Why I Knit

Series 9 kicks of with a conversation with Lauren Aston, the founder of Lauren Aston Designs. I first came across Lauren when looking up some of Claudia Winkleman's excellent knitwear on the second series of The Traitors UK. I was delighted to find Lauren's knitting pattern behind one of them!

Lauren speaks about the phenomenon that is 'The Claudia Sweater' and the challenge of continuing to get well-being benefits from knitting once it becomes your job. She also speaks about really realising how much she gained from knitting when a hand injury meant that she couldn't knit for...

For our last episode of 2025, Paula and Mia reflect on their own knitting and craft projects over the past year, and the ways in which they have used knitting as part of their self-care.

They also look back at the new developments in Creative Restoration over the past year, and share their thoughts on the TV show Game of Wool.

They share their plans for their own knitting and for Creative Restoration for the coming year including news on the next season of the Why I Knit Podcast which returns in January, and they announce...

For this bonus book club episode we have read the brilliant bestselling book 'Wintering' by Katherine May and speak about how it links to burnout. Wintering takes us through living through personal and seasonal winters and how knitting can be a brilliant activity to accompany us through both types of winter.

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.

🧶 If you'd like to learn more about...

For this bonus episode I am joined by Dr Paula Redmond who specialises in working with health professionals experiencing burnout.

Paula speaks about her own journey into this work during Covid, and how creativity in her personal life has encouraged her to bring this into her work.

We talk about what burnout is, and who might be more likely to experience it, and why knitting is a great tool to prevent burnout. We'll be going into this in much more detail in our webinar, Unravelling Burnout

If you'd like to find out about...

Join Clinical Psychologists Dr Mia Hobbs and Dr Paula Redmond as we discuss two research papers about knitting and mental health.

These papers both relate to nurses and supporting them with the challenges of their role.

Paper 1 relates to using knitting to reduce compassion fatigue in nurses

Paper 2 relates to using knitting to reduce anxiety in nursing students

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle wit...

For the final episode of series 8 I am delighted to be joined by Dr Katya Miles of The Working Well Doctor. Katya works as a Coach and Trainer for health professionals and people in high stress professions.

She speaks about turning to knitting during the Covid pandemic when she was self-isolating with covid and how she now associates knitting with healing and soothing, and it is part of her own toolkit for managing stress or high demand situations.

We talk about recovering from perfectionism and give our views on why so many health professionals are...

I was delighted to be joined by Una, also known as @TheNeurodivergentCraftClub on Instagram. Una speaks about how knitting has been helpful in recovering from burnout, but has also been a really useful way to find out what her brain really needs - both to find some moments of focus and to feel settled and satisfied.

It was so interesting to talk to Una about her experience of being a neurodivergent knitter and the reasons she believes that many neurodivergent people are attracted to knitting.

Connect with Una

Instagram: @theneurodivergentcraftclub

Substack...

Elizabeth is a knitting teacher based in Nigeria, and she has made it her personal mission to teach 20,000 children to knit and 'think with their hands'. It was a pleasure to speak to Elizabeth about her own journey to becoming a knitting teacher, and how she has personally used knitting to help her to cope with grief and loss. Elizabeth also speaks about her experiences of teaching children to knit and why she believes this is a valuable addition to their education.

Connect with Elizabeth

Instagram: @tunnizze

Facebook: @tunnizzecreations

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Allison Thistlewood is a creator of community in the knitting world. She has had various roles in and around the yarn industry, and the common thread in all of these roles is that she brings knitters together: at yarn festivals, for yarn crawls and on retreats and trips.

Allison joins me to talk about her experience of moving to the UK from Canada, and how knitting was instrumental in helping her to make connections with new friends, and how she has continued to want to bring this opportunity to other knitters.

Allison's yarn event Make...

Adam is behind the successful Instagram account @CleevelyKnits where he shares his funny and creative adventures in yarn. Most recently these have included videos on wine-pairings for yarn, and attempting to knit a usable QR code! There is a very strong theme of Adam being someone who thinks outside the box, which is illustrated by the fact that he hasn't knitted from a pattern for several years.

