The Crochet Sanctuary

A Postcard from April 2026

~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello there! I hope April was kind to you. We have been blessed with some truly beautiful sunny days with blue skies and they have meant the gorgeous spring blossoms have been looking fantastic. From my own back garden, to walking down the street and visiting a university open day with Son number 2 this month, the one constant has been floral colour and it’s been spectacular.

An azalea in my back garden
Beautiful cherry blossom on a street I walked down
Stunning blossom at Keele University

So here’s what I’ve been up to last month…

Easter Weekend

The month of April kicked off with Easter this year and it was a lovely weekend for us. Eldest set aside some time from his studies to return home and we were able to spend a good chunk of time together which was lovely. We had a family meal (finished off with a gorgeous chocolate cake made by my Mum – Grandma’s Easter cakes are legendary in our household!), we got out for a lovely walk which included some very seasonably appropriate coffee! I made up some cute Easter jar lids for table decorations. The pattern is by @blossom.and.yarn on Instagram and was so easy to follow. This little collection of bunny ears worked up very quickly.

Another University Open Day

One sunny Saturday, I found myself back on my old stomping ground of Keele University with Son Number 2 who is considering it for his next step.

Keele has a very special place in my heart. I spent 3 of the happiest years of my life in this place and have lifelong friends and three very special young men in my life as a consequence of my time there.

I’m not sure if Keele will be his first choice for where he wants to study, but it was so lovely being back there briefly.

Vitamin Tree!

My word, I do love being out in the greenery of nature. We are blessed to have Dunham Massey, a National Trust property in our area and we made the most of the sunshine last weekend to pay it a visit. We got there relatively early in the morning before it got too busy and it was so lovely to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the place.

Big news!

I have been bursting to share this news… last week it was announced that I am going to be a guest designer at The Crochet Sanctuary! My appearance will be in October 2027 – so there’s a bit of time before then. Although I have been designing for over 5 years, this is the first time I have ever done anything like this – so it’s all very exciting!

If you are interested in coming along to join me and everyone else that weekend, you can book onto the weekend here: https://www.crochetsanctuary.co.uk/product-page/october-29th-31st-2027-774-per-person-50-deposit

A visit to Stockport

Early in April, I popped along the M60 to Stockport to visit a fantastic independent yarn shop called Manchester Wool & Yarn! It’s run by Gareth, who I met for the first time at TexStyle festival in March. We chatted then and he invited me to come and visit him in his fab yarn shop to record an episode of Making Stitches Podcast.

I have to confess that despite living back in Manchester for almost 6 years, I haven’t visited Stockport since my return. It was a place we often went to for a mooch around the shops when I was growing up, but it had fallen off my radar of late. I keep seeing posts about the vibrant independent shops which have sprung up in the town centre, and it was high time I returned!

It was lovely to actually see Manchester Wool & Yarn in real life after seeing so many of Gareth’s social media posts! It really is a delightful shop, packed full of beautiful yarn and lots if gorgeous hand dyed skeins created by North West yarn dyers.

Do please pop in if ever you are in that neck of the woods – it’s so nice.

And as for my podcast chat with Gareth, that came out last week – you can listen to it here!

Podcast news

The first podcast episode I released in April featured the amazing Anna Nikipirowicz, a hugely talented crochet designer, who is passionate about crochet, mosaic crochet, Tunisian crochet and embroidering on crochet too.

You can find her episode here.

And, of course there’s Gareth’s episode too! (Link to listen if above).

That’s all from me for this month, thanks for stopping by!

If you have a bank holiday weekend in your part of the world this weekend, I hope you enjoy it!

Lindsay x

A Postcard from March 2025

~ Making Stitches ~ 2 Comments

Hello there! Blimey, the end of March already…. I may be sounding a bit repetitive with these monthly postcards but where does the time go? The year is a quarter of the way through already and it’s showing no sign of slowing down!

It may be going fast, but March was a beautiful month for us here in my little corner of the world. We were so lucky to have quite a few beautiful bright sunshiny days.

Spring did its thing!

My word, the world does look a better place when the sun is in the sky! I really do love this time of year, the end of the long dark nights and cold weather begins as the spring flowers pop up and the acid green new leaves begin to appear on the trees.

