Advertise on podcast: Why I Knit

Tommy gurumi on instagram This week on the podcast I am delighted to be joined by Thomas, who is known online as Tommygurumi. Thomas talks about learning to knit accidentally on a long car journey to impress someone, and then finding his own particular love for creating knitted models of characters. Probably unlike most knitters, Thomas usually knits things that don’t have an existing pattern, which means that he has to do a lot of trial and error and figuring things out himself, which is a big part of the process that he enjoys. It was a pleasure to hear Thomas’s enthusiasm for knitting and to hear how it allows him to access both a sense of calm for a busy mind as well as recreating a type of wonder and joy that he remembers from childhood. I really hope you enjoy this episode. Find out more about Thomas on Instagram or TikTok ------------- 🧶 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 community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle.

Salina Jane is an artist and knitter who brilliantly captures the feelings many of us have about our knitting in her art work. It was a pleasure to speak to Salina about her experience of using knitting throughout her recovery from a recent period of illness, and how she uses both knitting and visual art to tell human stories. You can find out all about Salina's work at her website Salina Jane Art or on Instagram or Ravelry. ------------- 🧶 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 community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle. Join our community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle.

This week I am delighted to be joined by yarn dyer and yarn shop owner Kitey, who is also known as The Yarn Whisperer. Kitey speaks about his journey from crochet to knitting, and how dying yarn unexpectedly brought together lots of different parts of his heritage. He also reflects on the importance of keeping some craft projects for himself as someone who works in the yarn industry, and the creative collaboration that happens when we combine yarns with a pattern and then add our own interpretation of it. To find out more about his yarns and shop visit The Yarn Whisperer or follow him on Instagram ------------- 🧶 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 community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle.

Series 10 returns for a series of interviews exploring why we knit and how knitting benefits our mental health. This week I am joined by Lydia who is the Co-founder of Weku Yarn which she runs alongside her sister Hannah. You may also know Lydia as one of the finalists from the first series of Game of Wool. Lydia joins me to speak about how she learned to knit, how her relationship with knitting has changed and evolved over recent years, including the times that high levels of stress has meant that she didn’t feel able to pick up her knitting needles. It was a pleasure to hear Lydia’s journey from knitting for pleasure into a business, and then her reflections on her time as a contestant on Game of Wool. You can find out more about Lydia’s yarn at @wekuyarn on Instagram or at her website ------------- 🧶 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 community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle. Join our community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle.

Series 10 is on the way, and with it a new and exciting development! We have created a Patreon Community and we'd love you to join us there - the perks for supporting the podcast will include early access to episodes, our behind the scenes weekly videos and you can join us at our monthly online knitting circle. We are really looking forward to growing the community element of Creative Restoration so we really hope to see you there. Find out more here: Join the Community Series 10 of the podcast will return on Thursday 10th September with a series of 7 new interviews. We can't wait to share them with you. ------------- 🧶 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: How to support the podcast Thank you so much for listening. If you value the podcast and would like to support it, here's how: 1. Sign up to our monthly newsletter here: https://creativerestoration.org/newsletter/ 2. If you've enjoyed the podcast please leave us a rating and a review to help others hear about it. 3. Please consider sharing the podcast on social media or send it to a friend who might enjoy it. Thank you so much for your support, we really appreciate it.

In this Journal Club episode Dr Paula Redmond joins me to discuss a journal article about using knitting in a center for drug and alcohol rehabilitation. This is a narrative of a knitting group within a rehab center for women living with addiction. The paper is here: Duffy, K. (2007). Knitting through recovery one stitch at a time: Knitting as an experiential teaching method for affect management in group therapy. Journal of Groups in Addiction & Recovery, 2(1), 67–83. https://doi.org/10.1300/J384v02n01_04 [1, 2] Unfortunately the full text is not available for free, but anyone in the UK can access it via a local library. ------------- 🧶 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 community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle.