Despite only starting knitting in 2022, something about it hooked Adam in and he has progressed from beginner to a dabbling designer very quickly.

We speak about Adam's experience...

In the second of two episodes, this week I speak to Dr Zoe, a GP specialising in menopause. Zoe's colleagues joined me last week to speak about knitting a blanket for her following her recent cancer diagnosis.

Zoe speaks about her long history of using knitting to benefit her mental well-being, how she is using it now during her cancer treatment and how knitting has allowed her to find spaces where being an introvert is celebrated.

We also talk about Zoe's views that knitting is a particularly helpful tool during the menopause when we all...

This week I am joined by Sharon Hartmann, Dr Sarah Ball and Dr Carys Sonnenberg who are all health professionals working in the field of menopause. They have come together to create a shared knitting project in support of two of their colleagues who are going through treatment for cancer. This is the first of two episodes featuring menopause specialists and their colleague Dr Zoe, who is one of the receipients of these special blankets joins me next week.

While Sharon is a returning knitter, Sarah and Carys are new to knitting and they all join me...

This week I am delighted to be joined by Martyn, host of the Knit365 YouTube channel. I loved speaking to Martyn about his journey from beginning as an accidental knitter, having made an off-the-cuff promise to his grandmother, to a daily knitter with a successful YouTube Channel about his adventures in yarn.

It was great to hear how Martyn has discovered the therapeutic benefits of knitting along the way, how he loves the satisfaction of making progress and completing things, and how he now has a knitting project within easy reach wherever he is. It was really...

To kick off series 8 I am deligted to be joined by Beth Gorishek who is also known the Adaptive Knitter. Beth was born with a limb difference and through teaching, speaking and workshops helps knitters to learn how to make adaptations to their knitting practice so that it works for their body.

Beth believes that makers are well placed to be adaptive as this is part of the creative process of making and that adaptation is creativity. I also particularly loved Beth's approach to using knitting to carve out small pockets of time for her self-care and...

This month we are discussing a paper published in Scientific Reports (part of the prestigious Nature group of peer-reviewed scientific journals) about the impact of crochet on attention.

You can read the full paper here.

This is a study by neurologists into how crochet impacts on attentional networks. It combines brain imaging with an interesting experimental design. It is a complex read, involving a lot of neuro-speak but we've tried to summarise it in a way that hopefully makes it easy to understand the methods and findings. We have also created a blog to help...

I am delighted to announce that Series 8 will be live next month!

I have had some really interesting conversations with my guests this series and I can't wait to share them with you.

In the meantime, if you'd like to be kept up to date on all the latest news you can sign up to the Creative Restoration Newsletter which is a montly round up of all our events, workshops, podcasts and blogs, along with an update on our own knitting projects!

You can sign up here: creative restoration

In our first book club episode, Paula and Mia each discuss a book they have read on the subject of the psychology of craft.

Paula has read 'Craftfulness' by Arzu Tahsin and Rosemary Davidson

Mia has read 'Craft Psychology' by Dr Anne Kirketerp

If you'd like to learn more about how to use knitting for your self-care, check out our course Self-Care One Stitch at a Time.

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, att...

Join Paula and I as we answer your questions about the field of knitting and mental health. Apologies that the audio quality isn't as good as usual for this episode, we tried out a new method of recording and had a few technical issues.

We'll be back at the end of the month with a Book Club episode!

If you'd like to learn more about how to use knitting for your self-care, check out our course Self-Care One Stitch at a Time.

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Att...

This month Dr Paula Redmond and I discuss another research paper into knitting and mental health.

The paper we discuss is: Joanna Nordstrand, A. Birgitta Gunnarsson & Greta HäggblomKronlöf (2024) Promoting health through yarncraft: Experiences of an online knitting group living with mental illness, Journal of Occupational Science, 31:3, 504-515,

The full text of this article is available here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14427591.2023.2292281#abstract

If you'd like to learn more about how to use knitting for your self-care, check out our course Self-Care One Stitch at a Time.

