Episodi

  • 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.

    I hope you enjoy listening!

    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/

    You can find the Making Stitches Blog here: https://makingstitches.co.uk/

    You can listen to Gibraltar Stories Podcast in all the usual podcast places as well as on the Gibraltar Stories Website: https://gibraltarstories.com/

    Thank you for listening to Making Stitches Podcast!

    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.

  • 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!

    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.

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  • In this episode of Making Stitches Podcast I chat to Anita Gibney — the designer behind Made by Anita and the author of the brand-new book; Patchwork Granny Square Blankets. Known for her beautiful crochet blanket deisgns, Anita has become an ambassador for Stylecraft Yarns and has just published her first book.

    We chat about how her love of crochet began, the inspiration behind her quilt-inspired granny-square blankets, and what it was like to turn years of designing into her first published book. Anita also shares insights into her creative process, how she approaches colour schemes, and why it's important to share skills to inspire makers of all skill levels.

    Whether you’re a crochet beginner, a seasoned maker, or simply someone who loves hearing from a fellow creative, I'm sure you'll enjoy listening to Anita's story.

    You can find Anita’s website here: madebyanita.co.uk

    Find out about Anita's new book: Patchwork Granny Square Blankets

    Here is the yarn company which Anita made reference to during our chat: The Grey Sheep.

    Thank you for listening to Making Stitches Podcast!

    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.

  • December starts next week which means we are officially on the countdown to Christmas, but there's still time to make a few Christmas gifts for special people or some decorations for your home.

    In this special 'Bonus Episode' I'm sharing a chat I had with Justine from Little Box of Crochet and Nicky Ward from A Heart Shaped Cherry. Followers of Little Box of Crochet will know that 2025 has been a difficult year for Justine. One of the things she has had to deal with involved being badly let down on a yarn order for her Summer Box of Crochet, which left her severely out of pocket and struggling through no fault of her own.

    In an attempt to help Justine recoup some of her financial losses, a group of crochet designers have donated Christmas themed crochet patterns to be included in a special E-Book called Merry Crochet Makes, which was curated and edited by Nicky.

    Last weekend, I spoke to Justine and Nicky about this special collaboration and how it all came together, including chatting about how difficult things have been for Justine this year. (Justine has listened back to this episode before being released, and it is being published with her blessing).

    You can buy the Merry Crochet Makes E-Book here, and you can find Little Box of Crochet on Instagram & this is Nicky's website and her Instagram page - @aheartshapedcherry - please give her a follow!

    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 Kat Molesworth, the creative force behind the Blogtacular Podcast & Festival. With Blogtacular, Kat helped countless creatives and bloggers find their voice and their community online.

    These days, Kat's work means she's serving another creative community, working for Immediate Live, on the Knit & Stitch Show, the Stitch Festival & the Festival of Quilts. Kat has also been a quilter for years and this summer, qualified as a Master Quilter with the Quilters Guild.

    Kat and I chatted about her childhood fascination with photography and how that developed into her professional life, her online adventures, hosting live events and what quilting has given to her.

    I'm really grateful to Kat for taking the time to speak to me for Making Stitches.

    You can find Kat here on her website & Instagram account. For more information about the live events Kat works on for Immediate Live, please check out their website.

    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.

  • 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.

  • On the weekend of 27th & 28th September, Skipton Auction Mart was again transformed into Yarndale. The festival of all things creative brings stall holders and crafts people from far and wide to share their love of their creative passions.

    While knitting and crochet take centre stage with every imaginable colour and type of yarn, there are many other crafts to enjoy, including embroidery, sewing, spinning, felting, lacemaking and so much more.

    I went along with my trusty microphone and chatted to so many people, friends I've known online, people I've met before and so many new acquauintances too. It was a total joy.

    I was also thrilled to be able to chat to Julie Park, a good friend of the late Amanda Bloom, who was there to represent her friend and support 3 new creative businesses with the Yarndale Start-Up Bursary.