The River Mersey

I find, at the minute, that the weeks are so full of school, work, after school activities and rushing and then the weekends also seem full of engagements, football matches and other things. It’s quite hard to be able to take a moment to stop and truly enjoy the beauty of the world around me. I luckily had a few short occasions to do this this month. First of all (top picture) was when I went to collect Youngest from an event in Cheshire. As I sat waiting for him to finish, I enjoyed the surroundings of fields and trees.

Then, one day when it was just me and son number 2, we took the chance to head for one of our favourite walks along the banks of the River Mersey near us. It was a beautiful day – the kind when you are reminded how lovely it is to feel the warmth of the sun on your back.

In the middle of our walk, we stumbled upon this lovely bunch of daffs bobbing about in the sunshine.

Clear bright days also often lead to lovely sunsets. Quite often I’m in the midst of cooking dinner when the sun is setting at present, but one evening, we had a parent’s evening at school, and as we came out we were greeted by this lovely sky!

What’s been on my hook lately

I felt compelled to make this Ukrainian inspired sunflower granny square after watching the news on the day of President Zelensky’s visit to the Oval Office. I was appalled at what I saw and felt utterly helpless. Hooking up a granny square doesn’t actually do anything in the grand scheme of things, but it made me feel a teeny bit better.

Sticking with the sunflower theme, we had a sustainability event at work this month and we were giving away packets of sunflower seeds to guests as they left. I thought the basket they were in needed a bit of decoration, so had a go at making this sunflower and bumble bee.

Crochet on the go…

There’s no such thing as a waste of time while sitting in a waiting room if you have a project to keep you company! I’m working on a cardigan as a birthday gift for my lovely Mum. As it was getting close to the deadline (ie: the birthday) I was taking my crochet with me everywhere.

I’m afraid to say I have missed the deadline – what was done was wrapped so she could open it, with the promise that it will be finished soon!

Spring Cleaning was the theme for a brilliant March Crochet Day at the Crochet Sanctuary at Cranage Hall Hotel in Cheshire. I do love my crochet days with the lovely folk at the Crochet Sanctuary!

I made a waistcoat stitch crochet basket and some waffle stitch crochet wash cloths.

A cuppa & a catch up

It had been about 10 months since the last time I’d had the chance to catch up with my lovely yarny friend Christine from Winwick Mum. I forgot to take any pictures of our time at Black Sheep Wools when we met other than our two tea cups – so you’ll have to take my word for it! It was lovely seeing her again and hearing all her news.

An afternoon with some footballing legends

Also this month, I got the chance to take my lovely Dad to the Lowry in Salford for an afternoon with some Manchester United legends. It was a great show with lots of jokes and laughter about the old days in the 1980s and 1990s at Old Trafford.

Podcast news

In March, there have been two episodes of Making Stitches Podcast. The first one featured a chat I had with a pair of friends, Jenni Smith & Kay Walsh, who have written a book called Menopause Makes filled with beautiful sewing projects to help ease menopause symptoms and get people sewing. You can find out more information about this episode here.

Next up was a chat I had with Justine Robson, a crochet teacher and all round fabulously creative person. Justine started the Carry on Crafting Festival after having a dream about putting one on! She is also the current custodian of Little Box of Crochet. You can find out all about our chat here.

Making Stitches 2025 CAL March Square

I decided to go for spring flowers as the theme of the Making Stitches 2025 CAL square this month. They give me such optimism for the future and the warmer days to come. Plus the colours are stunning!

I was thrilled to see that again, literally within hours of publishing the pattern, some March squares began to appear in my Instagram feed. You have no idea how happy it makes me to see other people making my patterns and enjoying them too. Thank you to everyone who has joined in with the CAL so far!

I will be sharing Part 4 tomorrow evening, I do hope you like it when you see it!!

That’s all for this time. Thank you for stopping by and I hope April is kind to you!

Lindsay x

Summer Craft Challenge 2021 (Week 3)

~ Making Stitches ~ 2 Comments

Hello there, I’m a bit late with this post – it should’ve been written on Saturday – but hey, it’s the school summer holidays so we’re just rolling with it…

Here’s what I got up to last week in my crafty challenge 😊

Day 15 : Saturday 7th August

More festive leaves on the hook for day 15.