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This is our second bonus episode for anyone wanting to know or read more about the research into how knitting can benefit our mental well-being.

Fellow clinical psychologist and knitter, Dr Paula Redmond and I will be reading one research paper a month and discussing it in our journal club podcast.

We are also planning a Question an Answer episode, so if you have any questions about the research into knitting and mental health or how we use knitting in our work please do email me on mia@therapeuticknitting.org to let me know and...

This is a bonus episode for anyone wanting to know or read more about the research into how knitting can benefit our mental well-being.

Fellow clinical psychologist and knitter, Dr Paula Redmond and I will be reading one research paper a month and discussing it in our journal club podcast. This month we are discussing Healing Stitches: a scoping review of the impact of needlcraft on mental health and well-being. The full-text of this article is available here: Healing Stitches

I refer to the interview with Betsan Corkhill which you can listen to here: Betsan...

Have you ever stressed yourself our by overcommitting to gift knitting? Do you end up being exhausted by the festive season? Then we have a bonus episode for you! Subscribe to the Creative Restoration newletter here to receive our bonus episode as soon as it is released on 14th November to help you keep your self-care on track during Christmas, and continue to use knitting to benefit your mental wellbeing.

This is the final episode in series 7 - thank you so much for listening!

Joining me this week is Kristina LaVenia who is a senior...

Carole Wyatt is a cancer doctor who has been diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. She speaks about using knitting to cope with the difficult days, and also to create a handknitted legacy to pass down to her future grandchildren.

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.

🧶 If you'd like to learn more about how to use knitting for your self-care, check out our course Self-C...

Tamanna is a nurse practioner and multi-crafter who works in the field of mental health. Tamanna joins me to speak about her own journey to knitting, sewing and embroidery, how this connects her to family traditions and her values of sustainability and ethical production of clothing.

She also speaks about she uses fibre arts to benefit the mental health of herself and others.

Tamanna Rahman

Instagram: @slow.work.sewing

Website: slow.work.sewing

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will exp...

Whitney is a plus size knitter and YouTuber who is passionate about taking back the power to create clothes she loves in colours she enjoys. She speaks about how knitting has helped her to love the body she has, rather than feel that she to change her body to fit the clothes she can buy.

Whitney Swinimer

Whitney's website: knittedbywhitney

YouTube: Knitted by Whitney

Whitney's article on how knitting helped her to fall in love with her body

Instagram: @knittedbywhitney

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🧶Join us at our nex...

Elena Lo Presti is the founder and director of Craft Forward, which is a not-for-profit organisation that provides accessible, creative, experiences suitable for everyone, regardless of their skills and background. Their aim is to disrupt the current elitism within the arts and crafts world and open creativity to all through workshops with a clear social impact.

Elena joins me to speak about her own personal story learning to knit as a way of connecting with her grandmother during the pandemic, and tells the story of how she turned this new passion into Craft Forward.

Craft...

Christina Socorro Yovovich is a writer, knitter and multi-crafter. Christina speaks about how since being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she had struggled to access joy without worrying about whether this was a sign that she was becoming unwell. She explains how returning to knitting has allowed her to access a safe and more grounded form of joy in her daily life.

Christina Socorro Yovovich

website: Christina Socorro Yovovich

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@DesertAgaveFiberArts .

Instagram: @cyovovich

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus...

Christina Socorro Yovovich is a writer, knitter and multi-crafter. She is

Christina Socorro Yovovich

Website: Christina Socorro Yovovich

Instagram: @cyovovich

Mentioned in this episode:

Self-Care One Stitch at a Time

Victoria Marchant is an inclusive knitwear designer who puts size inclusivity at the heart of all her designs. Her latest design, the Padstow Cardigan will be released on October 18th.

Victoria Marchant

Website: www.victoriamarchantknits.com

Instagram: @victoriamarchantknits

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.

