Why I Knit

Dr Hannah Barham-Brown is a GP and lecturer living in rural Scotland. Hannah speaks about learning to knit during lockdown around the same time she was diagnosed with ADHD, and found that this was something productive she could do with her hands.
Hannah speaks about bringing knitting to board meetings and as a lecturer, and advocates for this as a reasonable adjustment to help with focus. She talks about using knitting to access ‘active rest’ which has been particularly important during recovery from burnout, and how wearing handknits has helped her to avoid the small-talk that she hates!
Find out more about Hannah on Instagram, TikTok and Threads
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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

Knitting coach Nessa Hubbard joins me to discuss her own journey with knitting and crochet, going from being taught to knit as a very young child to help her to sit still to teaching other people to knit and crochet, and helping them to boost their skills and crucially also their confidence.
As someone with ADHD, Nessa speaks about feeling that knitting helps to hold her brain in a way that nothing else does and allows her to access immediate calm She also speaks about the sense of community that she has found through knitting.
To find out more about Nessa visit her website nessahubbard.com
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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

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
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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

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.
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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
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
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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