Making Stitches Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to Making Stitches Podcast!

In this episode I share a chat I've had with Michelle Greaves, one half of the team behind the brand new TexStyle festival which is coming to Manchester next year. Michelle and her Mum, Carole, have been hosting yarn festivals for a number of years including the Buxton, Cumbria and Stafford Wool Gatherings, next year, they are hosting a much bigger event spanning all sorts of textile and yarn crafts in central Manchester.

TexStyle is a fresh celebration of all things textile, from knitting and crochet to sewing, weaving and sustainable fashion. It will bring together makers, artists, guilds and other enthusiasts for a weekend of inspiration and creativity in the historic Manchester Central (formerly GMEX).

I really enjoyed chatting to Michelle about how her career has swerved from fashion design to digital media alongside organising yarn festivals with her Mum, Carole, who has decades of experience in the yarn industry.

I hope you enjoy listening to our chat!

If you would like to find out more information about TexStyle, please check out the website : https://texstyle.uk/

For full show notes, please visit https://makingstitchespodcast.com/

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.

My guest for this episode of Making Stitches Podcast is Amy Ting, a crochet designer from the US who specialises in amigurumi. Amy is a passionate advocate for the Japanese technique of crocheting in the round to create soft toys. She has been crocheting amigurumi creatures for 7 years and shares her work online on her website: https://curiouspapaya.com/ and on social media too https://www.instagram.com/curiouspapaya/

This summer, Amy released her first book of crochet patterns called Amigurumi Critters which contains 25 patterns to make cute crocheted animal soft toys. In this chat we spoke about how crochet came into her life and led her to publish her first book.

For full show notes, please visit https://makingstitchespodcast.com/

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.

When I first approached Sara from Crochet in the Glen and asked if she would like to be a guest on Making Stitches Podcast, she couldn't understand why I'd want to speak to her. Like many (thousands) of other people who follow her Instagram account I'd enjoyed seeing her posts from her home on the picturesque Cowal Peninsula on the West Coast of Scotland - not just for the scenery, or her beautiful crochet creations, but because of her "crochet supermodel" husband Sean!

Sean and Sara are collectively a hilarious team. Their posts are colourful and very, very funny. Sean can often be spotted strutting down an imaginary catwalk in their home wearing some of Sara's crochet creations - often wearing several different items at the same time. 

I am so glad that Sara said yes to an interview and as a bonus, Sean was able to join us too. I hope you enjoy listening to them share their story as much as I did when I recorded it! 

You can find Sara and Sean at the Crochet in the Glen Instagram account.

Since the last episode of Making Stitches Podcast was published, Making Stitches has celebrated a birthday - it's now 5 years old. Thank you to everyone who has come onto the podcast over the past 5 years, everyone who has listened and supported me along the way! 

Lindsay x

For the full show notes for this episode, please visit the Making Stitches Podcast website. 

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.

It's a real treat to be able to share this episode of Making Stitches with you featuring Eleonora Tully from Coastal Crochet. Eleonora has been immersed in yarn crafts all her life, but 5 years ago began writing about her passion for crochet on her blog Coastal Crochet. Since then, she has published many crochet patterns on her blog, as well as leading crochet workshops and designing professionally for magazines and the Little Box of Crochet.

People around the globe know Eleonora for her seaside inspired designs and the wonderful photos she shares online (both on her blog and social media) of her work and her trips to the beach near her home on the south coast of England with her Miniature Schnauzer 'Salty'.

You can find Eleonora's blog at https://coastalcrochet.com/
For full show notes of this episode, please visit: https:makingstitchespodcast.com/
The music featured in this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from https://melodyloops.com/

In the first ever episode of 'Making Stitches' I speak to the ladies behind the Crochet Sanctuary about their latest CAL (crochet-along) - the Pandemonium CAL - which was released in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. They also discuss how they first started with crochet and why they decided to put on crochet weekend retreats in Cheshire.

You can find out more about the Crochet Sanctuary on their website: https://www.crochetsanctuary.co.uk/

Find them on Instagram and Facebook as 'The Crochet Sanctuary'.

