For Mental Health Awareness Week
As Mental Health Awareness Week draws to a close, the truth is that the conversations it opens up need to keep going. Struggles don’t check a calendar. They don’t pack up neatly when the campaign ends or quietly wait their turn. If you've found yourself staring at your lace pillow, yarn basket or sewing machine with a numb kind of disinterest lately, you're not alone. Losing your craft mojo can feel unsettling, especially when creativity has always been your safe harbour. It’s tempting to panic, to feel as though something precious has been misplaced for good. But that feeling doesn’t mean your love for your craft has gone. It simply means your mind and body might be asking for something else right now. And that is perfectly all right.
In my very first podcast I talked how crafting for mental health is so very important. I've know days, even months where it has been so hard to pick up a bobbin, let alone make a piece. I have felt guilt at not being in the right place to create. Craft, like any creative pursuit, ebbs and flows. And so does mental health.
Back in 1999, I was so ill that I put my bobbins down and didn't pick them up for nearly 2 years.
During that time Pam Nottingham became my friend. Not in real life, but through her books. I was so shattered that I couldn't get out of bed some days, even to go to my local lace group. So, Pam was the person that I fell asleep reading and the one that I turned to when I was in my darkest places. As I walked alongside the metaphorical 'black dog' I would bring Pam with me. When I finally was at a point to start to think about making anything, a cake, a stitch, wind a bobbin, it was her and Briget Cook who helped me get my lace mojo back. I turned to Pam's seminal book on Bucks Point and used Bridget's Practical skills in bobbin lace to help me with the techniques and made my mum a small piece of lace for her doll's house.
This year's Mental Health Awareness week is focus on community. Being married to a someone who enjoys the fact that he can do his own thing but know I'm 'around creating stuff' in the house is a blessing. But more of a blessing is how he pushes me out of the door every friday just before 7pm so that I go to a friend's house to knit, crochet or wind my bobbins. We moved to our new house on Maundy Thursday, 2022. I cannot express how wonderful it was to move. I associated the other house with so many bad memories and as I work from home, it has become my refuge with it's warm and bright spots in my office and our large kitchen. My lace and craft books surround me in mine and hubby's offices here and we have bobbins on display in our sitting room to remind me that I create. Hubby has even got me large wicker baskets to keep my current yarn projects in and there are lace pillows scattered through the house on stands. This has been done to keep me in the midst of my craft rather than to hide it away when I have hard times, mentally. 
And, if it comes to a Friday and I am burnt out from the week, then my friends expect me to come along and just sit there with a cuppa and a biscuit and enjoy the chat.
During lockdown, I missed this type of interaction so I set up an online yarn group that met weekly for 2 hours. It was a lifeline to us all. This is the community that is important.
So, if you're currently adrift then here are a few thoughts:
1. Be gentle with yourself Try not to see the absence of craft as failure. Step away if you need to. Let yourself rest. Rest is not laziness, and silence in your hands is not a loss of identity. It’s simply a pause.
2. Keep an eye on your wellbeing
It can help to check in with your general health. Are you sleeping? Eating? Speaking kindly to yourself? The Mental Health Foundation has some gentle resources that speak to these things, all framed around this year’s theme of Movement: Moving More for Our Mental Health. You can find their support and tips here: Mental Health Awareness Week.
3. Stay lightly tethered to your craft world
Even if you're not actively making, stay close to your creative circle. That might mean popping into a craft group for a cuppa and a chat, or simply scrolling through lace patterns without any pressure to start something. Connection keeps the light on.
4. Give yourself permission to play
If your main craft feels like too much, try something smaller. Colouring in. Finger knitting. A tiny cardboard loom. A paper snowflake. Craft doesn't need to be polished or purposeful. It can just be for now.
If this week has sparked something in you, don’t let the end of the campaign silence that spark. Download the tips pdf.
Keep talking. Keep noticing. And when you’re ready, your craft will still be waiting for you.
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