Series two is starting with another 'pinch me' moment as I am joined by Meghan Fernandes and Lydia Gluck, the founders and creative directors of Pom Pom magazine! As you'll hear, discovering Pom Pom inspired me to become a garment knitter, which has completely changed my relationship with the clothes I wear.

It was such a pleasure to talk to Meghan and Lydia about their love of making and how this benefits their well-being on a daily basis.

View the transcript for this episode on the Captivate player

You can follow Pom Pom on Instagram @pompommag

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.

🧶 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.

🧶Catch up on our on-demand webinars:

The Healing Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting

Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout

Here's how to stay in touch:

💌 Sign up to the Creative Restoration newsletter

📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond

Patterns mentioned in this episode:

Vellamo Sweater

Quadrillion Sweater

Vivo Mittens

The Uncommon Thread Yarn

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:03

Hello, and welcome back to series two of the Why I

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:06

Knit podcast. My name is Dr Mia Hobbs and I'm a clinical

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:10

psychologist who's passionate about knitting and its benefits

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:13

for our mental wellbeing. Each episode I interview a different

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:16

knitter about why they knit and how it benefits their mental

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:20

health. For the first episode of series two, I'm delighted to be

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:23

joined by Meghan Fernandes and Lydia Gluck, the founders and

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:26

creative directors of Pom Pom magazine. As you'll probably be

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:30

able to tell, I'm a big fan of Pom Pom. You can find links to

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:34

all of the yarns and the patterns we discuss, and to Pom

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:37

Pom magazine, in the show notes.

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:45

Hi, Meghan and Lydia, welcome to the podcast.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:00:48

Hello, thank you for having us.

Lydia Gluck: 00:00:50

Hi!

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:51

Hi, you're welcome. I wonder if it's helpful just for

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:54

audio purposes for you each to just introduce yourself so

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:57

people know from your accents!

Lydia Gluck: 00:01:00

Hi, yes, my name is Lydia, and you can tell that I

Lydia Gluck: 00:01:03

am British. And that's probably the main way that you're going

Lydia Gluck: 00:01:05

to be able to tell the difference between Meghan and I!

Meghan Fernandes: 00:01:10

Yep. And I'm Meghan, and I'm here in Austin,

Meghan Fernandes: 00:01:13

Texas, with my American accent.

Mia Hobbs: 00:01:16

So it's early in the morning for you, Meghan.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:01:19

Yeah, it's eight o'clock in the morning.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:01:20

But I have already had plenty to do today. So I'm happy to to be

Meghan Fernandes: 00:01:26

here at eight o'clock in the morning.

Mia Hobbs: 00:01:28

Super. Well, thank you so much for joining me on

Mia Hobbs: 00:01:31

the podcast. I always start with asking where your story with

Mia Hobbs: 00:01:35

knitting began personally. Meghan, do you want to start?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:01:40

Sure. I learned to knit from my

Meghan Fernandes: 00:01:43

boyfriend's mother when I was in high school, so when I was 16.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:01:49

And I wanted to learn and she was eager to teach me and I just

Meghan Fernandes: 00:01:55

spent a couple of days on her sofa with her helping me when I

Meghan Fernandes: 00:02:01

needed it. And yeah, she made me knit a whole sweater as my first

Meghan Fernandes: 00:02:07

project! So it was a good introduction.

Mia Hobbs: 00:02:11

Wow! Do you still have it?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:02:13

I have parts of it. As you can imagine, as

Meghan Fernandes: 00:02:17

the first project, it did not turn out wonderfully, so I have

Meghan Fernandes: 00:02:21

parts of it repurposed into different things. So I still

Meghan Fernandes: 00:02:25

have the yarn.

Mia Hobbs: 00:02:28

It's found a new life elsewhere.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:02:29

Yes. [Laughs]

Mia Hobbs: 00:02:32

Did you carry on knitting straight away?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:02:34

Yeah I did, I think! Well, I was 16 then. And

Meghan Fernandes: 00:02:39

then a couple years later, I went to university and I

Meghan Fernandes: 00:02:45

definitely was knitting there. So yeah, I've never really

Meghan Fernandes: 00:02:48

stopped since then.

Mia Hobbs: 00:02:51

Great. And how about you, Lydia?

Lydia Gluck: 00:02:53

Well, I'm pretty sure that my mum did teach me to

Lydia Gluck: 00:02:56

knit when I was little, maybe like seven or eight, something

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:00

like that. But it didn't really stick then. So I properly

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:05

started knitting when I was at university. So I was like, I

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:08

think, 19 or 20. And it happened because one of my housemates at

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:13

the time had taken up knitting and she was making a garter

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:16

stitch scarf, as people do often when they start... not Meghan of

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:19

course, Meghan made a jumper! [Laughs]

Mia Hobbs: 00:03:20

A high achiever! [Laughs]

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:24

But yeah, so this friend of mine, Jess, was

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:27

knitting. And I was like, "Oh, you know, I'll have a go on

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:30

that!". And not long after then I went home for, I think, maybe

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:34

an Easter or summer holiday back to Wales, where I grew up. And

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:38

it was raining, as it often does in Wales, and so I spent quite a

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:41

lot of time inside teaching myself to knit. And in

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:44

retrospect, it's really weird that I didn't ask my mum or my

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:47

granny to just show me how but it didn't really occur to me. So

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:50

I just taught myself from a book, and I think haven't really

Lydia Gluck: 00:03:56

stopped for very long since then. I was pretty into it

Lydia Gluck: 00:04:01

straightaway.

Mia Hobbs: 00:04:03

And I know Lydia, from listening to the Pomcast,

Mia Hobbs: 00:04:07

that you're generally a creative person, so I'm assuming you've

Mia Hobbs: 00:04:09

tried lots of different creative hobbies. What do you think made

Mia Hobbs: 00:04:14

knitting stick? I don't know if it is the main one for you...?

