Dr Jen Unwin is a clinical and health psychologist who after retiring from her NHS role is now working with people with food addictions. She is a lifelong knitter who has herself found that knitting is an important part of her own self-care and because of this has also used knitting to benefit others as part of her work.

You can find out more:

Dr Jen Unwin

Instagram: @Jen_unwin

Twitter: @jen_unwin

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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

Eileen has been a knitter since she was a child, but returned to it recently during a challenging time in her life. She discovered a new love for knitting and has now started to create her own designs. Eileen speaks about how knitting has been a form of self-expression, and how she rarely keeps the things she knits, but she loves planning the perfect gift for someone....even if she has never met them.

Eileen Jack

Instagram: @cniotaillaimhe - follow the link in Eileen's bio to buy her patterns on Ravelry or Payhip

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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

Dr Paula Redmond is a clinical psychologist who specialises in working with healthcare professionals who have experienced burnout or workplace trauma. Paula and I met through the world of psychology, and I was delighted to meet another clinical psychologist who knits, and also speaks about creativity, including knitting, in her work. Paula speaks about her personal journey with knitting and how it benefits her mental wellbeing, as well as how she believes it can be helpful to her clients.

Dr Paula Redmond

Website: Paularedmond.com

LinkedIn: Paula Redmond

Facebook: Paula Redmond

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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

This week I am joined by Liz McNeil. Liz is a knitting coach who works for Knit Chats where she helps knitters with their knitting dilemmas and teaches classes about different techniques. Liz speaks about how knitting has helped her through the challenges of having small children, when finding tiny pockets of time for herself was particularly difficult. She also speaks about how knitting allowed her to access a community despite her frequent house moves.

Liz speaks about the following patterns:

Turtle knits Picky pants Ravelry: Picky Pants pattern by Theresa Belville

Bee keeper quilt Ravelry:the beekeeper's quilt pattern by tiny owl knits

Liz McNeil

Instagram: @weelittleknitter

Instagram: @KnitChats

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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

Although Carol Caprosa doesn't consider herself to be an 'expert knitter' she, along with the many volunteers working on behalf of Project Knitwell have brought the gift of knitting to thousands of people during stressful times in their lives.

It was amazing to hear the origin story of Project Knitwell, how returning to knitting when her daughter was very unwell as a newborn baby gave Carol the idea of teaching other people in hospital to knit.

Carol Caparosa

To find out more about Project Knitwell: Welcome! - Project Knitwell

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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

It was such a pleasure to meet Karie and speak to her about how she learned to knit and dressmake out of necessity as a very young child in rural Denmark. Then many years later, knitting helped her to recover from a serious illness and returning to it eventually lead to her career as a knitwear designer, teacher and writer.

I loved hearing about the importance of storytelling in Karie's designs, and particularly the way she talks about knitting as agency.

Karie mentions her Doggerland collection

Karie Westermann

kariebookish.net

Instagram: @kariebookish

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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

Series 3 is coming on 23rd June!

I am so looking forward to sharing another series of 6 conversations with knitters, designers and even another psychologist.

You can catch up on all the previous episodes at the website: Podcast | Why I Knit Podcast (therapeuticknitting.org)

CW: discussion of cancer, loss of fertility and depression

Liz O'Riordan is a breast surgeon who has herself experienced cancer, twice. She now works as a speaker, author and podcaster providing high quality and accessible information about cancer from her expertise as both a doctor and a patient.

Liz is also a lifelong knitter and more recently a sewer. Although Liz said that she often thinks that knitting is 'just something I do', throughout our conversation it becomes clear that knitting has accompanied Liz through some difficult times in her life and provided her with a sense of achievement, of comfort and a way of showing affection to her loved ones.

You can find out more about Liz's work at her website

Follow Liz on Twitter or Instagram

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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

Clare is a knitting pattern designer and design mentor. She learned to knit as a teenager and studied knitwear design but after working in the commercial fashion industry has found her niche designing patterns and helping other people learn to make their designs into reality.

It was great to hear the perspective of a pattern designer, as Clare loves being able to turn her ideas into tangible objects.

Find out more about Clare at her website: Sister Mountain

Follow her on Instagram @sistermountain

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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

TW: Cancer and bereavement

Susan Yaguda is passionate about knitting as a form self-care. She is an oncology nurse who has used knitting with both staff and patients at the Cancer Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina. These have included setting up a knitting group for people who are receiving chemotherapy and developing a study into whether knitting can help with the symptoms of 'chemobrain' (problems with memory and thinking after chemotherapy).

We also speak about the importance of supporting health care staff particularly since the pandemic, and the potential for offering knitting as a self-care intervention to prevent burnout.

You can find the full transcript for this episode on the blog.

You can follow Susan on Instagram @knitforhealth

Find out more about Project Knitwell

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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