Making Stitches Podcast

It hardly seems a year ago that I last followed the Yarn Walk to Skipton Auction Mart for Yarndale 2021. Last year saw the yarn festival based in North Yorkshire return after Covid, and this year it's celebrating it's 10th birthday. Seeing as I had such fun on my last visit, I had to return - not just to squish some gorgeous yarn - but to meet more lovely crafty folk.
This episode, the first of the sixth series of Making Stitches Podcast, is a snapshot of the fabulous day I spent at Yarndale 2022 last Saturday. You will hear from stall-holders and a chat I had with Eleonora Tully from Coastal Crochet who was on the workforce at the festival this year running workshops and giving a couple of talks.
Here are the people and businesses who feature in this episode - my thanks to everyone who spoke to me.
Janet Browne from Janet Browne Textile Art
Jodi from Cuddlebums Hand Dyed Yarns
Tanya Bentham from Opus Anglicanum Embroidery
Hannah Cross from Hanjan Crochet
Zuzana from Trava & Wool
Matt Farci from Scheepjes & Crojo.life
Sue Kimber from Farm Crafts
Jaki Bogg from Hot Butter Yarns
Eleonora Tully from Coastal Crochet
Carole Rennison from Hooked by Design
Yarndale Festival
To join the mailing list for the new Making Stitches Newsletter, please click onto this link.
For full show notes for this episode, please visit the Making Stitches website.
The music featured in this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from Melody Loops.
The Making Stitches logo was designed by Neil Warburton at iamunknown.
You can support Making Stitches Podcast with running costs through Ko-fi.
Making Stitches Podcast is supported by the Making Stitches Shop which offers Making Stitches Podcast merchandise for sale as well as Up the Garden Path crochet patterns created by me & illustrated by Emma Jackson.
Making Stitches Podcast is presented, recorded and edited by Lindsay Weston.

There are many strings to Tracy Fox's bow, she describes herself as a dyer, print maker and artist creating the most beautiful art fabrics in her home studio in Manchester. She also uses her fabric to make stunning art quilts and has exhibited her work and sold her cloth at various craft shows over the years. It was at one of those shows, the Nantwich Quilters Exhibition and Fabric Sale, that she was approached to take over the management and running of the show, which she has done ever since. Five years on, she's now launching another show, this time in Manchester - The Great Northern Textile Show will take place later this month.
The Great Northern Textile Show will showcase crafts people and artists from the worlds of textiles, quilting, yarn crafts, embroidery, felting, spinning and other disciplines. There will also be craft guilds and organisations on hand to help visitors learn new skills if they want to add to their own repertoires.
I went along to Tracy's home studio to hear about her own creative journey, the way she creates her beautiful fabrics and what she uses them for along with her hopes for The Great Northern Textile Show too.
You can find Tracy's website here, as well as her Facebook & Instagram accounts.
More information about the Great Northern Textile Show can be found here.
To join the mailing list for the new Making Stitches Newsletter, please click onto this link.
For full show notes for this episode, please visit the Making Stitches website.
The music featured in this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from Melody Loops.
The Making Stitches logo was designed by Neil Warburton at iamunknown.
You can support Making Stitches Podcast with running costs through Ko-fi.
Making Stitches Podcast is supported by the Making Stitches Shop which offers Making Stitches Podcast merchandise for sale as well as Up the Garden Path crochet patterns created by me & illustrated by Emma Jackson.
Making Stitches Podcast is presented, recorded and edited by Lindsay Weston.