Lydia Gluck: 00:04:18

I mean, actually, I learned to crochet. So when I

Lydia Gluck: 00:04:20

was teaching myself to knit, the book that I bought myself had

Lydia Gluck: 00:04:24

both crochet and knitting. And crochet I found a lot easier to

Lydia Gluck: 00:04:28

start with. So I started off with crochet but learned to knit

Lydia Gluck: 00:04:32

not long afterwards. Yeah, especially when I was at

Lydia Gluck: 00:04:38

university, and maybe didn't have loads of space and loads of

Lydia Gluck: 00:04:41

access to... you know, because I wasn't at art school, I didn't

Lydia Gluck: 00:04:43

have access to facilities there. Knitting is small, it's

Lydia Gluck: 00:04:49

portable, it's something that you can pick up and put down

Lydia Gluck: 00:04:54

quite easily without having to make a lot of space for it. And

Lydia Gluck: 00:04:56

I think especially when I was living in shared houses, perhaps

Lydia Gluck: 00:04:59

that's why it stuck. But also I just think I found it really

Lydia Gluck: 00:05:03

addictive. And it's kind of hard to say why, isn't it? Why some

Lydia Gluck: 00:05:06

things just kind of click, but I think there was just something

Lydia Gluck: 00:05:09

about it. I've always loved clothes and had a lot of fun

Lydia Gluck: 00:05:13

with colours and clothes. So I think the fact that I was able

Lydia Gluck: 00:05:16

to make myself little things to wear or things for my friends

Lydia Gluck: 00:05:21

was a lot of fun. And I think there's just something about the

Lydia Gluck: 00:05:24

repetitive nature of it that obviously I found quite

Lydia Gluck: 00:05:28

appealing.

Mia Hobbs: 00:05:29

How about you, Meghan? Why do you think it

Mia Hobbs: 00:05:31

stuck?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:05:34

Well, I agree, you know, there's something

Meghan Fernandes: 00:05:36

about knitting and crochet. The portability of it, and being

Meghan Fernandes: 00:05:42

able to multitask, I think is really appealing. I think,

Meghan Fernandes: 00:05:49

because I knit so much and it was so addictive early on, that

Meghan Fernandes: 00:05:53

I quickly learned how to read and knit at the same time, or

Meghan Fernandes: 00:05:58

watch TV or listen to a podcast or sit on the bus. You can

Meghan Fernandes: 00:06:02

always do something else while you're doing it, and I think

Meghan Fernandes: 00:06:07

that's really appealing. And it makes you feel productive and

Meghan Fernandes: 00:06:12

like you've accomplished something, even when you're

Meghan Fernandes: 00:06:17

standing in line at the post office or something like that.

Mia Hobbs: 00:06:20

Do you think you're a natural multitasker?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:06:22

I must be! [Laughs]

Mia Hobbs: 00:06:25

For myself, I think my brain likes to kind of go

Mia Hobbs: 00:06:28

freelancing if I'm just sitting watching a zoom training or

Mia Hobbs: 00:06:32

something. I feel like it really helps me, to be able to knit

Mia Hobbs: 00:06:35

then.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:06:36

Yeah, yesterday at Pom Pom our team

Meghan Fernandes: 00:06:40

had a big meeting that could have been quite boring [laughs].

Meghan Fernandes: 00:06:43

It was sort of about statistics from all of our different areas

Meghan Fernandes: 00:06:49

of expertise, from sales to social media, you know, all the

Meghan Fernandes: 00:06:53

different things, and I think Lydia was darning, I was

Meghan Fernandes: 00:06:58

crocheting, during that meeting. And yeah, I think it's really

Meghan Fernandes: 00:07:03

useful to allow your brain to kind of relax and let the

Mia Hobbs: 00:07:07

It must be so nice to be not the only person doing it!

Mia Hobbs: 00:07:07

information...

Mia Hobbs: 00:07:10

I've never experienced being on a training when I wasn't the

Mia Hobbs: 00:07:15

only person knitting. And I guess the other thing is there

Mia Hobbs: 00:07:19

to be a basic assumption that you can still be paying

Mia Hobbs: 00:07:23

attention when you're doing that.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:07:24

Yes. It's nice, because I feel like I did

Meghan Fernandes: 00:07:28

do knitting in university, during lectures or whatever, and

Meghan Fernandes: 00:07:33

be the only one. People who don't understand are like, "Are

Meghan Fernandes: 00:07:38

they really paying attention?", you know? But yeah, it's pretty

Meghan Fernandes: 00:07:44

standard at Pom Pom.

Mia Hobbs: 00:07:48

It'd be lovely to hear about how your knitting

Mia Hobbs: 00:07:50

stories then collided and created Pom Pom magazine.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:07:56

Yeah, I mean, it was 10 years ago now, right?

Mia Hobbs: 00:07:59

Happy birthday!

Meghan Fernandes: 00:08:01

Thanks! I think we started talking about

Meghan Fernandes: 00:08:03

it in January 10 years ago. So like, down to the month,

Meghan Fernandes: 00:08:06

probably. We worked together at the knitting shop Loop in

Meghan Fernandes: 00:08:12

London.

Mia Hobbs: 00:08:13

Was that at Cross Street? In the first location?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:08:16

Yeah, in the little one!

Mia Hobbs: 00:08:17

Because I actually used to come in there. I lived

Mia Hobbs: 00:08:19

around the corner at the time.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:08:21

Well, you probably saw one of us. [Laughs]

Meghan Fernandes: 00:08:26

And then Lydia went to Mexico for a while, and lived there.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:08:31

And then when you came back, I was pretty much like, "Let's do

Meghan Fernandes: 00:08:34

something. What are we gonna do?" But we had both recently

Meghan Fernandes: 00:08:41

finished MAs, and Lydia's was in linguistics and mine was in

Meghan Fernandes: 00:08:45

English literature, and we were, I guess, both kind of at loose

Meghan Fernandes: 00:08:49

ends. I don't know if that's true for you. But yeah, I didn't

Meghan Fernandes: 00:08:54

really know what I was doing with my life. We kind of decided

Meghan Fernandes: 00:09:00

that we wanted to create a project. And working in the shop

Meghan Fernandes: 00:09:06

was lovely and so inspiring, and we saw a lot of magazines coming

Meghan Fernandes: 00:09:12

through and saw there wasn't really something that really

Meghan Fernandes: 00:09:16

spoke to us. So we decided to do it kind of as an experiment, I

Meghan Fernandes: 00:09:20

feel like! And then it went really well.

Lydia Gluck: 00:09:23

Yeah, I feel like we went into it, like you said,

Lydia Gluck: 00:09:29

like an experiment or a creative project. We didn't launch a big

Lydia Gluck: 00:09:33

branded business. We didn't really have a business plan.