Day 16 : Sunday 8th August

My pile of Daisy hexies is growing… perhaps not as quickly as I had envisioned. I don’t think this blanket will be finished this summer somehow!

Day 17 : Monday 9th August

Summer craft challenge Day 17 went on the road… or perhaps that should be the train! I began a project I’ve been keeping on the back burner for a special occasion – a Little Box of Crochet designed by the lovely ladies The Crochet Sanctuary @Lynda-Rose & Lisa. I got half way through my heart which was made between Manchester & London.

Then I got to visit a place I’ve wanted to go to for aaaaages….. Liberty of London! ahhhh! Those fabrics, all the beautiful things….

I may have accidentally made a teeny-weeny fabric purchase 🤪

Day 18 : Tuesday 10th August

Managed most of the second half of my heart on the train home but I was utterly pooped and ran out of steam. The miles we covered on foot and public transport was bonkers (40,000 steps in less than 48 hours), but it was a very informative trip looking at possible places for Eldest to study next year – eek.

Day 19 : Wednesday 11th August

I made a crown and a chubby squidgy heart!

Day 20 : Thursday 12th August

Thursday’s crochet was all about leaves again!

Day 21 : Friday 13th August

A second project finished! I’ve been waiting over a year to make this and it was well worth the wait – a beautiful heart pincushion designed by The Crochet Sanctuary ladies for Little Box of Crochet. I love it!

That’s all for this installment of my summer craft challenge. I hope I can keep it up – I seem to be powering through my projects which is great. Onwards….

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Lindsay x

Bank Holiday Monday Postcard #28 31.5.21

~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello there, I hope you’re enjoying your bank holiday! We’ve been enjoying the most glorious sunny and warm weather this weekend – it’s almost felt like being back in Gibraltar!

The wildlife has been enjoying the sun in the garden as much as I have!

Since I last wrote a postcard the fair came to town! Littlest was the only one who was interested so we had a trip on the dodgems and got wet bottoms from sitting in a puddle and then got whirled round on the twister. This though, was a step too far for us…..

In podcast news, Making Stitches is up for an award! If you have listened and think I deserve a vote, the voting is open until 19th June and you can vote for Making Stitches in the Specialist Interest category here.

The latest episode of Making Stitches featured the inspiring Heather Griffith from HG Designs Crochet. She told me all about her creative journey from a career in law to full time crochet designer. You can hear her episode here.

Heather Griffith from HG Designs Crochet

Crochet news

It’s finished – the vintage granny strip cardigan designed by Fran Morgan for Simply Crochet Magazine. My shortest creation (for me) from start to finish of about 6 weeks. I love it, and got it finished just in time for….

The Crochet Sanctuary!

On Saturday morning I drove to Knutsford in Cheshire for the Crochet Samctuary. I had wanted to attend a sanctuary for ages, I interviewed Lisa and Lynda-Rose the organisers back in March last year for the first episode of Making Stitches Podcast and on Saturday I got to meet them in person for the first time.

It was a wonderful day, full of crochet, lovely people and just chilling! I loved every minute and can highly recommend it if you get the chance to go yourself. The theme was cherry blossom and we made a lovely tea-cosy, napkin rings and egg cosy. I opted for two napkin rings in place of the egg cosy and am very pleased with them.

That’s all I’ve got for you this time. I hope life’s treating you well and that the sun’s been shining where you are.

Take care,

Lindsay x

Sunday Postcard #18 3.1.21

~ Making Stitches ~ 8 Comments

Hello and happy New Year!

I hope you have had a decent festive period, it’s been rather muted but also rather nice to be at home too with no pressure to attend events either. We now find ourselves in Tier 4 like much of England and my friends in Gibraltar are in lockdown due to a huge spike in Covid cases there after being relatively unscathed until this point. I do hope they manage to get things under control over there very soon.

I’m having an internal debate about when to take the decorations down, there’s something a bit sad about packing the twinkly lights away for another year and yet there’s something nice about having clear surfaces and a fresh start too, maybe I’ll do it tomorrow…

Anyway, here’s this week’s Sunday Postcard and the first one of 2021.

First snow! ❄️

It was a big day in our house when we woke up to this on Monday. A generous dusting of white stuff had arrived while we slept and for Littlest it was his first experience of snow ever!

