Episode 99 : Happy Stitchmas! The Making Stitches 2025 Christmas Special

Hello there and Happy Stitchmas!

It’s that time of year again when I take a look back at the past 12 months and choose some of the highlights of my podcasting year.

2025 has been a big year for me, I celebrated 10 years of blogging (Postcard from Gibraltar and then Making Stitches Blog) and 5 years of Making Stitches Podcast.

In this episode I share some of the chats I have had this year and you may have heard before as well as some new chats too.

Included in this episode are:

Christine Perry from Winwick Mum speaking about 10 years of the Winwick Mum sock along.
Eleonora Tully from Coastal Crochet talking about 10 years of her blog and our celebration of a decade online with our Let’s Celebrate Wreath collaborative crochet pattern.
Sara & Sean MacLeod from Crochet in the Glen chatting about the fun they have together and how they love to share their silliness online.
Kirstie MacLeod, the artist behind The Red Dress, who I met at Woven in Kirklees on World Stitch Day.
Becky Davies-Downes from William & Tilda who appeared a couple of times on the podcast last year. I interviewed her again at Yarndale this September, and this is the first time I’ve shared our chat.
Also at Yarndale, I spoke to Julie Park, a close friend of Amanda Bloom, who sadly died this year. Julie has taken on Amanda’s social media accounts after her death and has raised funds to support the Yarndale Start-Up Bursary for fledgling creative businesses at the festival in memory of Amanda and her daughter Jenny.
More recently, I was at the Christmas edition of the Crochet Sanctuary Crochet Days just last weekend. While I was there I spoke to Lisa and Lynda-Rose who run the Crochet Sanctuary and, who were my guests on the first ever edition of Making Stitches back in the spring of 2020.
I also caught a quick few minutes with Heather from Keep Calm & Crochet On and Jess from Hook & Cwtch.

I hope you enjoy listening, and that you have a great Christmas. I’ll be back again soon, with the last episode of the current series – and my 100th episode!

Thank you for listening to Making Stitches Podcast!

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

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.

Episode 81 : Making Stitches 2024 Christmas Special

Hello and welcome to the Making Stitches 2024 Christmas Special! As always at this time of year, I’m taking a look back at some of the year’s highlights for Making Stitches.

Included in this year’s extravaganza is Tansy Forster from The Longest Yarn, author and academic Barbara Burman, crochet designer Emma Varnam, Dr Gemma McKenzie from Threads of Protest, Heather Gibbs from Keep Calm And Crochet On, Lisa & Lynda-Rose from The Crochet Sanctuary. Thank you to everyone who has spoken to me for Making Stitches Podcast this year!

I’d also like to thank Jackie, Rachel, Nick, Nickie, Jen, Penny & Steph my fellow Crochet Sanctuary attendees who gave me their 2024 highlights for this episode.

Thank you to you too for listening and following my podcast adventures for the past few years – I’ve loved being able to bring these creative chats to you for you to enjoy!

I hope you have a happy and peaceful Christmas and that 2025 is good to you!

Lindsay x

If you would like to support my fundraising effort for FareShare Greater Manchester, you can buy the FareShare Festive Feast Wreath crochet pattern here.

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

The theme music is Make You Smile by RGMusic from Melody Loops .

The Making Stitches logo was designed by Neil Warburton at iamunknown.

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

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.