Lydia Gluck: 00:09:37

[Laughs] And I feel like we've said quite a lot since that,

Lydia Gluck: 00:09:42

perhaps, it's good that we didn't think it through too

Lydia Gluck: 00:09:46

much, because we might have been overwhelmed by it. In fact, I'm

Lydia Gluck: 00:09:50

pretty sure we would have been overwhelmed by the amount of

Lydia Gluck: 00:09:53

work it was going to be, and about the amount of things that

Lydia Gluck: 00:09:55

we didn't know about publishing. I mean, Meghan had a bit of a

Lydia Gluck: 00:09:59

background in publishing, and we had people we could talk to, and

Lydia Gluck: 00:10:02

we did the research we needed to do. And like Meghan said, we

Lydia Gluck: 00:10:05

were in the shop, kind of seeing what was going on in the

Lydia Gluck: 00:10:08

knitting world. Well, in that corner of the knitting world.

Lydia Gluck: 00:10:12

But yeah, it's amazing that it's been 10 years.

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:19

Mmm. Well, I'm really glad you did. I think sometimes

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:22

that happens with knitting. If I look back on it, I think, "What

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:26

was I doing starting that really ambitious project or thinking I

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:29

could knit this thing without a pattern that I would never do

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:32

now that I know more about how these things work!" But because

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:36

I was naive and didn't know any better I just went for it. And

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:38

actually, sometimes, I mean, certainly in your case with Pom

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:41

Pom magazine, it's worked out I think, guys! [Laughs] I'd love

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:48

to hear more about... I know, Meghan, when we spoke about

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:50

setting up the interview, you said that you guys often talk

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:52

about the role of knitting on mental wellbeing and that that's

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:58

something you guys feel strongly about. I'd love to hear a bit

Mia Hobbs: 00:11:01

more about how you think knitting benefits your mental

Mia Hobbs: 00:11:05

health. Lydia, do you want to start?

Lydia Gluck: 00:11:07

Sure, yeah. It's definitely something that both

Lydia Gluck: 00:11:13

Meghan and I have spoken about, and we as a team. And then it's

Lydia Gluck: 00:11:16

also something that comes up a lot in conversations about

Lydia Gluck: 00:11:19

knitting with people I know who don't knit. I think there's

Lydia Gluck: 00:11:22

probably been a bit more awareness recently about the

Lydia Gluck: 00:11:27

benefits of doing things like knitting. But for myself,

Lydia Gluck: 00:11:30

personally, I think what we spoke about already, you know,

Lydia Gluck: 00:11:35

that if you're somebody who maybe finds it hard to sit still

Lydia Gluck: 00:11:38

and concentrate on something, it can be a really nice way to kind

Lydia Gluck: 00:11:42

of quiet that part of your brain that's quite sort of fidgety.

Lydia Gluck: 00:11:46

Like, I'm a real fidgeter by nature. If I'm not knitting, I'm

Lydia Gluck: 00:11:49

probably fiddling with my hair relentlessly or something. I

Lydia Gluck: 00:11:52

can't seem to keep my hands still. So I think that's good,

Lydia Gluck: 00:11:58

because it allows me to concentrate better, and then to

Lydia Gluck: 00:12:01

feel better subsequently about myself. Because I think it's

Lydia Gluck: 00:12:06

easy to be hard on yourself, if you're struggling to concentrate

Lydia Gluck: 00:12:09

on something, and if you can find a way to manage that,

Lydia Gluck: 00:12:12

whichever way works for you (and for me, for example, knitting or

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:13

For you, does it matter what it is you knit? Is

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:15

crochet works) then that's a positive. And I just feel like

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:20

it's that nice feeling of being able to see your time. So you

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:24

can kind of see maybe you didn't get up to much over the last

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:28

couple of weeks, for whatever reason, maybe you just didn't

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:31

want to, or nothing really came up that you wanted to make plans

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:35

for. It's nice to be able to look back and be like, "Oh,

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:39

yeah, maybe I started a pair of socks, or maybe I even finished

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:43

them. Or maybe I just decided on some colours for something that

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:46

I want to make." And it kind of gives shape to time in that way,

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:49

which I think can be quite reassuring.

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:58

all knitting equal?

Lydia Gluck: 00:13:02

I think the way that I knit has changed over the

Lydia Gluck: 00:13:05

years, and I think it used to be that I would quite often want to

Lydia Gluck: 00:13:08

make really challenging things. And nowadays, at least at the

Lydia Gluck: 00:13:13

moment - you know, that could change again - but at the

Lydia Gluck: 00:13:15

moment, I feel like I mainly am drawn to knitting things that I

Lydia Gluck: 00:13:20

find relatively straightforward. So for example, I could listen

Lydia Gluck: 00:13:23

to something at the same time, or be doing something else at

Lydia Gluck: 00:13:27

the same time. So in that way, it kind of matters like gauging

Lydia Gluck: 00:13:30

what kind of project I want to make, what kind of energy do I

Lydia Gluck: 00:13:35

have at the moment. And I guess there are certain things that I

Lydia Gluck: 00:13:39

just really like. I just love making socks, big fan of making

Lydia Gluck: 00:13:43

socks. I'm always constantly making socks. I really like

Lydia Gluck: 00:13:48

making things I can wear, I suppose, for want of a better

Lydia Gluck: 00:13:54

way of putting it.

Mia Hobbs: 00:13:54

And will you think more about the end product or

Mia Hobbs: 00:13:56

more about the process? For me, I think more about the process.

Mia Hobbs: 00:14:02

The more I knit, I'll think "I need to do some colourwork" or

Mia Hobbs: 00:14:04

"I need to do some cables". And then I'll find something that

Mia Hobbs: 00:14:07

fits that, that I always want, but...

Lydia Gluck: 00:14:10

Yeah, I think it's a balance. I think that for me,

Lydia Gluck: 00:14:13

what I want from my knitting at the moment is something a bit

Lydia Gluck: 00:14:20

steadier and less challenging. That will kind of inform what I

Lydia Gluck: 00:14:23

decide to make. Because it might be that I'm drawn to a certain

Lydia Gluck: 00:14:27

pattern, but I just think, "You know what, maybe now isn't the

Lydia Gluck: 00:14:30

right time and I'll come back to that when I'm feeling a bit more

Lydia Gluck: 00:14:33

ambitious".

