I’m taking you out on the road with me today to Stockport to visit a fabulous yarn shop, Manchester Wool & Yarn. The shop celebrated its 2nd birthday earlier this year and is owed and run by Gareth, a passionate maker and supporter of the yarn community.
Stocked with familiar brands and products from independent yarn dyers based across the North West of England, it’s a positive treasure trove of colour, squishyness & is such a lovely place to visit. Regular ‘Bitch and Stitch’ socials support a welcoming community of yarn lovers, and Gareth is always happy to help answer any yarn or pattern queries he encounters from customers.
It was so lovely to visit Gareth at Manchester Wool & Yarn, and I’m really grateful he took the time to speak to me for the podcast – thanks again Gareth!
The theme music is Make You Smile by RGMusic 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
Two weeks ago, the first ever TexStyle Festival threw open its doors at Manchester Central. It was an amazing weekend of creativity, community and lots and lots of chatting! It was the idea of the mother and daughter team behind the Buxton, Cumbria & Stafford Wool Gatherings, (Michelle Greaves and her Mum, Carole) to create a bigger show encompassing other textile and fibre crafts in their home town of Manchester.
Sophia Gardiner at her standStephen West in action on the Textile Talks stageAmelia from Amelia Stitches
It did not disappoint, it featured dozens of stands showcasing beautiful crafts and items to buy, a range of fabulous workshops, a break-out zone called ‘The Hive’ where visitors could escape the busyness and just sit and chat and even work on their wips. Plus there was a Textile Talks stage hosted by yours truly which showcased some fabulous creative folk speaking on their specialist subjects.
Gareth from Manchester Wool & Yarn Jane Smith from Atelier NejiribanaDebbie from The Lace Knittery
I was thrilled and very honoured to be asked to host the Textile Talks stage, and loved every minute of it. In this episode you can hear from all of the speakers who stepped up to the mic over the weekend including, textile artist Sophia Gardiner, Stephen West from Westknits, Amelia Rogers from Amelia Stitches, Gareth from the show’s sponsor Manchester Wool and Yarn, Debbie Munro from The Lace Knittery and Jane Smith from Atelier Nejiribana speaking on the history of traditional Japanese embroidery.
Laili Cleasby from Emily FouldsVictoria Salmon from Another Knitted ThingAlena Ruth from Manchester Tufting Workshops
I also spoke to other stall holders and exhibitors who were spending the weekend with us in Manchester and hope you get a real flavour of what the first ever TexStyle Festival was actually like.
The communal rug being created on the Manchester Tufting Workshops standA detail of Sylvia Pankhurst from Sophia Gardiner’s standThe Yarn Addicts of Manchester
My thanks to everyone who spoke to me for this episode of Making Stitches Podcast! You can find all of their websites below:
The theme music is Make You Smile by RGMusic 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.
Hello and welcome to the 100th episode of Making Stitches Podcast.
Way back in April of 2020 when I published my first ever Making Stitches Podcast episode, I had no idea that over 5 years later, I would be publishing episode 100! That blows my tiny mind!
In the months leading up to this milestone, I had a couple of conversations with my lovely yarny friend, Christine Perry (aka Winwick Mum) and she suggested marking this podcast milestone with a different kind of episode – one with me as the guest.
After much consideration, I took Christine up on her kind offer and let her turn the tables – asking me the questions instead. At the start of December, we had a lovely time having a long chat and recording this episode.
Among the topics we covered were where I first learned to sew, knit and crochet, my career in journalism and how I got started in radio, our family’s time in Gibraltar and how that led to starting my Postcard from Gibraltar blog back in 2015, making friends through the world of creativity, podcasting and blogging and, of course, 5 years of Making Stitches Podcast.
Me back in the late 1990s behind the radio desk at Manchester United Radio – my first job in broadcastingMy news reading days at the Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation
I hope you enjoy listening to my ramblings about how I ended up doing what I do now!
Huge thanks to Christine for being the host of Making Stitches Podcast this time! You can find Christine’s website here: https://www.winwickmum.co.uk/
Thank you for listening to Making Stitches Podcast!
You can listen to Gibraltar Stories Podcast in all the usual podcast places as well as on the Gibraltar Stories Website: https://gibraltarstories.com/
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.
It’s so good to be back with you bringing another series of Making Stitches Podcast to your ears!
My guest for this episode is Felicity Ford aka Felix, an artist who works in colour, sound and yarn. I first heard about Felix’s work when a mutual friend contacted me and suggested she might be a good guest for the podcast – she was right!
Stranded colourwork inspired by the A road between Reading & Oxford which Felix used to commute along
Before our chat which features in this episode, Felix asked to send me a couple of her books and an invitation to join one of her online courses so I could get a proper feel for her work. I signed up for the ‘Colour at Play’ Course in the hope I would be able to improve my skills at marrying colours together when I design a crochet project. In addition to this, I discovered that Felix had a podcast herself – the KNITSONIK Podcast in which she recorded sounds and wove them together with interviews, chats about her work and her own musical compositions.
I really enjoyed getting to know Felix through her work, and then, towards the end of last year when I recorded the interview for this podcast episode. It was genuinely joyful to hear about Felix’s experiences including learning to colour match oil paint to a basket of eggs, how designing yarny covers for her walking stick diverted conversations with strangers away from her disability to her creativity and how her work with sound, colour and yarn has led her to setting up the KNITSONIK school.
Some of Felix’s stranded colourwork swatches which use everyday items as inspiration including her Edirol digital sound recorderFelix on one of her audio adventures
The theme music is Make You Smile by RGMusic 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
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Making Stitches – back after a longer than anticipated break!