    My thanks to everyone who spoke to me for this episode including:

    Carley from Unicorn Puffs & Rainbows

    Lydia from Laurette Crafts

    Sue Maton from The Mercerie

    Emma Wood from Verde

    Julie Park on behalf of Amanda Bloom & the Yarndale Start-Up Bursary

    Sammy from Auspicious Stitch

    And Sara & Sean from Crochet in the Glen

    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.

  • The Red Dress, recently recognised by the Guiness World Records as the largest collaborative embroidery project, is a truly stunning piece of work. It was created by Kirstie Macleod, a British artist, over a period of 14 years with the help of 380 different embroiderers.

    The dress is made of 87 silk panels which have been embroidered by people from 51 different countries and includes techniques passed down through generations, the work of skilled crafts people and first time stitchers. There are purely decorative sections and others which reflect stories of trauma, resilience and healing.

    The embroiderers include female refugees from Palestine, Syria and Ukraine, women seeking asylum in the UK from Iran, Iraq, China, Nigeria and Namibia, survivors of war in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda and DR Congo. Now complete, The Red Dress tours museums and exhibitions around the world amplifying the voices of the people who have contributed to it. Kirstie has also recently published a fascinating and beautiful book about the project called The Red Dress - Conversations in Stitch.

    I was lucky enough to see The Red Dress for myself and hear Kirstie speak about this truly amazing project at World Stitch Day at Woven in Kirklees Festival this summer. I feel privileged to have been able to see it and hear just a few of the stories of the people behind this mammoth project.

    I hope you enjoy listening to this episode, if you would like to find out more about The Red Dress, please visit Kirstie's website for more info on its creation and where you can see it for yourself.

    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.

  • Back on 1st June this summer, the Woven in Kirklees Festival kicked off with World Stitch Day at Oakwell Hall in Batley. Among the attractions of stalls from local community groups, textile artists, workshops and an interactive fabric 'Time Machine' was The Red Dress on display in West Yorkshire for the first time.

    The Red Dress is an award winning collaborative embroidery project which was conceived by the British artist Kirstie Macleod. It took 14 years to complete and features the work of 380 embroiderers from 51 different countries, many of whom come from marginalised communities. The dress is currently in the middle of a global tour and was on display for the whole of June at Oakwell Hall in Birstall.

    The 'Woven in Kirklees' textiles festival first launched in 2019. The community festival celebrates all kinds of textiles and related crafts with yarn bombs, textile art exhibitions, workshops and talks.

    The biennial festival runs for a whole month and this year had 130 different events happening throughout June. Initiated in 2019 by Kirklees Council, the festival "is owned by everyone, including community groups, textile businesses, cultural and educational organisations, artists and heritage sites across the district".

    I went along to World Stitch Day and spoke to a number of the exhibitors, the festival's curator, Nat Walton as well as Kirstie Macleod about the amazing Red Dress.

    Here are some useful links to discover more about the events and groups featured in this episode:

    Woven in Kirklees WebsiteThe Red Dress Website The Campervan Collective Six Million Plus

    And to find out more about the appeal to make crocheted hearts for the North West & North Wales Paediatric Transport Service, please click this link.

    For full show notes for this episode, please visit this page on 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.

  • Hello and welcome to the first episode in this new series of podcasts from Making Stitches.

    This time, I'm sharing a chat with my crochet friend Eleonora Tully from Coastal Crochet. Eleonora and I have both celebrated a special blog birthday this year. It's 10 years since we both began our blogging adventure.

    While there's no doubt that Eleonora's blogging and designing has taken her to extraordinary places compared to my own experience, it's been so lovely for me to follow her success and share my own journey with her over the years. Our blogging platform connected us in our early days of blogging, and for the past decade we have regularly communicated both through blog comments and through social media.

    We were lucky enough to be able to meet in person at Yarndale in 2022, then again last year. It was at Yarndale 2024 that we decided to work on a collaboration to mark our blog birthdays. Today, we are launching our collaborative crochet pattern, the Let's Celebrate wreath. You can find the patterns for the wreath cover and the bunting over on Eleonora's blog at coastalcrochet.com and the patterns for the amigurumi balloons & birthday cake on my blog at makingstitches.co.uk

    Also in this episode, you will hear a few teasers of what to look forward to in upcoming episodes of Making Stitches including World Stitch Day at the start of Woven in Kirklees, a chat I had with Kirstie Macleod, the artist behind The Red Dress, and Amy Ting, the amigurumi designer behind Curious Papaya and the author of Amigurumi Critters.