Mia Hobbs: 00:14:36

How about you, Meghan?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:14:39

Well, I feel like there's so many parts of

Meghan Fernandes: 00:14:41

it. Like Lydia was saying about that feeling of being at a loose

Meghan Fernandes: 00:14:47

end or if you're not really getting up to much, which I

Meghan Fernandes: 00:14:49

think a lot of us can relate to in the last couple years. But I

Meghan Fernandes: 00:14:53

remember before we started Pom Pom and before I kind of... I

Meghan Fernandes: 00:14:58

don't want to say figured out what I was doing with my life

Meghan Fernandes: 00:14:59

because I don't know that I've still done that [laughs]. But

Meghan Fernandes: 00:15:03

when I didn't have a job and I was really kind of aimless,

Meghan Fernandes: 00:15:11

knitting and (on Ravelry) cataloguing my projects, having

Meghan Fernandes: 00:15:17

that sense of accomplishment every day was really good for

Meghan Fernandes: 00:15:21

me. And the sense of community that came from that, even though

Meghan Fernandes: 00:15:26

a lot of it was online at the time, was really helpful. I will

Meghan Fernandes: 00:15:32

say, there have been different times in my life where

Meghan Fernandes: 00:15:35

something's going on with a friend or even with me, or big

Meghan Fernandes: 00:15:41

life changes, if someone has been ill, or even died, or

Meghan Fernandes: 00:15:48

having a baby, whatever it is, sometimes knitting, either for

Meghan Fernandes: 00:15:53

them or not even for them, but just sort of processing that

Meghan Fernandes: 00:15:57

information while you're making something is really helpful. And

Meghan Fernandes: 00:16:04

it's almost like a form of release or a way of just working

Meghan Fernandes: 00:16:10

through that information but physically with your hands, and

Meghan Fernandes: 00:16:15

creating something out of that. And even if it's something that

Meghan Fernandes: 00:16:18

I've just kept for myself, or whatever, it's still really

Meghan Fernandes: 00:16:22

helpful. But yeah, I think one of the main benefits of knitting

Meghan Fernandes: 00:16:31

to my mental health is colour, and being able to play with

Meghan Fernandes: 00:16:35

colour, and you can be so specific about what colours you

Meghan Fernandes: 00:16:40

are using and what you're going to be looking at for hours and

Meghan Fernandes: 00:16:44

hours and hours. I feel like colour really has that huge

Meghan Fernandes: 00:16:48

impact on my personal mental health inside.

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:53

Sorry about that. So you were saying that colour is a

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:56

big part of why knitting feels therapeutic, so you get to kind

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:59

of combine different colours. And I think that's a really good

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:02

point that you actually have a long relationship (or I do!)

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:06

with the knitting project when it's in your hands, because I'm

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:09

not necessarily that fast. But I might decide I really want a

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:14

yellow jumper or something, and that cheers me up while I'm

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:17

working on it and then afterwards, too. How about you,

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:20

Lydia?

Lydia Gluck: 00:17:22

Oh, yeah, that's pretty much my favourite thing

Lydia Gluck: 00:17:27

ever anyway, and so to be able to work with colour in knitting

Lydia Gluck: 00:17:32

is just one of the great joys. And actually, there's exactly

Lydia Gluck: 00:17:36

what Meghan said, there's an aspect of processing things, and

Lydia Gluck: 00:17:42

it's kind of a meditative thing in a lot of ways. But there's

Lydia Gluck: 00:17:44

also an aspect of distraction, and I think that that's okay; I

Lydia Gluck: 00:17:48

think a certain amount of distraction... not a

Lydia Gluck: 00:17:51

pathological amount where you're ignoring things, but just if

Lydia Gluck: 00:17:54

there's a lot going on and things are tough for whatever

Lydia Gluck: 00:17:58

reason, then sometimes it's just really nice to take a moment if

Lydia Gluck: 00:18:02

you can, and just be like, "I really like the way those two

Lydia Gluck: 00:18:04

colours look together" and just allow yourself to get involved

Lydia Gluck: 00:18:08

in something that you do have control over, to a certain

Lydia Gluck: 00:18:12

extent. Obviously we've all had projects go wrong and continue

Lydia Gluck: 00:18:14

to do so, but even when they go wrong, you can unravel them and

Lydia Gluck: 00:18:19

have another go, and that in itself I find really comforting.

Lydia Gluck: 00:18:23

And so I think sometimes it's quite nice to just be like, "I'm

Lydia Gluck: 00:18:26

just gonna think about this for a little bit and pause the other

Lydia Gluck: 00:18:30

things."

Mia Hobbs: 00:18:31

Yeah, I think that's a really good point. And

Mia Hobbs: 00:18:32

actually, it's not something that's come up, I don't think,

Mia Hobbs: 00:18:34

in the podcast so far, but I think certainly in Coronavirus

Mia Hobbs: 00:18:40

times, there have been times where I felt like I needed

Mia Hobbs: 00:18:43

something that was within my control. And that was to choose

Mia Hobbs: 00:18:47

some sparkly navy blue yarn for socks with little flashes of

Mia Hobbs: 00:18:50

rainbows that I could be in control of when everything else

Mia Hobbs: 00:18:55

was big and scary and not in my control at all.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:18:57

I think that's a really good point about the

Meghan Fernandes: 00:19:02

unravelling because I was talking to some quilters

Meghan Fernandes: 00:19:05

recently, and I was like, "Oh, sewing freaks me out." Because

Meghan Fernandes: 00:19:09

once you cut into that fabric, you can't go back. So it's

Meghan Fernandes: 00:19:12

something particular about knitting and crochet where there

Meghan Fernandes: 00:19:15

is that reassurance that you can just unravel it and start over

Meghan Fernandes: 00:19:17

again. That's really nice.

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:19

Yeah, absolutely. I've been running therapeutic

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:21

knitting groups and that's something we've been practising:

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:24

the idea of making safe mistakes. In knitting, unless

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:28

you get the scissors out, you really have got always what you

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:32

started with, even if it goes terribly wrong. And I felt the

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:37

same about sewing, actually. I did start dressmaking and the

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:40

idea of cutting into the fabric... there's no going back

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:43

from that, is there? [Laughs] And also with your point about

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:46

portability, I think after having children that certainly

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:51

made knitting more accessible for me, because I could knit in

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:55

five minutes when I wasn't ever sure how long a nap was going to

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:58

last; whereas to get a sewing machine out or... I guess with

Mia Hobbs: 00:20:02

other hobbies like art or things, there might be more

Mia Hobbs: 00:20:06

things you can't take around with you, like you can with

Mia Hobbs: 00:20:09

knitting.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:20:11

Yeah, I agree. [Laughs] I mean, I was able to

Meghan Fernandes: 00:20:16

knit while I was feeding a baby, early on, which is huge.

