Cosy crafts: Why are textile hobbies still so popular?

Millie’s favourite place to crochet is her nan’s graveside, sitting on one of her blankets. Her backpack is usually crammed with a picnic, several colours of yarn and more crochet hooks than she needs. When she needs a break, Millie doesn’t scroll on her phone. She talks to her nan. 

“People think I'm mental because not only am I sat there till all hours, but I'm just talking,” she said. “It brings me peace. That is my true definition of comfort. That is like meditating to me.”

Millie Stewart crochets bags and accessories which she sells online. She posts videos of her making and modelling outfits on TikTok. But for the 21 year-old, it wasn’t a screen that introduced her to yarnwork. It was watching her grandmother knit. 

Every Christmas, she and her brothers would receive knitted blankets. “They’d fall apart if we blew at it too hard, but they were fabulous,” Millie said. “She carried on making them forever, even up until she was sick.”

After her nan died, Millie wanted to keep up the tradition. Setting herself the goal of making a blanket, she opted for crochet: using a single hook to build fabric one stitch at a time. 

“I'd be trying to picture her and channel her,” Millie said. “It almost felt like I was spending time with my nan and I think that helped me grieve.”

Alongside the connection to her grandmother, Millie was surprised to find the process of crochet helped her manage her ADHD.

“If you are neurodivergent and don't have any sort of creative outlet, your brain's going to find one,” she said. “It's just going to come out and appear in different ways that aren't healthy for you.”

Bethan Hammond learned to knit using YouTube videos to keep herself mentally stimulated during the Covid-19 pandemic. Six years later, the 31 year-old is combining knitting with her passion for crafting replica film props. 

“My family sort of joke and always say that if I'm sitting, I'm knitting,” Bethan said. Whether at home or at a cafe with friends, Bethan usually has something on her needles. 

“It's a meditative thing,” she said. “If your hands are busy, you can work through some of the things going on in your brain. It's the same reason people play with a fidget toy.”

For Bethan, it's as much about the practice as the product. “Within knitting there's product knitters and process knitters. You're either knitting because you want something finished, or you're knitting because you enjoy the actual work,” she said. “I'm a process knitter.”

While the result may be less important than the ritual, her creations have found grateful owners. “The very first thing I ever made was a dog scarf,” she said. “It was a really tiny little scarf, especially considering my dogs are chihuahuas.” 

Despite graduating to human-sized scarves and jumpers, canine neckwear wasn’t her only venture into animal fashion after a wool shop owner asked for help. 

“One of her close friends rescued some chickens and asked if any of her customers could knit jumpers for them because they were underweight- they didn't have enough feathers and were cold,” Bethan said. She knitted some jumpers and in gratitude, one of the birds was named after her. “Out there somewhere, there's a chicken called Beth wearing a little jumper.”

Bethan has also donated cardigans to maternity and neonatal wards. The few hours she spent making the tiny garments were worth it. “It's really rewarding to know it's going to be used by somebody.”