🧶 If you'd like to learn more about how to use knitting for your self-c...

Samantha Moore is a filmmaker and animator who directed the BAFTA nominated animated film 'Visible Mending' which is about the ways we repair ourselves through knitting.

If you haven't seen Sam's brilliant film, you can watch the film at Sam's Vimeo channel here: Visible Mending

Follow Sam on Instagram: @sammooreanimate

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.

🧶 If you'd like to lea...

In this bonus episode Dr Claire Plumbly, Clinical Psychologist and EMDR specialist joins me to discuss what the theory behind EMDR can tell us about why we find the hand movements of knitting so therapeutic.

Claire Plumbly

Buy her book:  https://www.drclaireplumbly.com/burnout-book

www.drclaireplumbly.com

Instagram: @drclaireplumbly

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.

🧶...

Thanks so much for your questions for the Q&A episode, it has been so interesting to be asked such great questions.

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.

🧶 If you'd like to learn more about how to use knitting for your self-care, check out our course Self-Care One Stitch at a Time.

🧶Catch up on our on-demand webinars:

The Healing P...

For the final episode of series 6 I am joined by Elizabeth Hammond, also known as The Knitchen on Instagram.

Elizabeth describes herself as a knitter, test knitter and dabbling designer. She joins me to speak about turning to knitting to help with her mental health and also during her recovery from a car accident.

Thanks so much for listening to the 6th series of the podcast - we have now reached an incredible 100,000 downloads! To celebrate this milestone I am recording a Q&A episode - if you have a question please get in touch!<...

Ellen describes herself a tech editor and occasional designer who identifies as queer and neurodivergent.

She speaks about how knitting feeds her inner engineer and allows her to use some skills that she might otherwise have explored in her career. She also talks about the ways in which knitting helps her to connect to family, friends and a new community.

Ellen

Website: www.knithow.com

Instagram: @knithow

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can sup...

Madison Siegel joins me this week to speak about using knitting as a mindful practice to help her to step back from and notice her thoughts rather than be caught up in them.

She speaks about having a diagnosis of ADHD and feeling anxious after the birth of her second child, and how knitting has been part of finding balance and allowing herself to take up space.

Madison doesn't have a public Instagram account.

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and...

Susie Bass is a researcher studying a PHD in the relationship between power, identity and mental health through craft. Susie is a knitter and multi-crafter and during our discussion she speaks about how craft has been a common thread which has helped her to process traumatic events in her life, and to reconstruct herself afterwards.

CONTENT WARNING: During our conversation Susie speaks about losing a baby and experiencing a sexual assault. She also speaks about the process of being diagnosed with ADHD and Autism in adulthood.

Susie Bass

Instagram: @susiebass_anyhow for links...

Fran is a bear maker and multi-crafter who is originally from the UK but now lives in the Pyrenees mountains of France. Fran speaks about how craft has helped to negotiate living with chronic illness and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

Fran

Website: Woollenhearted.com

Instagram: @woollenhearted

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.

🧶 If you'd like to learn...

The Loose Ends Project aims to ease grief, create community, and inspire generosity by matching volunteer handwork finishers with projects people have left unfinished due to death or disability. The founders, Masey and Jen join me to discuss their own personal relationships with knitting and the story of how they created the Loose Ends Project.

Loose Ends

Find out more at their website: www.looseendsproject.org

Follow them on Instagram: @looseendsproject

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how...

The Why I Knit Podcast is back with series 6 starting on 4th January 2024!

Thanks to everyone who has been in touch to ask when the new episodes are coming out - I look forward to sharing 6 more conversations with you from 4th January.

Mia

Website: therapeuticknitting.org

Patreon: patreon.com/therpeuticknitting

Instagram: @knittingistherapeutic

Kathryn Vercillo is a writer and crafter who specialises in the intersection between art and mental health.

I particularly loved Kathryn's focus on her relationship with craft being something that is constantly evolving, and her celebration of every part of the process.