Mia Hobbs: 00:20:23

Good skills, good commitment! [Laughs] And what

Mia Hobbs: 00:20:27

kind of things are you drawn to, Meghan, at the moment in terms

Mia Hobbs: 00:20:32

of what knitting floats your boat right now?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:20:34

I agree with Lydia that I like to knit things

Meghan Fernandes: 00:20:37

that I can wear. I do make things for my kids, but they

Meghan Fernandes: 00:20:42

don't appreciate them as much as I do. [Laughs] I'm not

Meghan Fernandes: 00:20:50

monogamous with the types of things that I knit. But I've

Meghan Fernandes: 00:20:55

been doing a lot more crochet recently. I do like to make

Meghan Fernandes: 00:20:58

garments even though in Texas I don't need them that often! But

Meghan Fernandes: 00:21:04

living here has meant that I'm experimenting with other plant

Meghan Fernandes: 00:21:09

fibres and figuring out what I can wear in Texas when it's hot.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:21:17

But yeah, everything! But I have been on a little bit of a

Meghan Fernandes: 00:21:22

sweater kick since August.

Mia Hobbs: 00:21:26

Sure. Do you mind what type? I can see you're

Mia Hobbs: 00:21:28

wearing colourwork at the moment. In terms of technique,

Mia Hobbs: 00:21:33

does it matter to you?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:21:35

No, it doesn't matter. [Laughs] But I think I

Meghan Fernandes: 00:21:40

am into projects with more than one colour, because it's fun.

Mia Hobbs: 00:21:45

So you like combining those colours as well?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:21:47

Yeah. And I've gotten to a point now where I

Meghan Fernandes: 00:21:51

shouldn't really buy yarn. So not having a sweater quantity of

Meghan Fernandes: 00:21:57

one colour means that I have to figure out how to mix them

Meghan Fernandes: 00:22:01

together.

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:02

Okay. Yeah, just an added challenge! And in terms of

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:09

thinking about the benefits to your mental health, how much is

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:11

that also true of the things that you've made if you're

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:14

making garments and then wearing them afterwards? Because I

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:17

suppose for me, I feel like I still get a boost to my mood on

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:22

days when I can wear something I've made. And maybe people also

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:25

notice and ask about it. I don't know about you guys...?

Lydia Gluck: 00:22:30

Yeah, like we've been saying colour is, for us at

Lydia Gluck: 00:22:35

least, one of the great joys of knitting and making things. I

Lydia Gluck: 00:22:41

tend to sort of stay in love with colours, you know, I might

Lydia Gluck: 00:22:44

find new colours that I love, but it's pretty rare for me to

Lydia Gluck: 00:22:47

change my mind about and no longer like one. So if I've

Lydia Gluck: 00:22:51

chosen a colour for a jumper, or whatever it is, pair of socks or

Lydia Gluck: 00:22:54

a hat, that every time I wear it, I'm just like, "I love this

Lydia Gluck: 00:22:57

colour!" And it's also just a nice feeling to have made

Lydia Gluck: 00:23:00

something that you wanted, and you got to make it and maybe you

Lydia Gluck: 00:23:04

have a nice connection to the yarn in some way or to the

Lydia Gluck: 00:23:06

pattern in some way. Or maybe you have memories of when you

Lydia Gluck: 00:23:09

were making it and who was around or who you were talking

Lydia Gluck: 00:23:12

to, and it kind of brings all of that back. And also, selfishly,

Lydia Gluck: 00:23:16

I like it when people are like, "Oh my god, I love your jumper!

Lydia Gluck: 00:23:18

Did you make it?" Then you're like, "Yeah!" I always say that

Lydia Gluck: 00:23:21

winter, as it starts to get cold, at least for the more

Lydia Gluck: 00:23:26

traditional British knitting, making jumpers and so on, less

Lydia Gluck: 00:23:30

plant fibres, it's just a great season. It's a great season for

Lydia Gluck: 00:23:34

compliments! [Laughs]

Mia Hobbs: 00:23:35

Yeah! I don't think there's anything wrong with

Mia Hobbs: 00:23:39

that. I think that's great to feel like you get a little boost

Mia Hobbs: 00:23:42

from somebody saying, "Oh, you're so clever to have made

Mia Hobbs: 00:23:45

that!" Because it's not even just that you look nice, it's

Mia Hobbs: 00:23:48

also an even better compliment, really!

Lydia Gluck: 00:23:51

Yeah, it takes the focus away from how you look. It

Lydia Gluck: 00:23:59

feels like a compliment that I can more easily take on board.

Lydia Gluck: 00:24:05

If someone knows I'm a knitter, and they're like, "Oh, did you

Lydia Gluck: 00:24:07

make that jumper?" and I did, then I'm just like, "Mmm yes, I

Lydia Gluck: 00:24:10

feel good about this."

Mia Hobbs: 00:24:13

How about you, Meghan, with your relationship

Mia Hobbs: 00:24:15

with the finished articles?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:24:17

Yeah, as soon as it did get cold enough here

Meghan Fernandes: 00:24:21

to wear sweaters, somebody in the line to pick up my kids was

Meghan Fernandes: 00:24:28

like, "[Gasp] Your sweater!" and I was like, " It's my time! This

Meghan Fernandes: 00:24:32

is our season!" [Laughs] But, yeah, it feels great. And I

Meghan Fernandes: 00:24:40

think one of the great things about knitting is that you can

Meghan Fernandes: 00:24:43

make exactly what you want. I've never seen another sweater that

Meghan Fernandes: 00:24:48

looks like mine, you know, in these colours and this design,

Meghan Fernandes: 00:24:52

and it's exactly what I intended, and I think that's

Meghan Fernandes: 00:24:56

really satisfying. Especially if you are particular about what

Meghan Fernandes: 00:25:00

you wear, then being able to make that vision come true is

Meghan Fernandes: 00:25:08

really satisfying.

Mia Hobbs: 00:25:12

That's brilliant. Thank you. And I'd love to ask

Mia Hobbs: 00:25:15

each of you about a significant knitting project. You can

Mia Hobbs: 00:25:19

interpret that however you like. It could be something you've

Mia Hobbs: 00:25:22

made, it could be one of the Pom Pom designs or... I know you've

Mia Hobbs: 00:25:25

both designed, haven't you, for Pom Pom?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:25:28

I think I have an answer. Lydia, do you

Meghan Fernandes: 00:25:32

remember the mittens with the colour outline? We kind of

Meghan Fernandes: 00:25:42

figured those out together. And that was a really satisfying

Meghan Fernandes: 00:25:46

process. They look really simple, but in order to do them,

Meghan Fernandes: 00:25:51

we had to do an Estonian technique. So it's a plain

Meghan Fernandes: 00:25:56

coloured mitten, but it has like an outline all around the edge.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:26:00

And so they look very simple, but I was like, "I want mittens

Meghan Fernandes: 00:26:04

that look like this, but I can't figure out how to make it

Meghan Fernandes: 00:26:06

happen". But Lydia had read this Estonian knitting technique

Meghan Fernandes: 00:26:12

book, and was like, "I think it might work like this". So we

Meghan Fernandes: 00:26:15

figured it out together, and it was a really satisfying, fun

Meghan Fernandes: 00:26:21

thing to figure out. And I think that for designing, figuring out

Meghan Fernandes: 00:26:28

how to do something that's not always immediately obvious is

Meghan Fernandes: 00:26:35

really fun.

