Episode 58 : 2022 Christmas & New Year Special Part 1 : Old Friends

In this, the first of two Christmas and New Year specials this year, I catch up with a few old friends of the podcast: Lisa & Lynda-Rose from The Crochet Sanctuary (my first ever guests on Making Stitches) and Christine Perry, otherwise known as Winwick Mum, who first appeared back in Episode 31).

Lynda-Rose & Lisa from The Crochet Sanctuary

We look back at what’s been happening in the worlds of The Crochet Sanctuary and sock knitting in 2022 as well as their plans for 2023, and what they are hoping to achieve with their New Year’s Resolutions too.

You can find The Crochet Sanctuary website here, and the Black Sheep Wools Betwixtmas Make Along for this year here.

Christine has so far donated £435 to the Trussell Trust through the sales of her her Sofa Snuggle Socks pattern. You can find the pattern here if you want to buy one and help with the fundraising whilst keeping your feet warm at the same time. You can also find Christine’s website here.

**Listen to this episode here **

To join the mailing list for the new Making Stitches Newsletter, please click onto this link.

The music featured in this episode is Winter Trip by AudioFlame from Melody Loops.
The Making Stitches logo was designed by Neil Warburton at iamunknown.

You can support Making Stitches Podcast with running costs through Ko-fi.
Making Stitches Podcast is supported by the Making Stitches Shop which offers Making Stitches Podcast merchandise for sale as well as Up the Garden Path crochet patterns created by me & illustrated by Emma Jackson.

Making Stitches Podcast is presented, recorded and edited by Lindsay Weston

Episode 39 : Celebrating Freedom & Crafty Resolutions for 2022 : The Making Stitches Podcast Review of the Year 2021 (Part 2)

I hope you’ve had a lovely Christmas! I have one last gift for you this year before the clock strikes midnight again and we begin another year. Following on from the Happy Stitchmas episode published on Christmas Eve, this is my Hogmanay offering with a celebration of some of the freedoms I was able to enjoy this year as well as hearing about peoples’ crafty New Year’s Resolutions for 2022.

Among my guests for this trip down Memory Lane are Crochet Sanctuary regulars Diane & Sam who I met on my visit to the Crochet Sanctuary in Cheshire in Spring. There’s the hugely inspiring Sarah Corbett from the Craftivist Collective and Evie & Gemma from the Manchester Flock of Canary Craftivists which took place in the city centre in July. Former BBC Europe Correspondent, Mary Jane Baxter, spoke to me about her amazing crafty road trip around Europe and Scotland in her camper van – Bambi, plus there was my fabulous trip across the Pennines to the Yarndale Festival in Skipton in September.

You’ll also be able to hear from a couple of the ladies from Black Sheep Wools in Warrington, crafter Kate Blackburn who makes beautiful handstitched cards, Christine Perry aka Winwick Mum and someone who has helped me a great deal this year; Amanada from Mrs G Makes.

You can hear the episode here!

My thanks to everyone who has spoken to me for Making Stitches this year and made it a year to remember for the podcast. My thanks to you too for listening! Happy New Year – I hope 2022 is a good one for you.

My guests on this episode were:
Sam & Diane who I met at The Crochet Sanctuary
Sarah Corbett from The Craftivist Collective
Evie & Gemma from the Manchester Flock of Canary Craftivists
Tracy & Lucy from Black Sheep Wools
Kate Blackburn from Katie Did This UK on Etsy & Instagram
Mary Jane Baxter author of Sew on the Go
Yvonne, one of the volunteers from the Yarndale Festival
Juey from Juey Jumbo Crarft Tools
Carole Rennison from Hooked by Design & Yarndale Festival Organiser
Christine Perry from Winwick Mum
Amanda Greenhough from Mrs G Makes Etsy Shop & Mrs G Makes You Tube Videos

The music featured in this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from Melody Loops.
The Making Stitches logo was designed by Neil Warburton at iamunknown.

Holly, Ivy, Hope the Snowdrop
& Flora the gardener

Episode 27: Crochet, Cherry Blossom & Friendship – A Day Out at The Crochet Sanctuary

Lisa Hesketh & Lynda-Rose Simonini from The Crochet Sanctuary

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 first episode of the podcast featured two ladies, Lisa Hesketh & Lynda-Rose Simonini, the creators of The Crochet Sanctuary, and the brains behind the Pandemonium Blanket Crochet-along (or CAL) which helped hundreds of crocheters cope through that first lockdown. That interview was recorded remotely as the vast majority of the Making Stitches episodes have been, but I hoped that one day, we would get the chance to meet in person. That day came two weeks ago at the first Crochet Sanctuary day of 2021.

The Crochet Sanctuary was first launched back in 2018, after Lisa and Lynda-Rose decided they wanted to create the kind of crochet get-away that they would like to attend themselves. They focus on inclusion and making sure everyone is welcomed and feels part of the group and there is help on hand if you are usure of stitches or techniques. The reason for the sanctuary is crochet, but from my experience on the day, the true message is friendship.

I took my microphone along with my crochet hooks and met some lovely ladies. I hope this epsiode gives you a flavour of the great time I had at my first ever Crochet Sanctuary!

You can hear the episode here.

My thanks to Lisa & Lynda-Rose, Amanda from Mrs G Makes, Diane & Sam for speaking to me for the podcast and to all the other lovely ladies I met that day.

Sam with her first ever finished Crochet Sanctuary item – a cherry blossom tea cosy

You can find out all about The Crochet Sanctuary here and do give their podcast a listen too!