Kathryn speaks about crochet has helped save her life during periods of depression, and also talks about how she used crochet to help her through the grief following her friend's death through suicide.

Kathryn Vercillo

 Instagram @createmefree

Substack: https://createmefree.substack.com/

Books:  https://www.am...

Jessica Hendrickson is the Creative Design Director at Lion Brand Yarn. As a teenager she had such a strong desire to make and wear her own clothes, that she told her parents she had to attend a school without a uniform.

She continues to use knitting and crochet to express her identity, but over time she has also used them to help find her way through post-natal depression and to help her focus. Jessica speaks about how she manages her desire to knit all the things as quickly as possible, but also how her constant drive for...

Dr Kaman Hansford is a GP who joined us on one of our retreats for healthcare professionals. She has lived experience of using mental health services and knitting is now a crucial part of her wellbeing plan.

Kaman speaks about feeling that she can use knitting as an early warning sign if her mental health is deteriorating, and also that it is one of the tools she uses daily to access some calm.

I also really valued Kaman's perspective on using knitting as a way of becoming more self-compassionate.

Kaman is not on...

Kesha Evans learned to knit 11 years ago when her son was born prematurely and was in the NICU. She was approached by Carol Caparosa from Project Knitwell who offered to teach her to knit. Despite not considering herself creative at all, Kesha agreed to learn and ended up feeling that the visits from Carol were as important to her as those of the doctors and nurses.

Today Kesha is on the board at Project Knitwell and I interviewed her as part of their Knitathon in March 2023. Project Knitwell's team of volunteers go into hospitals, schools and community...

Jude generously joined me to speak about how he found knitting and the knitting community during a difficult time, and how knitting was a crucial part of putting himself back together.

He also speaks about the death of his parents last year, and how he continues to feel connected to them both through the memories held in knitted items, and also in the other new hobbies and skills that Jude has discovered more recently.

Jude also dyes beautiful yarn and by coincidence I realised I was wearing a pair of socks knit in Stranded yarn...

Dr Shona Mason is a dentist and teacher who encourages her students to develop interests outside of dentistry to prevent burnout and encourage them to have a positive work-life balance. As part of this mission she runs a knitting group for students, one of whom got in touch with me and suggested that she'd make a great interviewee for the podcast!

Shona

Instagram: @shonamasonmakes

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for...

I am so sorry that it has taken much longer than planned for Series 5! However I am pleased to announce that episode one will be available this Thursday 15th June.

In the meantime you can listen to all the previous episodes here or on your favourite podcast app.

Thank you so much for listening to the podcast, I am so thrilled that so many of you have connected with the themes we have discussed. I would really value your feedback on how I can continue to create podcasts and grow this community of like-minded people who are using knitting to benefit their mental health. The survey takes only 2 minutes and I would really value your feedback!

Complete the survey by clicking here - if you were kind enough to complete the survey already from the link in my mailing list thank you so much!

It was a joy to spend time with Marceline to hear her reflections on her relationship with knitting, how this has changed over time, and how she aims to be more intentional in her making.

Marceline speaks about tuning in to what she needs from her crafts at a given time in her life, and how connecting to 'the old way' of doing things has helped her to navigate the times when something needs to be unravelled.

Marceline

hey BrownBerry YouTube channel: heyBrownBerry

Instagram: @heybrownberry

Etsy: heybrownberry

...

Andrea is a physical therapist and passionate knitter who is perfectly placed to provide professional advice on what to do when we suffer pain when knitting, and how to prevent it in future.

Andrea speaks about how she returned to knitting as a new mum, and how it helped her to find a few minutes each day to do something for herself. She also shares her reflections as a physiotherapist on her important role in helping crafters to find ways of accessing their crafts in a sustainable way.

Andrea

Website: Andrea Lui

Kaleb decided to return to knitting during the pandemic as a way of managing anxiety and to feel connected to his mum who had been a prolific knitter. Kaleb speaks about finding that knitting allowed them to slow down, feel calmer and connected to a different community of people.

