Crafting with Flow

Disclaimer - this post references childhood and adult trauma and abuse, please take note if you are triggered by these.

“I didn’t know you were interested in art.”

I froze. My brain scrambled for a suitable response and I decided on the truth.

“I didn’t know either”.

In school I was not someone you would ask to draw an image for you. In form 2 when subject choices for higher level exams came around the art teacher announced loudly enough for the class to hear that I not pick art. I used to enjoy the chatty fun side of art class - until that day.

My mother did sewing and I would accompany her to a quilter’s guild meeting or workshop. That soon stopped when she accosted me and accused me of stealing her friends. That wasn’t my reason for going but I made sure I never went again. I decided arts and crafts wasn’t for me and I pushed it aside.

I built a school and created resources for it and then started to feel lost and my health began to decline. (See my podcast for the full story.)

Then, over the last 18 months I started on a journey. I had been crocheting and diamond painting since 2023. I started diamond painting after buying a kit for a friend but realising she wouldn’t enjoy it like I assumed so I did it. One day I saw a crochet tutorial and to use a phrase “I was hooked!” These things were supportive to me and healing but there felt like something was missing. I thought it was continued issues with my health and once those were fixed it would settle. Mainly, if the pain and sleep deprivation could just go it would all be ok!

But youtube had other ideas. I saw and was struck by drum carding fibers. My crocheting pile was large and so were my scraps. Now there was a way for me to breathe new life into them and help the environment. Then what followed was a journey down into the world of fiber arts:

  • Drum carding

  • Spinning fibers

  • Plying and setting

  • Weaving (the last to discover)

My purchases followed the path I was on, a small drum carder, an E-spinner and finally a loom.

But on this journey I kept remembering that I wasn’t an artist. That door was closed to me - or is it? I had a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia - crafting was too much - or is it?

The unexplainable joy and peace I felt when creating and working in my newly named craft studio made no sense and I couldn’t and still can’t explain it, but here I am in a studio - a crafter and an artist. I chose to open the door…

And as I have listened to my body and its needs I have come to see the full depth of healing my crafts give me:

  • 🧶 Crochet — comfort, familiarity and structure.

    Crochet gives me that I know what I’m doing feeling. There’s a rhythm I already understand, visible progress, and the satisfaction of turning yarn into something with my hands. It can be portable and comforting.

  • 🌀 Spinning — transformation.

    This one is about taking fibre that is loose, messy, or even scrap material and making yarn from it. There’s a particular satisfaction in creating the material itself, rather than simply using material someone else made.

  • 🌈 Drum carding — experimentation and possibility.

    Carding is where you get to play with colour, texture and fibre combinations. I don’t necessarily know exactly what the finished batt will become. It’s the “what happens if I put these together?” satisfaction.

  • 🧵 Weaving — absorption, rhythm and transformation.

    Weaving gives me that lovely repetitive, almost disappearing-into-the-process feeling. And it has another special role for me: it gives my handspun/art yarn somewhere to go without needing a huge quantity of it. A little bit can become a stripe, a section, a texture.

  • 💎 Diamond painting — focused visual satisfaction.

    This is a different kind of absorption: following a visual pattern, placing the little pieces, watching the picture emerge. It can give me that focused creative experience without requiring me to invent the structure myself.

Crafted with Flow

Every item I make is donated to those who need warmth, comfort and to feel loved. In my own journey with trauma and healing I have often felt alone, afraid and not enough. It is my hope that each item I create gives someone a gentle reminder that they are loved and someone cares for them.

If you would like to support my crafts and fiber arts journey you can - click here to support Crafted with Flow.

Connect with me

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🌿 Finding Flow
Structure that feels like freedom.

© 2026 Mandy Halgreen

mandy@mandyhalgreen.com

Designed with calm intention 🌸