Kerry Lord – Making Stitches Podcast

This time last weekend, Carry on Crafting celebrated its 5th birthday. The festival, based at Ardingley Showground in Sussex, played host to over 150 craft stalls, more than 150 workshops, a vintage market, tasty artisan food, live music and entertainment, and most off all, fun.

Last March, I spoke to the festival’s founder, Justine Robson on this podcast (for episode number 94. At the time, she invited me along to the festival – over a year later, I got there!

It was everything I imagined it would be, and more. I met old friends and made new ones too, I crocheted, I chatted, I watched football, listened to music and even got to interview a radio legend called Graham!

Nicky from A Heart Shaped Cherry – my bell tent buddy!

Thank you to everyone who spoke to me for this episode of Making Stitches Podcast including (in order of appearance):

Kerry Lord from Toft, Eleonora Tully from Coastal Crochet, Annah from Needle & Feather, Kitey from The Yarn Whisperer, Bex from The Pigeon’s Nest, Making Stitches Podcast listeners, Clare & Sarah, Graham – the voice of Radio CoC (Carry On Crafting!), Sam Sabido from Sam Sabido Crochets, Nicky Ward from A Heart Shaped Cherry, & Justine Robson from Carry on Crafting.

As well as everyone to helped make the weekend run so smoothly for us – especially the wonderful Carry on Crafting volunteers (particularly Clare who gave me a lift back to the station!).

It was a truly special experience!

This is the final episode in the current series of Making Stitches Podcast, I will be back again (all being well) in the autumn, with some more inspiring creative chats for you.

I hope you have a lovely summer!

Thank you for listening to Making Stitches Podcast!

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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

Kerry Lord took up crochet for the first time when she went on maternity leave from her family’s alpaca yarn business less than ten years ago. She watched some YouTube tutorials and created a cuddly elephant for her baby; Edward, who was still yet to be born. Little did she know back then that Bridget the Elephant would eventually go on to be made thousands of times by crocheters around the world and the book of crochet animal patterns she would go on to write would be translated into 22 different languages.

Kerry’s first pattern book: Edward’s Menagerie

This week on Making Stitches, I have a chat with Kerry Lord, the founder of Toft and creator of more than 200 crochet patterns. Kerry has gone on to write 11 pattern books, the most recent of which; A Partridge in a Pear Tree, has been released in time for Christmas. She told me how the business first got started and how after shaky beginnings it’s become the flourishing creative hub it now is.

The Three Wise Men from the new Toft Christmas Collection

We chatted last week in the first day of our most recent National lockdown here in the UK and just before Kerry launched the brand new Toft Christmas campaign which you can find out all about on the company’s website.

You can listen to the episode here.