Episode 9 : Crocheting Under Lockdown with Esther of Essie Birdies

This week on Making Stitches I’m sharing my first international interview – it’s with Esther from Essiebirdies. I spoke to her from her home in the Netherlands on her first day in an empty house after 10 weeks of lockdown.

Esther’s latest ‘Close to You’ shawl design

Esther is a crochet designer who creates beautiful patterns for amigurumi toys, shawls, bags and home furnishings. Her passion for crochet came relatively recently when her daughter asked her to make an amigurumi toy. Once she had started, Esther was hooked.

Esther’s Frida Kahlo cushions & hand sanitizer covers

Esther designs in both English and Dutch and has followers from around the world making her beautiful designs.

You can hear Esther’s episode here.

You can find Esther at Essie Birdies.

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

Episode 5 : Crochet classes with Marisa Alcock AKA Mariwish

Hello and welcome to Episode 5 of Making Stitches! This week I’m sharing a chat I had with a friend of mine who I met through our love of crochet and our connection to Gibraltar.

Marisa Alcock was born and brought up here in Gibraltar but is now based in London and teaches music and crochet. We met a few years back through Instagram and I signed up for one of her Gibraltar based summer crochet lessons to master the art of reading a crochet chart. It was loads of fun and involved tapas, wine and reading our charts by the light of our phone torches when it got too dark to see them properly!

Marisa on the tarmac at Gibraltar Airport

In this episode, Marisa shared an insight into her creative life, which began here on the Rock but which took her to England. She spent some time speaking to me between online piano lessons and a virtual craft club she’s running with some of her music students. You can find Marisa on Instagram as @Mariwish

You can listen to this latest episode here.

The music featured in this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from https://melodyloops.com/

Episode 4 : Yarndale 2020 World Creative Project with Carole Rennison

Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Making Stitches. This week I’ve been speaking to Carole Rennison, one of the founders of the Yarndale Festival which takes place in September each year in Skipton in North Yorkshire.

Every year, the festival organisers enlist the help of knitters and crocheters from around the world to help them with their charity appeal, and this year is no different. The call has gone out for makers to create cotton dishcloths which will be sold at the festival to raise much needed funds for the nearby Martin House Children’s Hospice.

Carole told me about how the festival first got started along with how you can get involved with this year’s dishcloth appeal. You can hear the episode through this link or by searching for Making Stitches on your favourite podcast app.

For more information about the Yarndale dishcloth appeal, please check out the Yarndale website.

Episode 3 : ‘Creativity in Captivity’ A Coronavirus Lockdown Quilt

A lot of us are turning to crafts at this time of lockdown and isolation. The act of making things can work wonders for our mental health, and being able to contribute that craft to a community project can help ease the sense of isolation.

Inspired by the story of female prisoners of war making a quilt at Changi Prison in Singapore during World War II, a global group of quilters are contributing to a community quilt which will raise funds for a charity helping communities during this difficult time. For this episode of Making Stitches, I spoke to Sue Brown who’s idea it was to begin the quilt and Amanda James who has contributed a square to the project.

The photos feature some of the quilt squares already sent in to the ‘Creativity in Captivity’ quilt. Top photo: (clockwise from top left) made by Harriet Seddon, David Seddon, Cathie Holden & Amanda James (who features in this episode).

Bottom photo: (clockwise from top left) made by Gwen Shackleton, Barbara Holden, Nikki Holden & Lynda Jackson

You can listen to the episode h ere or by searching for ‘Making Stitches’ on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and other podcast apps.

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

Hello!

Hello and welcome to the Making Stitches Podcast! My name’s Lindsay and for as long as I can remember, I have loved filling my spare time by making things. I’m a real advocate for crafts and their ability to calm and quieten the mind when things are tough.

For a while now I’ve been thinking about putting a podcast together about crafts and the stories of the people behind them, but it never seemed to be the right time. Now, as many of us are confined to our homes because of the coronavirus pandemic, more than ever crafts and their therapeutic qualities are so important. That made me think, now might be the time to get this started!

In the coming weeks, I hope to be speaking to some of the people behind the blogs, patterns and make-alongs that bind our community of crafters together as well as other crafters and makers along the way.

You can listen to my first trailer episode here!

Please follow the Making Stitches Podcast on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook or here through this blog so you don’t miss out on the first episode which will be coming your way very soon!

Until then, bye for now and happy crafting!