It was such a treat to see and completely changed the way I look at my new garden, I feel very lucky to have a little patch to call our own especially now we are effectively back into lockdown.

It was also rather fun to sit by the window and crochet snowflakes while looking at the real thing outside!

After the snow came the freezing fog which enveloped us in a rather murky gloom for an entire day. I found it quite atmospheric although not everyone in the house agreed.

Then more snow arrived on New Year’s Eve…. and a heavier dusting.

Doesn’t it just make everything look magical?

Mission accomplished!

I set myself the challenge of completing my Christmas Eve blanket (pattern by The Crochet Sanctuary) by the end of the year seeing as I had missed my initial Christmas target (whoops). I didn’t manage to finish the border but the blanket is finished for now (last stitches completed on New Year’s Eve) so I’ll take that as a win. I love how it looks and really chuffed I managed to pull off the mosaic crochet Christmas trees too – my first attempt at that technique and I love the effect.

Party time

My word, I know how to party. A new crochet project in front of Jools Holland’s Hootenany is how I rolled on New Year’s Eve! I did have a few bubbles though curtesy of my lovely brother and sister in law’s Christmas gift hamper! Cheers!

Since New Year we haven’t really done anything of note, a bit of preparation for the return (or non-return) to school and a bit more crochet for me. I will share more pictures when and if they are worth showing!

I will leave it here for now and hope you are doing ok where ever you are and whatever restrictions you are facing. I had a look at my ‘best nine’ photos on Instagram and it’s a sign of the times that my lockdown rainbow featured, I’m glad it was filled with two of my favorite things though – crochet and Gibraltar!

Until next week, take are and thanks for stopping by!

Lindsay x

Sunday Postcard #17 27.12.20

~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello there! I hope you have had a decent Christmas – it’s been a strange one hasn’t it? Just like probably everyone else, we had a quiet one seeing limited people, but it was nice nonetheless. Now it’s the countdown to the end of the year and all that 2021 will bring – good things I hope!

Here’s this week’s Sunday Postcard…

Del Boy…

Last Sunday as Littlest and I popped out for a walk to deliver the last of our local Christmas cards, we were stopped in our tracks by a certain yellow Robin Reliant belting out music and shouting happy Christmas messages to bemused looking passers-by! It was quite a sight!

A Manchester Bee for our tree

As I picked up the last few last minute gifts for Christmas I happened across a fabulous selection of stalls in John Lewis in the Trafford Centre called Curated Makers. It’s a cooperative of local makers who create the most lovely crafts of all sorts. I treated myself to a Manchester bee for our tree. You can find Curated Makers on Instagram.

A pre Christmas walk at Dunham Massey

When we first arrived in Manchester in the summer I imagined that we would be regular visitors to our nearest National Trust property ‘Dunham Massey’ however because I didn’t have a National Trust membership at the time and because of lockdown that didn’t happen until this week. I treated us to a NT membership and booked for us to visit the deer park and gardens. It was wonderful.

The grounds were decorated for a special after dark Christmas experience but we enjoyed it in the daylight.

It’s such a lovely tranquil place and was managed so well by the staff and volunteers to be Covid safe. We will be back again soon if we can.

Christmas visitors

When we first moved into our new home in October, we bought a bird feeder for the back garden. It’s been rather unloved by our feathered friends so far but this week there were sparrows and thrushes fighting to get to the seed! Word must have got out that there were tasty treats available! I look forward to seeing many more birds in future!

Finished for Christmas?

‘Christmas Eve’ blanket from The Crochet Sanctuary

Did I finish my Crochet Sanctuary Christmas CAL in time for Christmas? Sadly not, but I am on the final part, so I’ll take that as a win! I’m hoping I can manage to get it finished before the end of the year if I possibly can.

Happy Stitchmas in podcast news!

On Christmas Day morning the latest episode of Making Stitches went online. This extra long bumper Christmas episode features several different makers sharing their ‘Stitch Stories’ from 2020. Among my guests were Eleonora from Coastal Crochet and Lisa & Lynda-Rose from the Crochet Sanctuary as well as four Making Stitches listeners who spoke to me about how their crafts have helped them this year.

You can listen by searching for Making Stitches on your favourite podcast app or just Google Making Stitches.

Thank you Eleonora!

