Craft groups knits community together

Crafts With Love is a voluntary community organisation which has been based in the Coleraine West Community Centre in Churchlands since 2011.

It was set up 15 years ago, with the aim of encouraging women of all backgrounds to meet up and share their love of knitting, crochet, sewing and other crafts.

The group was recently awarded £4,200 from the Housing Executive’s Community Grants scheme and will use the funding to develop a project called ‘Connecting Threads’, a series of craft classes that will take place over 10 months, where a tutor will teach techniques in knitting, crochet, quilting and papercrafts.

The funding will pay for transport to and from the weekly craft classes, which is essential for those women who are disabled or have no access to transport on their own. The cost of a day trip to a major crafts fair taking place in Belfast at the end of April will also be covered.

The group brings together women of all ages from the nearby community as well as the towns of Castlerock, Ballymoney and Portrush. The women hold regular craft events where they sell their home-made items and donate the processes to a different children’s charity each year.