Kaleb

Instagram: @all_things_kaleb

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.

🧶...

I knew I wanted to interview Lisa for the podcast when I heard her speaking about her experience of having ADHD on Irina Shaar's 'Humans of Westknits' series during the recent Westknits mystery knit along.

As someone who isn't great at just sitting and watching TV or listening to something, I feel knitting improves my ability to sit and focus and was interested to hear how Lisa felt about this.

Lisa also speaks about her lifelong love of colour; not always wanting to wear the things she wants to knit; and being someone who always...

Ailie hosts the Thoughtful Knitter YouTube channel. She speaks about returning to knitting in recent years as her health problems meant that she wasn't able to connect with friends and family in the same way.

Ailie speaks about her journey from a slightly reluctant knitter to someone who knits every day and focuses more on the process than the end product.

Ailie

YouTube: The Thoughtful Knitter

Instagram: The Thoughtful Knitter

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and...

You can tell by the way Irina Shaar interviews knitters and other fibre artists that she loves connecting with people and finding out how they tick, so it was brilliant to hear her story and to get the chance to find out what she has learned from interviewing hundreds of knitters about their craft.

Irina

You can watch Fiberchats on YouTube here: Fiberchats

Instagram: @Fiberchats

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and min...

Ellen is a pretty inspiring 16 year old! She sews and knits and already seems to have figured out how to use these crafts intentionally to manage the times when she is struggling with low mood or anxiety. She also speaks about how craft helps her connect to family members and has been passed down through the generations in her family.

Ellen

Instagram: @sewandinspire

Etsy shop: Sew and inspire

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support con...

Series 4 is coming on 15th December! Sorry for the long wait and thanks for your patience. I am looking forward to sharing these 7 new conversations with you.

If you have guest suggestions, please send me an email at mia@therapeuticknitting.org or message me on Instagram where I am @knittingistherapeutic

You can also sign up to my mailing list to find out more about my work at www.therapeuticknitting.org

Sylvia Watts-Cherry is a knitwear designer and teacher who is probably best known for her colourful intarsia designs. I love listening to other people talk about knitting, and was really drawn to Sylvia's description of her Paragon sweater design as being a 'happy knit' and the idea that intarsia feels therapeutic for her as she doesn't have time to think....something I relate to!

I also loved hearing Sylvia speak about a different way in which knitting has been therapeutic for her, in allowing her a way of exploring and connecting to her African heritage, by taking...

Dr Jen Unwin is a clinical and health psychologist who after retiring from her NHS role is now working with people with food addictions. She is a lifelong knitter who has herself found that knitting is an important part of her own self-care and because of this has also used knitting to benefit others as part of her work.

You can find out more:

Dr Jen Unwin

Instagram: @Jen_unwin

Twitter: @jen_unwin

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will exp...

Eileen has been a knitter since she was a child, but returned to it recently during a challenging time in her life. She discovered a new love for knitting and has now started to create her own designs. Eileen speaks about how knitting has been a form of self-expression, and how she rarely keeps the things she knits, but she loves planning the perfect gift for someone....even if she has never met them.

Eileen Jack

Instagram: @cniotaillaimhe - follow the link in Eileen's bio to buy her patterns on Ravelry or Payhip

...

Dr Paula Redmond is a clinical psychologist who specialises in working with healthcare professionals who have experienced burnout or workplace trauma. Paula and I met through the world of psychology, and I was delighted to meet another clinical psychologist who knits, and also speaks about creativity, including knitting, in her work. Paula speaks about her personal journey with knitting and how it benefits her mental wellbeing, as well as how she believes it can be helpful to her clients.

Dr Paula Redmond

Website: Paularedmond.com

LinkedIn: Paula Redmond

Facebook: Paula Redmond<...

This week I am joined by Liz McNeil. Liz is a knitting coach who works for Knit Chats where she helps knitters with their knitting dilemmas and teaches classes about different techniques. Liz speaks about how knitting has helped her through the challenges of having small children, when finding tiny pockets of time for herself was particularly difficult. She also speaks about how knitting allowed her to access a community despite her frequent house moves.