This week Dr Paula Redmond joins me to discuss how knitting can help with depression and low mood. We've chosen three episodes of the podcast in which my guests have discussed using knitting as a strategy to help with low mood, and we discuss our reflections and themes from these conversations. The episodes we listened to were: Series 4 episode 1 with Ellen of Sew and Inspire Series 1 episode 3 with James McIntosh Series 5 episode 6 with Kathryn Vercillo ------------- 🧶 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 community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle.

This week Paula and I discuss the journal article investigating whether knitting can reduce anxious thoughts in people diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. Find the article here: Clave-Brule, M & Mazloum, A & Park, Rebecca & Harbottle, E. (2009). Managing anxiety in eating disorders with knitting. Eating and weight disorders : EWD. 14. e1-5. 10.1007/BF03354620. ------------- 🧶 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 community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle.

In this bonus book club episode Paula joins me to discuss two great books about art, health and well-being. Both books take a deep dive into the research into how the arts impact on our health, well-being and education. Mia has read the New York Times bestselling book: Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. This is a summary of research across different areas of the arts and how the impact on health, welll-being and learning. Paula has read Art Cure by Daisy Fancourt who has conducted a huge amount of research in the field of arts and health. We share our thoughts on these books and how the relate to knitting and what might be happening in our brains when we knit. ------------- 🧶 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 community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle.

For this journal club episode we discuss the commonly made claim that knitting can reduce blood pressure. We discuss the origins of this claim in the research and look at a new paper which examines the impact of a creative handicraft group, which included knitting, on a group of older adults living in a residential home. You can find a link to the abstract and reference here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/psyg.70044?af=R To find out more about Self-Care One Stitch at a Time: an audio course ------------- 🧶 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 community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle.

This is our first bonus relisten episode where Paula and I choose 3 episodes on a theme and relisten to them and give our reflections. This month we are listening to 3 episodes with knitters who discuss their experiences of ADHD and how they use knitting to benefit their well-being as an ADHD knitter. If you'd like to listen back, the episodes we discuss are: Una S8E8 Madison Siegel S6E4 Lisa Silver S4E4 If you'd like to see the full list of episodes featuring discussions of ADHD you find them on the blog ------------- 🧶 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 community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle.

This week Paula and I discuss a research paper about knitting and attention in children. Sonnier F, Lussiana E and Gueraud S (2023) Boosting inhibition control process by knitting at school. Front. Psychol. 14:1062001. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1062001 This study is specifically focussed on whether knitting can affect our executive function skills, and found that primary school children had significant better scores on a test of inhibition after 20 minutes of knitting compared to spending 20 minutes at recess. They also found that knitting reduced the impact of emotion on response times. You can read the full text here ------------- 🧶 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 community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle.

For the final episode of series 9 I am joined by Simon, also known as Veteran Knitter and one of the contestants from Game of Wool, the knitting and crochet based TV show in the UK. Simon speaks about how he first came to pick up some knitting needles and his journey from a secret knitter who handed out hand knit gifts to his surprised friends and family, to going public on Instagram and then taking his knitting onto our TV screens. We speak about his experience of telling his work colleagues on a building site that he is a knitter, and how he uses knitting to help him bring his focus into the present. Connect with Simon on Instagram and TikTok ------------- 🧶 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 community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle.

This week I am delighted to be joined by Annah of Needle and Feather. Annah is a designer of colourwork knitting designs often inspired by nature and if you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen that I am enjoying knitting her Year by Piece blanket which is made up of a square inspired by each month of the year. Annah speaks about turning to knitting during a period of anxiety when she needed a small achievable creative project to keep her brain busy and to give her a sense of acheivement. Connect with Annah: @needleandfeather on Instagram Needle and feather on Ravelry ------------- 🧶 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 community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle.

Clinical Psychologist and author Nicole Nehrig joins me this week to discuss her own relationship with knitting and how this lead to writing the book 'With Her Own Hands: Women Weaving Their Stories' in which she explores the meaningful role that textile work has played in so many women’s lives. Find out about Nicole Nehrig ------------- 🧶 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 community on Patreon! We'd love you to join us on Patreon - you can support the podcast while accessing perks such as early access to new episodes, our weekly behind the scenes videos and join our monthly online knitting circle.