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.

Here's how to stay in touch:

💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter

📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond

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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🧶Join us at our first Live Webinar The Healing Power of Knitting: unravelling the science behind knitting and mental health on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm BST to find out all about how and why knitting benefits our mental health.

🧶 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.

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 us at our Live Webinar: The Healing Power of Knitting

Join us on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm BST for our first Live Webinar: The Healing Power of Knitting: unravelling the science behind knitting and mental health. This is your chance to learn about the psychological theory behind how and why knitting feels so essential to our well-being. This is a webinar based on all the available research evidence into knitting and mental health, along with the themes from over 50 Why I Knit podcast interviews with knitters about how knitting has made a difference in their lives. Paula and I have pulled this together and combined it with our knowledge of psychological theory to help explain how and why knitting helps. This is an hour long webinar followed by a live q and a. We would love for you to join us on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm British Summer Time. If you can’t make it live, you can still buy a ticket and access the recording at a time that suits you. You can get your ticket at https://creativerestoration.org/events/

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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🧶Join us at our first Live Webinar The Healing Power of Knitting: unravelling the science behind knitting and mental health on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm BST to find out all about how and why knitting benefits our mental health.

🧶 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.

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 us at our Live Webinar: The Healing Power of Knitting

Join us on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm BST for our first Live Webinar: The Healing Power of Knitting: unravelling the science behind knitting and mental health. This is your chance to learn about the psychological theory behind how and why knitting feels so essential to our well-being. This is a webinar based on all the available research evidence into knitting and mental health, along with the themes from over 50 Why I Knit podcast interviews with knitters about how knitting has made a difference in their lives. Paula and I have pulled this together and combined it with our knowledge of psychological theory to help explain how and why knitting helps. This is an hour long webinar followed by a live q and a. We would love for you to join us on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm British Summer Time. If you can’t make it live, you can still buy a ticket and access the recording at a time that suits you. You can get your ticket at https://creativerestoration.org/events/

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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🧶Join us at our first Live Webinar The Healing Power of Knitting: unravelling the science behind knitting and mental health on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm BST to find out all about how and why knitting benefits our mental health.

🧶 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.

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 us at our Live Webinar: The Healing Power of Knitting

Join us on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm BST for our first Live Webinar: The Healing Power of Knitting: unravelling the science behind knitting and mental health. This is your chance to learn about the psychological theory behind how and why knitting feels so essential to our well-being. This is a webinar based on all the available research evidence into knitting and mental health, along with the themes from over 50 Why I Knit podcast interviews with knitters about how knitting has made a difference in their lives. Paula and I have pulled this together and combined it with our knowledge of psychological theory to help explain how and why knitting helps. This is an hour long webinar followed by a live q and a. We would love for you to join us on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm British Summer Time. If you can’t make it live, you can still buy a ticket and access the recording at a time that suits you. You can get your ticket at https://creativerestoration.org/events/

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 to speak about their experience of their joint knitting project. We also discuss their work in the field of menopause and their reflections on how knitting can be particularly beneficial to our mental wellbeing at this time of life.

Connect with Dr Carys Sonnenberg:

Website: Rowena Health

Instagram: @drcaryssonnenberg

YouTube: Two Doctors Chat Menopause

TikTok: Carys Sonnenberg

Connect with Dr Sarah Ball

Website: Health in Menopause

Instagram: @drsarahmollyball

Connect with Sharon Hartmann

Instagram: @sharonhartmann

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🧶Join us at our first Live Webinar The Healing Power of Knitting: unravelling the science behind knitting and mental health on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm BST to find out all about how and why knitting benefits our mental health.

🧶 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.

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 us at our Live Webinar: The Healing Power of Knitting

Join us on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm BST for our first Live Webinar: The Healing Power of Knitting: unravelling the science behind knitting and mental health. This is your chance to learn about the psychological theory behind how and why knitting feels so essential to our well-being. This is a webinar based on all the available research evidence into knitting and mental health, along with the themes from over 50 Why I Knit podcast...

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 interesting to hear how he intentially uses knitting to manage stress and to get his reflections on being a man who knits.

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🧶Join us at our first Live Webinar The Healing Power of Knitting: unravelling the science behind knitting and mental health on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm BST to find out all about how and why knitting benefits our mental health.

🧶 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.

Here's how to stay in touch:

💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter

📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond

Connect with Martyn

YouTube: Knit365

Substack: Knit365

Instagram: @welsh_tenor

Mentioned in this episode:

Join us at our Live Webinar: The Healing Power of Knitting

Join us on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm BST for our first Live Webinar: The Healing Power of Knitting: unravelling the science behind knitting and mental health. This is your chance to learn about the psychological theory behind how and why knitting feels so essential to our well-being. This is a webinar based on all the available research evidence into knitting and mental health, along with the themes from over 50 Why I Knit podcast interviews with knitters about how knitting has made a difference in their lives. Paula and I have pulled this together and combined it with our knowledge of psychological theory to help explain how and why knitting helps. This is an hour long webinar followed by a live q and a. We would love for you to join us on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm British Summer Time. If you can’t make it live, you can still buy a ticket and access the recording at a time that suits you. You can get your ticket at https://creativerestoration.org/events/

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 to create something meaningful in those moments.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Connect with Beth

Website: adaptive knitter

Instagram: @adaptiveknitter

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🧶Join us at our first Live Webinar The Healing Power of Knitting: unravelling the science behind knitting and mental health on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm BST to find out all about how and why knitting benefits our mental health.

🧶 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.

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 us at our Live Webinar: The Healing Power of Knitting

Join us on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm BST for our first Live Webinar: The Healing Power of Knitting: unravelling the science behind knitting and mental health. This is your chance to learn about the psychological theory behind how and why knitting feels so essential to our well-being. This is a webinar based on all the available research evidence into knitting and mental health, along with the themes from over 50 Why I Knit podcast interviews with knitters about how knitting has made a difference in their lives. Paula and I have pulled this together and combined it with our knowledge of psychological theory to help explain how and why knitting helps. This is an hour long webinar followed by a live q and a. We would love for you to join us on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm British Summer Time. If you can’t make it live, you can still buy a ticket and access the recording at a time that suits you. You can get your ticket at https://creativerestoration.org/events/

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 illustrate the methods and design used, which you can find here.

Citation: Rossi Sebastiano, D., Muscio, C., Duran, D. et al. Crochet increases attention through a requiring motor skill learning. Sci Rep 15, 4141 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88777-9

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🧶Join us at our first Live Webinar The Healing Power of Knitting: unravelling the science behind knitting and mental health on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm BST to find out all about how and why knitting benefits our mental health.

🧶 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.

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 us at our Live Webinar: The Healing Power of Knitting

Join us on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm BST for our first Live Webinar: The Healing Power of Knitting: unravelling the science behind knitting and mental health. This is your chance to learn about the psychological theory behind how and why knitting feels so essential to our well-being. This is a webinar based on all the available research evidence into knitting and mental health, along with the themes from over 50 Why I Knit podcast interviews with knitters about how knitting has made a difference in their lives. Paula and I have pulled this together and combined it with our knowledge of psychological theory to help explain how and why knitting helps. This is an hour long webinar followed by a live q and a. We would love for you to join us on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm British Summer Time. If you can’t make it live, you can still buy a ticket and access the recording at a time that suits you. You can get your ticket at https://creativerestoration.org/events/