Why I Knit

Latest Episodes:

Making something beautiful from the darkest places in life with Elizabeth Hammond Feb 08, 2024

Show notes

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!

Elizabeth

Instagram: @theknitchen

Ravelry: Elizabeth Hammond

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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

Feeding a part of my brain that needs to be fed with Ellen Coy Feb 01, 2024

Show notes

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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🧶 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 to connect mind and body with Madison Siegel Jan 25, 2024

Show notes

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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🧶 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

Reconstructing yourself through craft with Susie Bass Jan 18, 2024

Show notes

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 to Susie's work

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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

Putting slowness at the heart of life with Fran of Woollen Hearted Jan 11, 2024

Show notes

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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🧶 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

Loose Ends with Masey Kaplan and Jen Simonic Jan 04, 2024

Show notes

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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🧶 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

Series 6 coming soon! Dec 08, 2023

Show notes

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

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

Crochet is a reason to live with Kathryn Vercillo Jul 20, 2023

Show notes

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.amazon.com/Kathryn-Vercillo/e/B001JPC6IO

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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 for confidence and self-compassion with Jessica Hendrickson Jul 13, 2023

Show notes

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 new experiences is a superpower in her role as Design Director which requires her to come up with new designs and use new yarns on a daily basis.

Jessica and Lion Brand Yarn

Webiste: Lion Brand Yarn

Tom Daley's “Made With Love Collection," which will be

available for purchase in September 2023 at Michaels and on LionBrand.com.

Instagram: @lionbrandyarn

@jesssicaleee

@madewithlovebytomdaley

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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 to refill my mental health bucket with Dr Kaman Hansford Jul 06, 2023

Show notes

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 social media, so if you have any comments on this episode I am very happy to pass them on!

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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

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