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:36

So you like the kind of challenge element of it?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:26:39

Yeah.

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:41

How about you, Lydia? Can you think of a significant

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:43

project?

Lydia Gluck: 00:26:44

Yeah, I think so. I have two things come to mind.

Lydia Gluck: 00:26:48

One of them is my Quadrillion jumper which is a jumper or

Lydia Gluck: 00:26:54

sweater that Meghan designed for issue six of Pom Pom. So that's

Lydia Gluck: 00:26:59

now eight and a half years ago or something, quite a long time

Lydia Gluck: 00:27:02

ago. And I made myself a version of it in the same yarn as the

Lydia Gluck: 00:27:11

original, in the Uncommon Thread BFL, but mine's in... I think

Lydia Gluck: 00:27:15

it's called Meadow Grass, and it's a kind of limy greeny

Lydia Gluck: 00:27:19

colour. I really loved making that jumper, because it's quite

Lydia Gluck: 00:27:24

a good combination of... there's lots and lots of different

Lydia Gluck: 00:27:29

cables on the front of the jumper, so you're paying

Lydia Gluck: 00:27:34

attention while you're doing that part, but then, for the

Lydia Gluck: 00:27:38

rest, it's moss stitch and a bit more straightforward. So it's

Lydia Gluck: 00:27:41

got this great combination of challenging and more mindless

Lydia Gluck: 00:27:45

knitting. But I think it was just, at the time, something I

Lydia Gluck: 00:27:49

was really proud of because it was exactly what I wanted. And

Lydia Gluck: 00:27:51

it was just really lovely that Meghan had designed it and then

Lydia Gluck: 00:27:54

I got to wear it. And it was kind of part of Pom Pom. And

Lydia Gluck: 00:27:57

then the other thing I was going to say is maybe Woodwardia, when

Lydia Gluck: 00:28:01

I made and designed that, because that was something I'd

Lydia Gluck: 00:28:05

had in the back of my mind for quite a long time. It's a kind

Lydia Gluck: 00:28:08

of raglan jumper with a sort of purl stitch design on the

Lydia Gluck: 00:28:12

raglan. And then that led to me working on the raglan book that

Lydia Gluck: 00:28:16

we published a couple years ago. Wait, was it a couple of years

Lydia Gluck: 00:28:19

ago now? I think it was in 2020... maybe it's like a year

Lydia Gluck: 00:28:23

and a half ago. But that book was something that I really

Lydia Gluck: 00:28:29

loved creating. And then that jumper was the kind of start of

Lydia Gluck: 00:28:32

it.

Mia Hobbs: 00:28:34

Okay, great. So it was a jumper AND a kind of, I

Mia Hobbs: 00:28:37

don't know, foot into the book.

Lydia Gluck: 00:28:39

Yeah, exactly. And it's something that I still wear

Lydia Gluck: 00:28:42

quite a lot, as is Quadrillion. So they're both things that have

Lydia Gluck: 00:28:45

remained kind of staples in my wardrobe.

Mia Hobbs: 00:28:49

I wonder if I could take the opportunity, just in

Mia Hobbs: 00:28:52

terms of my fan-ness of Pom Pom magazine, just to say about how

Mia Hobbs: 00:28:57

Pom Pom was kind of pivotal in my knitting journey as well. I

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:02

had been a knitter... So I, like you Lydia, had learned to knit

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:08

when I was seven and had some Donald Duck needles and made a

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:11

very tight and very holey blanket for a mouse and then had

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:14

stopped. And then my mum taught me when I was doing my doctorate

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:19

because she said I needed to do something that was not related

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:21

to psychology. And then was kind of knitting but that was pre-...

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:26

I mean, it wasn't pre- the actual internet, but it was

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:28

pre-YouTube or anything like that. So I'd learned from a

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:31

book, and then years later (it was about 2016, probably) I

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:36

taught a whole group of people at work to knit because we were

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:41

making blankets for somebody who'd had babies. And so then I

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:46

taught some slightly younger people to knit, and the first

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:49

thing they did was to look on the internet and go on

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:51

Instagram. And I had not thought there was anything on Instagram

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:54

for me, I thought it was about celebrities and diets! And then

Mia Hobbs: 00:30:01

she was like, "Oh look, there's all this cool stuff!". And that

Mia Hobbs: 00:30:03

was how I discovered Pom Pom magazine, which really started

Mia Hobbs: 00:30:07

me on a different trajectory of knitting garments. I made a

Mia Hobbs: 00:30:11

Vellamo sweater and various other projects. And I think it

Mia Hobbs: 00:30:15

made a big difference, learning about this Instagram community

Mia Hobbs: 00:30:20

and learning that there were more patterns out there and

Mia Hobbs: 00:30:23

things that I actually could see myself wearing, that I had no

Mia Hobbs: 00:30:27

idea that existed because I learned to knit before any of

Mia Hobbs: 00:30:31

that was there, I suppose.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:30:34

That's so lovely! Thank you.

Lydia Gluck: 00:30:38

Yeah, it's always so lovely to hear.

Mia Hobbs: 00:30:40

I guess you guys hear a lot of stories about knitting.

Mia Hobbs: 00:30:44

Do other people tell you about knitting and how it's impacted

Mia Hobbs: 00:30:49

people's mental health? Is that something you hear about often?