Liz speaks about the following patterns:

Turtle knits Picky pants Ravelry: Picky Pants pattern by Theresa Belville

Bee...

Although Carol Caprosa doesn't consider herself to be an 'expert knitter' she, along with the many volunteers working on behalf of Project Knitwell have brought the gift of knitting to thousands of people during stressful times in their lives.

It was amazing to hear the origin story of Project Knitwell, how returning to knitting when her daughter was very unwell as a newborn baby gave Carol the idea of teaching other people in hospital to knit.

Carol Caparosa

To find out more about Project Knitwell: Welcome! - Project Knitwell

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It was such a pleasure to meet Karie and speak to her about how she learned to knit and dressmake out of necessity as a very young child in rural Denmark. Then many years later, knitting helped her to recover from a serious illness and returning to it eventually lead to her career as a knitwear designer, teacher and writer.

I loved hearing about the importance of storytelling in Karie's designs, and particularly the way she talks about knitting as agency.

Karie mentions her Doggerland collection

Karie Westermann

kariebookish.net

Series 3 is coming on 23rd June!

I am so looking forward to sharing another series of 6 conversations with knitters, designers and even another psychologist.

You can catch up on all the previous episodes at the website: Podcast | Why I Knit Podcast (therapeuticknitting.org)

CW: discussion of cancer, loss of fertility and depression

Liz O'Riordan is a breast surgeon who has herself experienced cancer, twice. She now works as a speaker, author and podcaster providing high quality and accessible information about cancer from her expertise as both a doctor and a patient.

Liz is also a lifelong knitter and more recently a sewer. Although Liz said that she often thinks that knitting is 'just something I do', throughout our conversation it becomes clear that knitting has accompanied Liz through some difficult times in her life and provided her with...

Clare is a knitting pattern designer and design mentor. She learned to knit as a teenager and studied knitwear design but after working in the commercial fashion industry has found her niche designing patterns and helping other people learn to make their designs into reality.

It was great to hear the perspective of a pattern designer, as Clare loves being able to turn her ideas into tangible objects.

Find out more about Clare at her website: Sister Mountain

Follow her on Instagram @sistermountain

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🧶Join us at our next web...

TW: Cancer and bereavement

Susan Yaguda is passionate about knitting as a form self-care. She is an oncology nurse who has used knitting with both staff and patients at the Cancer Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina. These have included setting up a knitting group for people who are receiving chemotherapy and developing a study into whether knitting can help with the symptoms of 'chemobrain' (problems with memory and thinking after chemotherapy).

We also speak about the importance of supporting health care staff particularly since the pandemic, and the potential for offering knitting as a self-care...

It was an absolute pleasure to speak to Milli about her relationship with knitting. Right now she is the owner of Tribe Yarns, a yarn shop in Richmond-upon-Thames in London but she has also circumnavigated the globe on a yacht with her family and worked with Richard Branson as his CFO. Knitting has been a constant through all her adventures.

Milli also has a qualification in Applied Colour Psychology, and I really enjoyed learning about the theory behind how different colours can impact our mood and energy levels. Since experiencing Hurricane Irma, Milli tries not to become...

This week I was excited to be joined by Casey Bernard, who is one half of the Very Pink Knits podcast. I have listened to this podcast for several years now and particularly enjoy the conversations that Casey and Staci have about the differences between them and their relationship to their knitting and the dilemma of 'process versus project' knitting.

To find the full transcript see the blog post

To follow Casey on Instagram: @kc.knits

Her website is: kcknits.com

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for...

Nasreen (also known as @sewcraftynaz on Instagram) is a multi-crafter and relatively new knitter. She joins me on the podcast to talk about how craft has allowed her to connect to her mother who died when she was very young, and to her children who have inherited her love of making.

Nasreen also speaks about how making time for creativity is a really important part of her own self-care as a doctor and a parent of young children.

