussels Correspondent Mary Jane Baxter did just that. She did it in style in a 1986 Bedford Bambi van adorned with vintage wallpaper. Taking just a few possessions with her, including her hand-crank sewing machine and a collection of her own hand-made hats, she...

I don't know about you but this year's Great British Sewing Bee was just what the doctor ordered for me. After a spring of lockdowns, isolation, burst bubbles and home schooling, the creativity, colour and humour of GBSB was so uplifting. The standard of the contestants this year was really high, and many of them could have gone all the way to final had it not been for one bad day when t...

So  many of my guests on the podcast so far have spoken about the healing properties of their crafts, the mindfulness of repetitive stitching, be that with a sewing needle or machine, a pair of knitting needles or a crochet hook. For my guest in this episode, Louise Murray, crochet and other crafts have helped her in her journey since losing her brother suddenly four years ago. Back on 22nd May 20...

I'm so happy that I've been able to bring  you this latest episode of Making Stitches. Back in the spring of 2020 when I was recording my first episode of Making Stitches, I imagined that before too long, I would be able to travel to meet inspiring makers and record their stories in person. Thanks to Covid lockdowns and restrictions, that hasn't been able to happen until now. That f...

Crochet can be a form of therapy for so many of us, but for Heather Griffith of HG Designs Crochet, it was through using the craft as rehabilitation after an injury, which set her off on a whole new adventure. At the time, Heather was training to be a lawyer and the repetitive movements of making granny squares helped her physically and mentally throughout her training. It was last year though, du...

A chance conversation about a small embroidery project while on a long train journey led Sarah Corbett to unite her interest in craft with her passion for activism. Sarah says that at the time of that conversation, while working on a cross-stitch kit during a 5-hour-long train trip, she was feeling burned out by her job as an activist. But she realised there was a way to marry the mindfulness of s...

Specialising in bright colours and most recently items of clothing like cardigans, mittens and cowls, Rosina from Zeens and Roger is a prolific crochet designer. Based in Devon in the south west of England, Rosina balances her work and family life with creating beautiful crocheted designs, a blog and a popular YouTube channel. Rosina was first taught to crochet by her Nan but it was only when she...

Welsh textile artist Matthew Downham always  knew he wanted to be an artist, and when he picked up a needle and thread, he knew that was the medium for him. Matthew, who has exhibited his art in the United States, uses layers of stitches to cover teddy bears in his work.  For him, the act of threading a needle and tying a knot is as much part of the art as the finished piece itself. In this episod...

Hello again! Last episode we heard from Louise Armitage aka Gini's Dorset Buttons, and how a friendship blossomed between her and Hayley Shelton from Dotcraftstudio while they were competing in Kirstie's Handmade Christmas last year. Well it didn't seem right to only hear from one half of that crafty partnership, so in this episode I share the chat I had with Hayley all about her cr...

Until I watched last year's Kirstie's Handmade Christmas (in December 2020), I had never heard of Dorset Buttons before. That was until Louise Armitage (also known as Gini) created the most beautiful picture using Dorset Buttons to depict the seasons of the year and clinched the trophy for the Handmade Decoration competition. Dorset Buttons originated from the county of Dorset (the clue&...

Hello there! Making Stitches is coming back for a third series very soon. I can't wait so share some more fascinating conversations with inspiring makers with you. Over the next few weeks you'll be hearing chats I've had with people from the world of textile art and crochet including two TV stars and a YouTuber! Please make sure you subscribe to Making Stitches on your favourite pod...

Hello and welcome to the twentieth episode of Making Stitches. After two episodes almost exclusively focusing on crochet, our attention is turned to textiles and textile art in particular this time. Late last year I spoke to Yorkshire-based textile artist Janet Browne about her beautiful observational work which maps journeys she has made as well as townscapes, gardens and allotments. Like all of...

Happy New Year and welcome to the first episode of Making Stitches for 2021! In this episode you can hear from crochet designer and Editor of Simply Crochet Magazine Sara Huntington. Sara has been crocheting for 20 years and several years ago made a conscious decision to follow her dreams and turn her passion for her craft into her profession after juggling two jobs as well as motherhood to get th...

Happy Stitchmas! In the words of one of my guests for this Christmas Special episode '2020 has been a year like no other', not least because lockdown was responsible for setting me off on this Making Stitches podcasting journey. Back in spring as we were locked down during the first wave of the pandemic, I decided to focus some of my time on speaking to inspiring makers and telling their...

This week, designer, maker, educator and weaver Agnis Smallwood speaks to me about her craft, her creative journey and how she found inspiration for her work this year among the carrots and radishes she grew in her small veg patch during lockdown. Agnis, who is based in Yorkshire, works on solo weaving projects as well as collaborations with organisations like museums. She also teaches weaving and...