If you would like to vote for Making Stitches Podcast in the ‘Specialist Interest’ category of the Quite the Thing Media 2021 Podcast Awards, voting is open until 19th June 2021. You can vote here. You can also vote for Making Stitches in the Listener’s Choice Category of the British Podcast Awards here.

My very own cherry blossom tea cosy & napkin rings

The music featured in this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from Melody Loops.

You can support Making Stitches Podcast with running costs through Ko-fi.

Making Stitches Podcast is presented, recorded and edited by Lindsay from Postcard from Gibraltar.

Episode 18 : Happy Stitchmas! The 2020 Making Stitches Christmas Special

Season’s greetings! Here’s a very special Christmas episode of Making Stitches Podcast for you. I know that this Christmas is one like no other and thought you might appreciate an extra long episode of stitchy chat to lift the spirits – especially if your festive plans have been dealt a blow by the latest Covid restrictions.

Making Stitches is a product of the lockdown (it was a project for me to focus on instead of thinking about everything else that was going on). So I thought I’d take this opportunity to look back at 2020 and how crafts help get us through when things are tough. I asked Making Stitches listeners if they would like to share their ‘Stitch Stories’ and four of them very kindly stepped forward. My thanks to Diane from Merseyside, Lisa in Macclesfield, Rebecca in Ontario in Canada and Sarah in Gibraltar for sharing their Stitch Stories.

Lynda-Rose (l) & Lisa (r)
from The Crochet Sanctuary

Also featuring in this episode are Lisa & Lynda-Rose from The Crochet Sanctuary (who were my first ever guests on Making Stitches back in April) as well as Eleonora from Coastal Crochet. Lisa & Lynda-Rose spoke to me about their projects since April (3 Crochet-alongs and a podcast of their own no less!) and Eleonora spoke of the therapeutic benefits of crochet and how hosting her Beachcomber Blanket CAL this spring helped her cope with all that was happening.

Eleonora Tully & her dog Salty
from Coastal Crochet

Wherever you are in the world at this time and whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope you find peace and joy and let’s all look forward to a brighter, more positive 2021 with our crafts to keep us company! Happy Christmas & Happy Stitchmas!

Listen to the episode by searching for Making Stitches on your favourite podcast app or through this link.

You can find Lisa & Lynda-Rose at The Crochet Sanctuary on social media. Eleonora’s website is Coastal Crochet and you can find her on social media too.

And to find my lovely listeners who shared their Stitch Stories: You can find Diane at Stitchscape, Lisa is Teal & Tangerine on Etsy and on social media. Rebecca is at Sweet Bee Crochet and you can see Sarah as @sarahsheehangib on Instagram.

The music featured in this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from Melody Loops.

Making Stitches Podcast is recorded and edited by Lindsay from Postcard from Gibraltar.

Episode 11 : Making Stitches is back for a new series!

Hello there! Making Stitches is back for a new series after a long summer break. In this series, as with the first one, I hope to be sharing the stories of interesting creative projects as well as hearing from creators themselves about their own creative journeys.

In this first episode of series 2 I recap on what’s been happening over the summer for myself as well as some of my guests from series 1. Since I last spoke to you, a new crochet podcast has been born, a lockdown quilt has been completed and is now on tour raising funds for charity and just like many other events this summer a yarn festival is going online so you can enjoy it from the comfort of your own home.

For more information on the subjects covered in this episode, please check out:

The Crochet Sanctuary Website or find the new Crochet Sanctuary Podcast on your favourite podcast app.

Search for ‘The Quilt. Spring2020 Creativity in Captivity’ on Facebook.

For full details of Yarndale@home please visit the Yarndale website and follow Yarndale on social media for all the details.

For full show notes for this episode, please visit theMaking Stitches Podcast

Music featured in this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from Melody Loops

**You can listen to this episode here! ** You can also find Making Stitches on podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher as well as many others.

Episode 1 : Crochet Sanctuary Pandemonium with Lisa Hesketh & Lynda-Rose Simonini

Hello and welcome to the very first episode of the ‘Making Stitches Podcast’. As so many of us are in Coronavirus lockdown and are finding solace in our crafts, now seemed like the perfect time to put this podcast into action.

Each week I hope to speak to different makers, crocheters, knitters and sewers about how they got into their craft of choice and to share their enthusiasm it.

First off we’ll hear from two ladies who turned their love of crochet into a business offering weekend and day-long crochet retreats. The Crochet Sanctuary is based in Cheshire in the north of England and offers guests the chance to meet fellow crocheters and indulge in yarn-filled fun.

Lynda-Rose Simonini (left) & Lisa Hesketh (right) founders of the Crochet Sanctuary

Aside from laying on weekend getaways, Lisa and Lynda-Rose have also designed crochet projects for companies including Hobbycraft, Knitcraft and Little Box of Crochet. They are currently hosting a twice-weekly Facebook CAL (crochet-along) inspired by the pandemic lockdown – the aptly named ‘Pandemonium CAL’.

I caught up with Lisa & Lynda for a chat about their love of crochet, organising CALs and, of course, the Crochet Sanctuary as well.

You can find the Crochet Sanctuary website here. You can also find it on Instagram & Facebook – just search for ‘The Crochet Sanctuary’.

Listen to the podcast episode here or on iTunes, Spotify, Deezer or Buzzsprout- just search for ‘Making Stitches Podcast’.

Stay safe and enjoy your crafting! x