This time, I’m sharing a bumper episode featuring lots of creative chats with some of the lovely people I met at this year’s Yarndale festival in Skipton two weeks ago.
The theme music is Make You Smile by RGMusic 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
When my guest on today’s episode was about to leave a career in London for a quieter pace of life on the Cornish coast, one of her first concerns was where she would be able to buy yarn from. Fast forward a few years and Jane Abraham not only has her own yarn shop, she hosts creative retreats, has her own You Tube channel and has built an online community for crafters ‘of a certain age’ – the Cornish Flock.
Jane’s ‘Flock’ focuses on knitting, crochet, health and the wellbeing of ‘mature women’. Jane says “Many women of a certain age feel isolated, under valued and overlooked. They believe that their interests and feelings are underestimated and there’s not enough digital content that connects with them and caters for their continued interest in fashion”.
The theme music is Make You Smile by RGMusic 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
Masey Kaplan (left) & Jen Simonic (right) from Loose Ends Project (Photo credit: Winky Lewis)
One of the unexpected things many people experience when they lose a loved one and have to sort through their posessions, can be unfinished craft projects. Maybe the person who has died was partway through making a baby blanket for a new family member, a quilt for a forthcoming wedding or simply a pair of socks or jumper for a loved one.
If there’s someone within the family with the skills and ability to finish that project, that’s great, but in many circumstances that’s not the case. That’s where the Loose Ends Project can help.
Photo credit: Winky Lewis
Two friends, Jen & Masey, decided that there must be people out there who have the skills and time to finish important craft projects which are left unfinished when someone dies or is no longer able to continue with it. They started matching unfinished projects with volunteer finishers, who complete and return the garments, blankets and accessories.
Photo credit: Winky Lewis
In the space of less than two years, the friends’ idea has mushroomed and they have registered ‘finishers’ in 64 countries around the world. To date, they have paired projects in 12 different countries.
Jen Simonic, one of the founders of the Loose Ends Project, joined me for this episode of Making Stitches to tell me all about this remarkable organisation.
The theme music is Make You Smile by RGMusic 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
This time on Making Stitches Podcast, I’m thrilled to be sharing a chat I had with knitting & crochet designer, Emma Varnam.
To date, Emma has written 13 books filled with inspiring designs for your home and to gift, from granny square homewares to adorable cuddly toys and crocheted pot plants! Emma is also a regular columnist for Inside Crochet magazine where she shares her passion for crochet and creativity.
It was such a thrill for me to meet Emma and chat about all things crochet – as well the common curse of friends and families of makers who have handmade gifts thrust upon them whether they want them or not!
The theme music is Make You Smile by RGMusic 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
Yesterday marked the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. Along with the military commemorations, there was a very special one created in yarn, by hundreds of knitters & crocheters around the globe – The Longest Yarn.
Tansy Forster, who has lived in Normandy for over 20 years, was inspired by the Post Box toppers she saw when she traveled to visit Arundel, in southern England. She thought she would have a go at something similar for her garden gate to commemorate this special anniversary. That idea soon morphed to create an 80 metre long yarn masterpiece showcasing scenes from the build up to and of the landings themselves as well as the days immediately after.
Paratroopers waiting to board the glider
Tansy, with the help of Facebook, soon enlisted the help of hundreds of makers from around the world to create metre long panels, each with a scene from that time. Not only that, Tansy has written a book about the project too. The Longest Yarn has featured on TV shows and news programmes around the world, and is set for a tour around the UK, then onto the United States before returning to Carentan in Normandy, where it will remain on permanent display.
In this episode, we hear from Tansy Forster and from Diane McCoombs and Gill Wright from the North West of England, who contributed one of the metre-long panels to the Longest Yarn.
The theme music is Make You Smile by RGMusic 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
Hello I’m thrilled to be back with another series of episodes of Making Stitches Podcast. This time I’m doing something a bit different, instead of launching the new series with a new interview, I’ve taken a dive into the archives.
Since I last spoke to you, Making Stitches celebrated its 4th birthday (which I think is pretty decent in podcasting) so I thought I’d indulge in a look back at some of the voices which have featured up until this point.
One theme which has been consistent throughout, is the very real benefit that being creative can have on your state of mind. It can be a light relief at a time of high stress, a positive outlet during anxiety and depression, a focus in the midst of paralysing grief.
Quite a few of my guests (not all included here) have spoken about how their craft has helped them during hard times. Speaking from experience, my creativity, be that through crochet, sewing or even making this podcast has really helped me over the years. I am a real advocate for being creative as a result.
Join me as I share chats from the Making Stitches archive:
Lisa & Lynda-Rose from The Crochet Sanctuary about the Pandemonium blanket crochet-along during Covid https://www.crochetsanctuary.co.uk
Patchwork quilter Emma Jones from the Vintage Sewing Box on the importance of making for mental health https://www.vintagesewingbox.co.uk
Former BBC Brussels correspondent, Mary Jane Baxter on leaving a high pressure career for a creative life on the road in her Bedford Bambi campervan. https://unbound.com/books/sew-on-the-go
Peace & anti terrorism campaigner Figen Murray OBE on how knitting has helped her grieve the loss of her son, Martyn in the Manchester Arena bomb attack. https://www.figenmurray.co.uk
Dr Mia Webb, clinical psychologist, knitter and podcaster on the Why I Knit podcast on the benefits of knitting for mental health. https://www.therapeuticknitting.org
Clockwise from top left, Lisa & Lynda-Rose from The crochet Sanctuary, Emma Jones, Matthew Downham, Dr Mia Hobbs, Figen Murray & Mary Jane Baxter
The theme music is Make You Smile by RGMusic 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
Making Stitches Podcast 