Eleonora is top middle of the above mosaic

My lovely blogging friend Eleonora from Coastal Crochet published the most amazing blog post today all about Making Stitches! I’m utterly thrilled and chuffed to bits that she did this for me. Do please have a read…. you can find it here.

Eleonora’s Instagram post from today featuring Eleonora in a rather lovely red coat on Christmas Eve!

And that brings this week’s Sunday Postcard to an end. Thank you for stopping by. Do take care of yourself, and I’ll be back again soon. Happy New Year when it comes.

Lindsay x

Sunday Postcard #008 20.9.20

~ Making Stitches ~ 2 Comments

Hello and happy Sunday to you, I hope the sun’s shining with you today. Here’s this week’s Sunday Postcard:

Vitamin Tree

Last Sunday, much like today, we were enjoying some glorious sunshine here in the North West of England. We decided to make the most of what may well be our last few days of summer, packed a picnic and jumped into the car to head for Worden Park nearly Chorley in Lancashire.

We visited the park for the first time last summer after it was recommended by a family friend. It took about 45 mins to drive there from our home in Manchester along nice quiet motorways and we were rewarded with wide open spaces and beautiful trees. Long time readers of this blog will know I am a tree lover. You really need a bit of Vitamin Tree in your life every so often wouldn’t you agree?

Worden Park is basically the estate of a formerly grand house. The house is no longer standing but some of the outbuildings remain which are now artisan workshops and a lovely little tea room and some of the formal gardens have been retained too, including a rather stately yew tree which was planted by Queen Victoria (sadly I didn’t photograph that).

As we are in the market these days for outdoor walks where we won’t see too much of other people, Worden was perfect. Although many, many other people had been drawn out to enjoy the wide open spaces and fresh air, in the most part we were all well distanced away from them. It was a bit of a bottleneck in the formal garden (see above) although we quickly negotiated our way through there.

Although it felt warm enough to be a summer’s day, the first signs of autumn were in evidence as some of the leaves had started to turn. There will be an amazing show of colour here in the weeks to come I imagine.

I can never make up my mind how I feel about autumn. When I was away in Gibraltar for the past 11 years, where the seasons don’t have the same impact (mainly because the weather doesn’t change as dramatically and many trees there are evergreen), I really missed autumn. I had a real fondness for misty mornings, dew drops on cobwebs and crunching through fallen leaves.

Now that we are about to experience our first autumn back in England since our move, I’m looking forward to the colours which lie ahead (although sadly not the smells as my sense of smell is still to recover fully from Covid), but I’m also feeling a little sad that it marks the end of summer. I’m sure I’m not alone in that…

Perhaps the sense of uncertainty and unknown about the winter that we are heading into adds to that slight sense of unease about autumn too. Never mind, we will all go through it together, and all being well will be fine.

Sunny Monday morning

How about that for a sky? This is what I gazed up to after walking Littlest to school on Monday morning. What a belter. I can handle more of this kind of September weather thank you very much!

Mmmm delicious!

We had apple & bramble crumble for pudding one evening this week. It was very nice!

On the mend

Midweek I began to feel very tired, and then I succumbed to a rather nasty cold. The Little Postcards had it too in varying degrees but it hit me hardest. There was nothing for it other than to go to bed for a couple of days (well as much as you can do with young people to look after). I’m pleased to say I am now well and truly on the mend and even felt up to a bit of crochet . I really had better get a move on with this summery Little Box of Crochet wreath before winter!!

Birthday time

There was a Little Postcard birthday this week, there are now 2 teenagers in the house – wish me luck!!

Because of our current state of half unpacked/half packed-ness after our move from Gibraltar and our impending move to our ‘forever’ home, I have no idea where my cake tins are. So it was a shop bought birthday cake this time!

Podcast update

Making Stitches Podcast is back, my goodness I’ve missed making these episodes over the summer! This time I’ve decided to release an episode once a fortnight as weekly would be too much for me to manage at the moment bearing in mind we have another house move coming up in the next few months. This week I decided to revisit some of my guests from last series and get up to date with them.

You can find the podcast by searching for Making Stitches in your favourite podcast app or by clicking onto this link.

And that brings this week’s Sunday Postcard to an end. I hope this coming week is a good one for you!

Lindsay x