Due to lockdown, many people have found themselves at home with a lot of time on their hands. There has been a huge rise in the number of people crafting because of this. Whether it’s picking up their needles for the first time, re-discovering the relaxing qualities of drawing, or creating a rainbow as a message of hope, people are getting hooked on crafting. In this article, I’ll round-up the current crafting trends and introduce you to many sources of inspiration to kick-start your crafting journey.

Hobbycraft has recently released what it believes to be the top 5 craft hobbies and top 5 emerging craft trends based on search requests over the last 6 weeks. The top 5 craft hobbies are: knitting projects (an increase of 400%), sewing projects (an increase of 300%), kids arts and crafts (an increase of 400%), cross stitch (an increase of 410%) and jigsaw (an increase of 800%). And the top 5 emerging craft trends are crochet, macramé (knotting cord to create a textile), cricut (a brand of cutting machine), brush lettering and marbling. This reflects the nation’s recent turn to crafting: whether it be for boredom busting, mindfulness or spreading kindness.

If you would love to start crafting too, there are several crafting programs on right now or available to stream, like the Great British Sewing Bee (BBC), The Great Pottery Throw Down (Channel 4) and The Wonderful World of Crafting (Channel 5), which are the perfect introduction to many different crafts. There are also programmes which focus on giving you crafts to try, like Kirstie: Keep Crafting and Carry On. Hopefully after watching one of these, you will find a craft that you love the sound of, and get ready to learn it!

There is plenty more inspiration, too, with online blogs from companies such as Lovecrafts, Hobbycraft and Trimcraft, all offering a wide range of crafts to try. Once you’ve found your favourites, there are plenty of crafting magazines which, although can be expensive, often come with projects to last you for ages and materials with them. Search your house for interesting materials to use - you may be surprised at how much you find.

Hopefully after reading this, you’ll feel inspired to start a new hobby - you never know how far it could take you. Check out my links below to start!

Blogs

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Trimcraft: https://www.thecraftblog.com/ Lovecrafts: https://www.lovecrafts.com/en-gb/

Hobbycraft: https://blog.hobbycraft.co.uk/

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TV Programmes

The Great British Sewing Bee: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000hk4v/the-great-british-sewing-bee-series-6-episode-1

The Great Pottery Throw Down: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-pottery-throw-down

The Wonderful World of Crafting: https://www.my5.tv/the-wonderful-world-of-crafting

Kirstie: Keep Crafting and Carry On: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/kirstie-keep-crafting-and-carry-on