    For full show notes for this episode, please visit this page on 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.

  • When Micah Clasper-Torch first designed a coat using fabric which had been embellished with punch needlework, her passion was born. Moving from the intense world of fashion design in New York to a more laid back lifestyle in California, Micah embraced the craft of punch needle and ran with it.

    Her passion for the craft is infectious, so much so that she launched Punch Needle World, a platform to celebrate the art, craft and history of punch needle. Micah has taught thousands of people how to punch needle through online courses and has recently written a book about the craft sharing 15 designs merging fashion and punch needlework.

    In this episode you can hear Micah talk a little about the history of punch needle, how she is spreading her love of the craft and how she has merged her two passions of fashion and punch needle too.

    If you would like to find out more about Micah, you can find her website here and her Instagram account here.

    For full show notes for this episode, please visit this page on 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.

  • The 'Woven in Kirklees' textiles festival first launched in 2019 and is due to kick off for its 2025 edition this weekend. The community festival celebrates all kinds of textiles and related crafts with yarn bombs, textile art exhibitions, workshops and talks.

    The biennial festival runs for a whole month and this year will have 130 different events happening throughout June. Initiated in 2019 by Kirklees Council, the festival "is owned by everyone, including community groups, textile businesses, cultural and educational organisations, artists and heritage sites across the district".

    Among the attractions on offer this year is 'The Red Dress'. The Red Dress is an award winning collaborative embroidery project which was conceived by the British artist Kirstie Macleod. It took 14 years to complete and features the work of 380 embroiderers from 51 different countries, many of whom come from marginalised communities. The dress is currently in the middle of a global tour and will be on display for the whole of June at Oakwell Hall in Birstall.

    I caught up with the festival curator Nat Walton in the busy run up to this year's launch to find out more about what people can expect to see at this year's Woven.

    You can find out the full programme of events at the 'Woven in Kirklees' Festival on their website.

    For full show notes for this episode, please visit this page on 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.

  • When Rachael Mills took up crochet as a means to giving up smoking, little did she realise that it would one day lead to her making a Turner Prize winning doily! Last year, when the Glaswegian artist Jasleen Kaur was named the winner of the Turner Prize, crocheter Racheal was celebrating at home in Blackburn. I was thrilled when she agreed to come onto the podcast to share her side of this amazing story.

    Rachael's first creative job was piece work sewing at a bridal gown factory, she then went on to set up her own sewing business when she was made redundant and later on took up crochet as a hobby to keep her hands busy when she gave up smoking. She now spends her mornings on her sewing business and her afternoons crocheting commissions and teaching up to 50 people each week in her crochet classes.

    You can find Rachael's creative business Facebook pages here: REM Designs for sewing and Crazy Crochet Creations.

    For full show notes for this episode, please visit this page on 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 guest for this episode is my yarny friend, Christine Perry, who first made an appearance on the podcast back in 2021. Since chatting back then, we have become friends and when I heard that she was gearing up to a big milestone in her sock-knitting journey, I asked her if she would like to come back onto the podcast and chat about it.

    Last weekend, on Saturday 3rd May, Christine celebrated a whole decade of encouraging people around the world to. knit socks through her Winwick Mum Sockalong. Christine's main aim is to encourage beginners to get over their fears of knitting in the round, turning heels and Kitchener stitch and be able to set off on their own sock knitting adventures.

    It worked for me - I think it's highly unlikely that I would ever have attempted to knit a pair of socks before chatting to Christine! I can now proudly say that on Saturday I followed Christine's request to cast on a new pair and get knitting to mark this significant milestone (and this is my 4th pair!).

    I hope you enjoy listening to our chat!

    You can find all the details about Christine's 10th anniversary giveaway over on her Winwick Mum blog as well as her free sockalong tutorials.

    For full show notes for this episode, please visit this page on 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.