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/

I am delighted to announce that Series 8 will be live next month!

I have had some really interesting conversations with my guests this series and I can't wait to share them with you.

In the meantime, if you'd like to be kept up to date on all the latest news you can sign up to the Creative Restoration Newsletter which is a montly round up of all our events, workshops, podcasts and blogs, along with an update on our own knitting projects!

You can sign up here: creative restoration

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 our first book club episode, Paula and Mia each discuss a book they have read on the subject of the psychology of craft.

Paula has read 'Craftfulness' by Arzu Tahsin and Rosemary Davidson

Mia has read 'Craft Psychology' by Dr Anne Kirketerp

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 newletter here

Follow Mia on Instagram: @knittingistherapeutic

Follow Paula on LinkedIn here

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/

Join Paula and I as we answer your questions about the field of knitting and mental health. Apologies that the audio quality isn't as good as usual for this episode, we tried out a new method of recording and had a few technical issues.

We'll be back at the end of the month with a Book Club episode!

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 newletter here

Follow Mia on Instagram: @knittingistherapeutic

Follow Paula on LinkedIn here

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 Dr Paula Redmond and I discuss another research paper into knitting and mental health.

The paper we discuss is: Joanna Nordstrand, A. Birgitta Gunnarsson & Greta HäggblomKronlöf (2024) Promoting health through yarncraft: Experiences of an online knitting group living with mental illness, Journal of Occupational Science, 31:3, 504-515,

The full text of this article is available here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14427591.2023.2292281#abstract

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 newletter here

Follow Mia on Instagram: @knittingistherapeutic

Follow Paula on LinkedIn here

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/