Last Sunday, the first ever Great Northern Textile Show opened its doors to the public, welcoming crafters to mingle with artists and craftspeople from a wide range of disciplines and enjoy a celebration of creativity.
The event was Tracy Fox's idea - my guest for the previous episode of Making Stitches - as an artist, print maker and dyer of fabric herself, she felt there was a gap in the market for a show celebrating local talent in Manchester and the wider area. As a city built on textiles during the industrial revolution, Tracy believed there should be a showcase for talent from the world of textiles, and so, after much thought and meticulous planning, the Great Northern Textile Show was born.
I went along to experience it for myself and took my microphone with me to capture some of the atmosphere. I hope you enjoy listening to the conversations I had with some of the people I met there.
Thank you to everyone who spoke to me for this episode including:
Tracy Fox, the event organiser
Leah Higgins, artist
Louise from Sincerely Louise
Holly Palmer from Planet Quilts
Ian Fothergill from The Knitting Gift Shop
Tanya from the Woolly Tangle
Julie from Tilly Flop Designs
Christine and Ally from the International Feltmakers Association
Caroline from Montague Patchers in Sale
Liz Carrington from the North Cheshire Guild of Spinners, Weavers & Dyers
Helen & Carrie from the Yarn Addicts of Manchester
Great Northern Textile Show
To join the mailing list for the new Making Stitches Newsletter, please click onto this link.
For full show notes for this episode, please visit the Making Stitches website.
The music featured in this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from Melody Loops.
The Making Stitches logo was designed by Neil Warburton at iamunknown.
You can support Making Stitches Podcast with running costs through Ko-fi.
Making Stitches Podcast is supported by the Making Stitches Shop which offers Making Stitches Podcast merchandise for sale as well as Up the Garden Path crochet patterns created by me & illustrated by Emma Jackson.
Making Stitches Podcast is presented, recorded and edited by Lindsay Weston.

A chance experience at an airport back in March left its mark on Rafael Alcaide. On returning home to Madrid, Rafael saw a large group of Ukrainian women and children who had just arrived from fleeing the invasion in their homeland.
Wanting to do something to help, Rafael turned to his friend Rita, a crochet designer, and together they came up with a design for a small amigurumi bear which has become a symbol of resistance for the refugees. Within weeks, Amoami, a social enterprise was born and they began training the Ukrainian women in how to create the amigurumi bears - some of which had never crocheted before.
Soon other groups opened up across Spain and later in Switzerland too. To date, 40 women have been helped through Amoami. The organisation is able to help the women with the therapy of making the bears, it helps them settle into their new communities and pays them an income. People are able to support the group by buying the bears and so far bears have been sent far and wide, from the USA to Hong Kong as well as across Europe and the UK.
You can find out more about Amoami here, through their Facebook and Instagram accounts.
To join the mailing list for the new Making Stitches Newsletter, please click onto this link.
For full show notes for this episode, please visit the Making Stitches website.
The music featured in this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from Melody Loops.
The Making Stitches logo was designed by Neil Warburton at iamunknown.
You can support Making Stitches Podcast with running costs through Ko-fi.
Making Stitches Podcast is supported by the Making Stitches Shop which offers Making Stitches Podcast merchandise for sale as well as Up the Garden Path crochet patterns created by me & illustrated by Emma Jackson.
Making Stitches Podcast is presented, recorded and edited by Lindsay Weston.

Disposable fast fashion is a huge cause of pollution and damage to the environment, but one community benefit society in Manchester has been doing its bit to help for the past decade. Stitched Up! which is now based in Stretford Mall in Greater Manchester has been rescuing unwanted fabric and teaching sewing skills in a bid to help people get more out of their clothes and slow down the damage being done to the planet.
The organisation takes donations of unwanted fabric and sells it on to sewists at a discounted rate as well as offering workshops on everything from basic sewing skills, repurposing garments, make do and mend sessions and dressmaking techniques. Their pop up shop in Stretford also hosts a regular Repair Cafe where experts in other fields come along to help people get more life out of their belongings rather than simply throwing them away.
I went along to Stitched Up! to meet their events co-ordinator Sarah Revington, she told me all about the organisation's roots and its interesting plans for the future.
You can find out more about Stitched Up! through their website and YouTube channel.
To join the mailing list for the new Making Stitches Newsletter, please click onto this link.
For full show notes for this episode, please visit the Making Stitches website.
The music featured in this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from Melody Loops.
The Making Stitches logo was designed by Neil Warburton at iamunknown.
You can support Making Stitches Podcast with running costs through Ko-fi.
Making Stitches Podcast is supported by the Making Stitches Shop which offers Making Stitches Podcast merchandise for sale as well as Up the Garden Path crochet patterns created by me & illustrated by Emma Jackson.
Making Stitches Podcast is presented, recorded and edited by Lindsay Weston