Find out more about the Making Stitches Podcast : https://makingstitchespodcast.com/

Music on this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from www.melodyloops.com/

Hello, and welcome to the brand new Making Stitches Podcast. I'm Lindsay and I have a passion for making things in my free time (and even when I'm supposed to be doing other things). This is a podcast which tells the stories behind the crafts, patterns and make-alongs which bind us amateur and even the professional crafters together in this huge online community we exist in. What better time to start that than now, while many of us are stuck indoors because the Coronavirus pandemic? Arts and crafts are enjoying a resurgence now we have more free time on our hands and their calming effects work wonders for our mental health.

Join me in the coming weeks as I speak to some of the people who inspire our creativity in the world of craft.

Theme music 'Make you smile' by RGMusic on Melody Loops www.melodyloops.com
Find out more about Making Stitches at www.makingstitchespodcast.com

For so many of us, crochet (or any craft) is as gift which offers mental release, a chance to focus on something away from the day-to-day worries of life and that creative spark so many of us need. When Marianne Rawlins was working part-time whilst raising her very small children, crochet arrived in her life. It gave her a creative outlet and ultimately an additional career, as her hobby developed into writing and designing for Simply Crochet magazine.

Our paths crossed through her work for Simply Crochet and I asked her to come onto the podcast to talk about how her hobby had opened up new doors for her. Whilst crochet is not Marianne's 'day job' it does play a very important role in her life and she takes great pleasure in not only designing and making crochet items herself but writing articles for the magazine about other makers and testing new yarns which have come onto the market for practical features. 

You can find Marianne on Instagram as @mazcrochets and on Ravelry too, where she sells her crochet patterns.

For the full show notes for this episode, please visit the Making Stitches Podcast website. 

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.

After dreaming about a craft festival one night, Justine Robson woke up and decided she should arrange one. Two months later, she’d booked the venue (the South of England show ground) and ten months later Carry on Crafting opened its doors for the first time. 

This summer sees the fourth edition of the summer craft festival and with over 600 people camping (tickets to camp sold out in a week) a huge range of craft workshops, stalls and entertainment, it’s going from strength to strength. 

That’s not all that Justine does though, she teaches crochet, runs 8 crochet retreats each year, is the custodian of Little Box of Crochet, after its creator Amanda Bloom sought her out to take it on and she’s planning to open a bricks & mortar shop! 

Listen to Justine explain how creativity has been a constant in her life, how reconnecting with her creative side helped her recover from a nervous breakdown and how she gets such joy from doing what she does. 

Thank you Justine for sharing your story with Making Stitches Podcast!

You can find the Carry on Crafting Festival website here & the Little Box of Crochet website here.

For the full show notes for this episode, please visit the Making Stitches Podcast website. 

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.

My guests for this episode are a pair of friends who met at a tap dancing class and went on to become creative business partners. They have been sewing for more than 30 years, many of which were spent working together in their sewing studio in Ilkley in Yorkshire.

Since Covid, their classes in sewing and quilting have gone from in person, on a local level, to online and a world-wide audience. They say their mission is to empower women through sewing, one stitch at a time.

Their latest project, the book, Menopause Makes was borne out of many conversations between the friends about the Menopause. They had previously written a book together and decided that as it was a topic of conversation they regularly spoke about, surely many other women were doing the same, so why not write about it in a sewing context.

Along with a foreword by Dr Hannah Davies, a doctor specialising in menopause and lifestyle medicine, the book contains 10 patterns, one for each of ten different menopause symptoms. There is a sleep mask to aid insomnia, a basket for lost things to help with memory loss and keep cool quilt for night sweats.

As well as running classes, both online and in person, Jenni & Kay have travelled abroad to meet crafters from overseas, tell their stories and learn about their traditional crafts and techniques producing crafty travelogues as part of their online courses. Among their creative destinations have been Ireland, the Netherlands and Hawaii along with locations closer to their homes in Yorkshire, like Scotland and Northumberland.

For the full show notes for this episode, please visit the Making Stitches Podcast website. 

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.

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 aka Felix Ford, 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!

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 by chatting to her late last year ready 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.

I have to say a huge thank you to Felix for being so generous with her time and for allowing me to use some of her music in the podcast episode. You can find the KNITSONIK podcast here if you would like to hear more of Felix’s audio work. (I can especially recommend the Shetland Wool Week episode)

You can find the KNITSONIK website here.

For the full show notes for this episode, please visit the Making Stitches Podcast website. 

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.