Why I Knit

Latest Episodes:

Bonus episode - Knitting and Creative Restoration in 2025 Dec 18, 2025

Show notes

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 their next webinar on knitting for focus and attention.

Thanks to everyone for listening and supporting the podcast this year.

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🧶 Come and join our new community on Patreon! Perks include early access to podcasts, weekly behind the scenes videos and a monthly online knitting circle. This will enable us to connect more meaningfully with you all, grow the podcast and share more resources about knitting, creativity and wellbeing.

🧶 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 Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting

Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout

Knitting for Attention and Focus. We explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.

Here's how to stay in touch:

💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter

📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond

Mentioned in this episode:

Join our first Knitting Circle on 21st October at 7pm

We'd love you to join us at our first online Knitting Circle event - find out more at Patreon.com/Creative_Restoration

Book Club Episode - Wintering by Katherine May Nov 13, 2025

Show notes

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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🧶 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 Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting

Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout

Here's how to stay in touch:

💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter

📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond

Mentioned in this episode:

Join our first Knitting Circle on 21st October at 7pm

We'd love you to join us at our first online Knitting Circle event - find out more at Patreon.com/Creative_Restoration

Bonus episode - Knitting for burnout prevention with Dr Paula Redmond Oct 30, 2025

Show notes

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 Paula's clinical work in the area of burnout, or download her free Burnout Toolkit you can visit her website here: Dr Paula Redmond

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🧶 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 Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting

Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout

Here's how to stay in touch:

💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter

📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond

Mentioned in this episode:

Join our first Knitting Circle on 21st October at 7pm

We'd love you to join us at our first online Knitting Circle event - find out more at Patreon.com/Creative_Restoration

Journal Club - Knitting for anxiety and compassion fatigue in nurses Oct 02, 2025

Show notes

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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🧶 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 Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting

Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout

Here's how to stay in touch:

💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter

📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond

Mentioned in this episode:

Join our first Knitting Circle on 21st October at 7pm

We'd love you to join us at our first online Knitting Circle event - find out more at Patreon.com/Creative_Restoration

Healing and soothing through knitting with Dr Katya Miles Jul 31, 2025

Show notes

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 attracted to knitting and needlecrafts.

Connect with Katya

Website: Working Well Doctor

Instagram: @theworkingwelldoctor

Facebook: @theworkingwelldoctor

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🧶 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 Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting

Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout

Here's how to stay in touch:

💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter

📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond

Mentioned in this episode:

Join our first Knitting Circle on 21st October at 7pm

We'd love you to join us at our first online Knitting Circle event - find out more at Patreon.com/Creative_Restoration

Neurodivergence and knitting with Una Jul 24, 2025

Show notes

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: neurodivergentcraftclub

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🧶 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 Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting

Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout

Here's how to stay in touch:

💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter

📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond

Mentioned in this episode:

Join our first Knitting Circle on 21st October at 7pm

We'd love you to join us at our first online Knitting Circle event - find out more at Patreon.com/Creative_Restoration

Teaching children to knit with Okeyele-Olatunji Elizabeth Jul 17, 2025

Show notes

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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🧶 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 Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting

Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout

Here's how to stay in touch:

💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter

📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond

Mentioned in this episode:

Join our first Knitting Circle on 21st October at 7pm

We'd love you to join us at our first online Knitting Circle event - find out more at Patreon.com/Creative_Restoration

Creating Community with Allison Thistlewood Jul 10, 2025

Show notes

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 Joy is returning to Woolwich Works on 8th November - you can find more info on her website and sign up to her newsletter to be informed when tickets go on sale: https://champagneandqiviut.com/about-make-joy

Connect with Allison

Website: Champage & Qiviut

Instagram: @champagneandqiviut

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🧶 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 Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting

Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout

Here's how to stay in touch:

💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter

📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond

Mentioned in this episode:

Join our first Knitting Circle on 21st October at 7pm

We'd love you to join us at our first online Knitting Circle event - find out more at Patreon.com/Creative_Restoration

Hooked on knitting with Adam Cleevely Jul 03, 2025

Show notes

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 of using knitting, alongside therapy and medication, to support his journey in managing depression and about how it was able to offer him tangible results that he wasn't able to access in his previous career as a CEO. Recently Adam has knitting a colourwork sweater that is designed to promote conversations about mental health.

You can follow Adam on Instagram here: @cleevelyknits

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🧶 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 Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting

Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout

Here's how to stay in touch:

💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter

📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond

Mentioned in this episode:

Join our first Knitting Circle on 21st October at 7pm

We'd love you to join us at our first online Knitting Circle event - find out more at Patreon.com/Creative_Restoration

Knitting and the menopause with Dr Zoe Jun 26, 2025

Show notes

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 rely more on our daily coping strategies to manage this transition.

To connect with Zoe:

Instagram: @manchestermenopausehive

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🧶 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 Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting

Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout

Here's how to stay in touch:

💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter

📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond

Mentioned in this episode:

Join our first Knitting Circle on 21st October at 7pm