View the full transcript for this episode on the blog

You can follow the Nasreen...

Series two is starting with another 'pinch me' moment as I am joined by Meghan Fernandes and Lydia Gluck, the founders and creative directors of Pom Pom magazine! As you'll hear, discovering Pom Pom inspired me to become a garment knitter, which has completely changed my relationship with the clothes I wear.

It was such a pleasure to talk to Meghan and Lydia about their love of making and how this benefits their well-being on a daily basis.

View the transcript for this episode on the Captivate player

You can follow Pom Pom...

The podcast is back for series two on Thursday 3rd March. I am really excited to share another series of interviews with brilliant guests all of whom believe that knitting plays an important role in their mental wellbeing.

Dana Williams-Johnson, or DWJ is a doctoral student and professor of marketing at Howard University. She is also a passionate knitter of colourful sweaters for humans and very small dogs! She also writes a column for Modern Daily Knitting.

Dana and I speak about how her love of learning brought her to a knitting class and how she keeps on building on that knowledge year after year. She also speaks about how in the past year she has been recovering from multiple serious pulmonary embolisms, and how she has managed periods of not knitting.

View...

Lauren Brennan is the Managing Director of Project Knitwell, a charity dedicated to using knitting as a wellness tool and bringing this to people in hospital and community settings. Lauren speaks about her own journey in using to knitting to benefit her wellbeing as well as her involvement in project knitwell, bringing the joy and comfort of knitting to people in need.

View the transcript for this episode on the Captivate player

Find out more about Project knitwell at their website

Follow them on Instagram: @projectknitwell

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🧶Join us at...

LJ is the owner of Rusty Ferret Yarn and also speaks openly about how she has used knitting to manage anxiety and low mood. She has brilliantly named her new yarn range after her struggles with low mood. LJ speaks about knowing that she needed to do something with her hands in order to feel better, and how knitting helped her to manage a bereavement.

View the transcript on the captivate player

You can find out more about LJ's yarn at her website

Follow LJ on Instagram @rustyferretyarn

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🧶Joi...

Betsan Corkhill is internationally recognised as an expert in therapeutic knitting. Hear about how a stack of letters in a filing cabinet let to Betsan's career specialising in the therapeutic benefits of knitting and how she rebranded knitting as a 'rythmical bilateral psychosocial intervention' in order to get knitting taken seriously when discussing her research.

View the transcript for this episode on the captivate player

You can find out more about Betsan's work and reasearch at the Stitchlinks website

Find out more about Dr Mia Hobbs, the Why I Knit Podcast and sign...

TW: Homophobia, suicide and depression

James McIntosh taught himself to knit with chopsticks and string when he had been so low in mood that he couldn't leave his bed. He now credits knitting with saving his life.

See the transcript for this episode on the captivate player

James is the owner of McIntosh yarn, see their website

Follow James on Instagram: @knitmcintosh

Yarns, patterns and research discussed in this episode:

Erika knight men’s knits Men'sKnits A New Direction by Erika Knight - Yarn etc...

Pu...

Ros Edwards is a prolific knitter who has had a bed-bound illness for the past 5 years. Ros speaks about how knitting helps her to manage chronic pain and the psychological distress of her illness. Ros also speaks about the importance of the connections she has made in the yarn community, and that she uses her yarn and pattern purchases to demonstrate her values.

View the transcript on the captivate player

Follow Ros on Instagram: @rosem0nde

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how...

Atia Azmi is a knitter, sewer, blogger and podcaster who is known for her creative use of colour in her makes and her home. Atia speaks about the joy of using knitting as a creative outlet where she can combine colours.

Visit Atia's website: www.thebrightblooms.com

Follow Atia on Instagram @thebrightblooms

The Uncut podcast: Uncut Podcast

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with res...

The first episode of Season 1 will be released on 2nd December!

I have some amazing guests and can't wait to share our conversations with you.

You can follow me on Instagram @knittingistherapeutic or contact me via my website www.therapeuticknitting.org