Lydia Gluck: 00:30:53

That is a good question. And I'm finding it

Lydia Gluck: 00:30:56

weirdly difficult to answer! I think at the moment, my work

Lydia Gluck: 00:31:02

life is obviously very knitting-related. But actually,

Lydia Gluck: 00:31:09

outside of my work life, I don't talk to that many knitters. So

Lydia Gluck: 00:31:16

not so much. But I often have exchanges where people want my

Lydia Gluck: 00:31:24

stories about knitting, I suppose. Which seems like a

Lydia Gluck: 00:31:27

shame. I feel like I'm lacking in other people's knitting

Lydia Gluck: 00:31:31

stories.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:31:32

We get sent proposals for people's personal

Meghan Fernandes: 00:31:38

stories about how knitting has helped their mental health.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:31:43

Obviously, we can't publish them all but I feel like we do get a

Meghan Fernandes: 00:31:46

fair few people reaching out to us with their stories about how

Meghan Fernandes: 00:31:52

it's been healing after an injury or an illness or a major

Meghan Fernandes: 00:31:58

life change, or...

Lydia Gluck: 00:31:59

Yes, you're so right. I think the word

Lydia Gluck: 00:32:02

"story"... for some reason, I was imagining people talking in

Lydia Gluck: 00:32:05

real life.

Mia Hobbs: 00:32:06

Do people do that anymore? [Laughs]

Lydia Gluck: 00:32:10

"No" was my answer! [Laughs]

Meghan Fernandes: 00:32:16

We published a story about a friend of ours

Meghan Fernandes: 00:32:20

whose recovery from alcoholism was really helped by his

Meghan Fernandes: 00:32:29

learning to knit.

Mia Hobbs: 00:32:29

Yes, I read that one.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:32:31

I can't remember what issue that is now,

Meghan Fernandes: 00:32:32

but it's a great story. One of my oldest friends recently broke

Meghan Fernandes: 00:32:44

her back, and has been recovering from that and

Meghan Fernandes: 00:32:49

multiple surgeries. She's actually a surgeon herself, and

Meghan Fernandes: 00:32:53

she's finding it very hard to lie around [laughs] doing

Meghan Fernandes: 00:33:00

nothing, basically. I sent her a copy of our beginners book, and

Meghan Fernandes: 00:33:06

some yarn and needles. She's been staying at her mom's while

Meghan Fernandes: 00:33:10

she's been recovering, and she's like, "As soon as I get home,

Meghan Fernandes: 00:33:12

I'm turning my guestroom into a craft room". She's a total

Meghan Fernandes: 00:33:15

convert now. She texts me every day showing her progress. And

Meghan Fernandes: 00:33:20

you know, it's gotten a lot better as she's been going on,

Meghan Fernandes: 00:33:23

and I think it has given her a sense of purpose and direction

Meghan Fernandes: 00:33:32

in a time when she's been kind of struggling.

Mia Hobbs: 00:33:35

That's brilliant! And it must be a really hard time to

Mia Hobbs: 00:33:38

think, "Oh, I can't do this, I can't do that, I can't do

Mia Hobbs: 00:33:41

this... but this I can do!" And I guess being a surgeon, she's a

Mia Hobbs: 00:33:44

high achiever. She's going to go with it.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:33:47

I know. [Laughs] Yeah, she is a high

Meghan Fernandes: 00:33:50

achiever so she was a little hard on herself at first, but I

Meghan Fernandes: 00:33:54

think it's been good for her.

Mia Hobbs: 00:33:57

I think it is really powerful that, like you said,

Mia Hobbs: 00:33:59

you can see and touch your progress. It makes it easier to

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:05

notice, doesn't it? And I actually just was writing a blog

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:08

for somebody else about the therapeutic benefits of craft,

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:11

and one of my three top tips was to show and tell. I think when

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:16

we're adults, we're not that good at showing and telling. We

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:19

get out of that habit. Kids do it all the time; they draw a

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:21

picture and they immediately want to show you. But I think

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:24

having someone you can text, even if it's two rows of

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:26

knitting, text a picture and they'll say, "Well done!" That

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:29

does make a difference, doesn't it?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:34:31

It does, yeah. Definitely.

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:34

Has your relationship with the knitting changed since

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:37

it's... I guess it's been your job for a long time now, but I

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:40

don't know whether you ever feel like it feels too much like work

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:45

now? Or not really?

Lydia Gluck: 00:34:46

Not the actual knitting itself, because our

Lydia Gluck: 00:34:51

jobs are knitting-related... I mean, they're pretty much all

Lydia Gluck: 00:34:56

about knitting. But actually making things... I mean, it's

Lydia Gluck: 00:34:58

not NOT part of our job, but that's not the main thing that

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:02

we're doing when we're working for Pom Pom. My relationship to

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:08

knitting has changed over the past 10 years, but I think it's

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:12

not entirely to do with my job. I think it's more to do with

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:14

more general shifts in life. Actually, knitting has been a

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:18

real constant. It's quite amazing how much... I had to

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:21

take a break from it at the beginning of last year because I

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:24

got repetitive strain injury in my elbows, which was really

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:27

difficult actually, because I remember just thinking, "We're

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:29

just about to go into a lockdown here. What am I going to do? I'm

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:35

not allowed to go out and about (and quite right) but what am I

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:39

going to...?" I was almost quite panicked! But aside from that

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:44

break, I've very steadily knitted. And if anything, Pom

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:48

Pom adds a positive dimension to knitting because it means that

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:56

you see people sending in submissions, or you see a new

Lydia Gluck: 00:35:59

yarn that you haven't worked with yet, and it kind of keeps

Lydia Gluck: 00:36:01

the excitement, I think.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:36:03

I think when we first started, the problem

Meghan Fernandes: 00:36:05

was that we didn't have enough time to knit. [Laughs] We were

Meghan Fernandes: 00:36:11

always like, "Aargh, we started this knitting magazine and now

Meghan Fernandes: 00:36:14

we have no time to knit because we're always working on it!" But

Meghan Fernandes: 00:36:18

we've got lots of colleagues now so that we do have more time to

Meghan Fernandes: 00:36:26

knit. But yeah, you're right. I have never fallen out of love

Meghan Fernandes: 00:36:31

with knitting on this trajectory, and I'm constantly

Meghan Fernandes: 00:36:37

inspired.

Mia Hobbs: 00:36:40

The last question that I always ask is about the

Mia Hobbs: 00:36:43

greatest gift that knitting has given you for the rest of your

Mia Hobbs: 00:36:46

life. Any thoughts?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:36:48

It's Lydia! [Laughs]

Mia Hobbs: 00:36:52

Aw! What a great answer! I mean, other people

Mia Hobbs: 00:36:56

can't get one though, so... [Laughs]

Lydia Gluck: 00:37:00

Yeah, and I would say the greatest gift has been

Lydia Gluck: 00:37:03

Meghan and the people that we work with.

Mia Hobbs: 00:37:08

I guess you get to curate your own team now!

Meghan Fernandes: 00:37:11

Yeah!

Mia Hobbs: 00:37:14

Of cool people.

Lydia Gluck: 00:37:17

Yeah, that's the first question on the

application form: 00:37:18

are you cool? [Laughs] You have to be cool.

Mia Hobbs: 00:37:28

Do you mean like your relationships more than Pom Pom?

Mia Hobbs: 00:37:32

Or both?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:37:33

Yeah, it would be sad if Pom Pom ended but it

Meghan Fernandes: 00:37:40

would be sadder if Lydia and I ended, you know?

Lydia Gluck: 00:37:44

Yeah, I would agree with that. I think there are

Lydia Gluck: 00:37:51

lots of kinds of partnerships in life, and I think a creative

Lydia Gluck: 00:37:55

partnership is a kind that maybe doesn't get discussed as much.

Lydia Gluck: 00:37:58

And actually, I think it's really lucky that we met each

Lydia Gluck: 00:38:00

other when we did and that we happened to both be a little bit

Lydia Gluck: 00:38:04

at a loose end. We have similar vision and taste for Pom Pom,

Lydia Gluck: 00:38:08

but it's not the same and that's really important. And I think

Lydia Gluck: 00:38:13

that without Meghan, I definitely wouldn't have been

Lydia Gluck: 00:38:16

able to achieve anything even close to what we've done with

Lydia Gluck: 00:38:19

Pom Pom. And it's kind of the power of both of us together.

Lydia Gluck: 00:38:24

We're a sum greater than our parts.

Mia Hobbs: 00:38:27

Yeah. But actually, also, there's been a lot of

Mia Hobbs: 00:38:31

evolution on that journey, I guess, that it started off as a

Mia Hobbs: 00:38:35

kind of creative project. And then got quite big and you

Mia Hobbs: 00:38:39

probably ended up doing lots of different jobs. And maybe you've

Mia Hobbs: 00:38:42

ended up back in more of the creative director role, probably

Mia Hobbs: 00:38:46

through having to also be the people who wrap things and

Mia Hobbs: 00:38:49

figure out how to produce things and all of those things... that

Mia Hobbs: 00:38:53

you've managed to maintain your friendship and be good business

Mia Hobbs: 00:38:57

partners throughout that. And an international move also, Meghan?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:39:03

Yeah, I was thinking about recently the

Meghan Fernandes: 00:39:07

moment when I told Lydia I was moving. [Laughs]

Mia Hobbs: 00:39:11

How did that go?

Meghan Fernandes: 00:39:13

Not really great! [Laughs]

Mia Hobbs: 00:39:16

That must have been scary for both of you.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:39:17

We were both pretty stressed out about it, I

Meghan Fernandes: 00:39:19

think. But we did it and it was fine. And actually it's been

Meghan Fernandes: 00:39:25

good I think! For Pom Pom.

Mia Hobbs: 00:39:28

I don't know, Lydia, whether you were kind of

Mia Hobbs: 00:39:30

co-opted into Meghan's answer [laughs] or whether you wanted

Mia Hobbs: 00:39:34

to have a completely different one, which you're also allowed

Mia Hobbs: 00:39:37

to!

Lydia Gluck: 00:39:39

I don't feel like I was co-opted, as Meghan said the

Lydia Gluck: 00:39:42

thing that I couldn't... I hadn't quite got my brain into

Lydia Gluck: 00:39:46

gear. Yeah, I was just trying to think, I don't know what the...

Lydia Gluck: 00:39:48

Aside from the gift of making, which I think is pretty much my

Lydia Gluck: 00:39:55

favourite thing to do in my life, to make things. And

Lydia Gluck: 00:39:59

knitting is not the only way in which I make things, but it was

Lydia Gluck: 00:40:03

the first one that I really got into, the first craft that I

Lydia Gluck: 00:40:08

really kind of... mastered is not really what I mean, but you

Lydia Gluck: 00:40:13

know... the first craft that I really put a lot of time and

Lydia Gluck: 00:40:16

energy into, enough that it became something I could do

Lydia Gluck: 00:40:20

whilst watching TV or whatever. I had that real muscle memory.

Lydia Gluck: 00:40:24

And that's led on to me learning other crafts too. I think it's

Lydia Gluck: 00:40:31

good that it started with knitting.

Mia Hobbs: 00:40:32

Super, thank you. If people want to find out more

Mia Hobbs: 00:40:36

about Pom Pom, or about you guys specifically, how can they do

Mia Hobbs: 00:40:40

that?

Lydia Gluck: 00:40:41

Well, you can find us on Instagram @pompommag. And

Lydia Gluck: 00:40:50

our website is pompommag.com. I think in most of the places we

Lydia Gluck: 00:40:53

are pompommag. Is that true? I can't remember now.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:40:56

We're pompommag everywhere.

Mia Hobbs: 00:40:59

There's also the Pomcast.

Lydia Gluck: 00:41:02

Yes. So we have a podcast which is normally me and

Lydia Gluck: 00:41:06

Sophie, who works with us, presenting although we do often

Lydia Gluck: 00:41:10

have other Pom Pom people on and guests. And you can find that as

Lydia Gluck: 00:41:16

Pomcast in I think pretty much all of the podcast-related

Lydia Gluck: 00:41:19

feeds.

Mia Hobbs: 00:41:20

Thank you so much, Meghan and Lydia, for joining

Mia Hobbs: 00:41:23

the podcast.

Meghan Fernandes: 00:41:24

Thank you!

Lydia Gluck: 00:41:25

Yeah, thank you so much for having us. It's been

Lydia Gluck: 00:41:26

really nice.

Mia Hobbs: 00:41:29

Thank you so much for listening to the Why I Knit

Mia Hobbs: 00:41:31

podcast. If you'd like to find out more about therapeutic

Mia Hobbs: 00:41:34

knitting, you can follow me on Instagram

Mia Hobbs: 00:41:36

@knittingistherapeutic, or at my website therapeuticknitting.org

Mia Hobbs: 00:41:41

where you can also sign up to my newsletter to receive my blog on

Mia Hobbs: 00:41:44

the themes from series one. If you're enjoying the podcast, I

Mia Hobbs: 00:41:47

would really appreciate it if you could leave a rating and a

Mia Hobbs: 00:41:50

review on your podcast app. This will help grow the podcast and

Mia Hobbs: 00:41:54

let more people know about the therapeutic benefits of

Mia Hobbs: 00:41:56

knitting. And don't forget to subscribe too. Thank you!