Meet the Maker – Lou Barnes from Yarntistry

Lou Barnes from Yarntistry is a self-confessed “anti-social weirdo who prefers the company of craft materials”. She is also a one-woman crochet parade, YouTube host, mental health warrior, mother and maker who breathes life and character into inanimate objects. For Lou, crochet is a therapeutic lifeline – one which she extends to others through her Bothers and Blips crochet series, designed to embody difficult emotions and make them easier to handle. Fellow Folksy seller Coralie Green talks to Lou about her work and the positive impact craft and crochet have had on her mental health and wellbeing…

Shop Yarntistry on Folksy

I make collectible amigurumi comfort toys for adult collectors, often focused around mental health and emotional wellbeing.

Hi Lou! Can you introduce yourself and describe your work…
Hello! I’m Lou, a 31-year-old crochet designer, mum of two and serial procrastinator living near Glasgow. I make collectible amigurumi comfort toys for adult collectors, often focused around mental health and emotional wellbeing. I also drink far more coffee than any doctor would advise and have a lifelong fascination with dinosaurs.

Creative hobbies have always contributed enormously to my mental wellbeing but crochet has added another level of meticulous and repetitive but beautiful fun to my brain-medicine arsenal.

Can you describe your work space? Are you a tidy or messy crafter?  
My workspace nowadays is a lot more toned down than it was when I first started Yarntistry. It’s currently an enormous IKEA hacked corner desk with 16 yarn drawers and more baby succulents than you can shake a crochet hook at. At one point it was adorned with lots of wonderful work from other makers, but when we started trying to sell our home earlier this year I took a lot of it down so that we didn’t scare people off with my “eccentric” taste! As far as tidiness goes, I tend to just let things build up around me until it starts to stress me out, and then I spend an hour blitzing and lovingly cleaning my space (only to destroy it again hours later.)

Rainbow Pompom Cacti by Yarntistry – available here

I’m absolutely fascinated with the secret lives of objects – imagining what they get up to when we aren’t home – which is what spurred me on to give life to so many different items, and thus… my brightly coloured inanimate things with faces style was born!

How did you develop such a distinctive style?  
I’ve always been hugely influenced by Japanese culture, specifically the tendency to give life to inanimate objects with adorable little “kawaii” faces, names and backstories. I started my business making one-of-a-kind crocheted art dolls which then moved on to cacti. The cacti that I made didn’t originally have faces until I decided to try it out one day, for a giggle, and it made them accidentally adorable! I’m absolutely fascinated with the secret lives of objects – imagining what they get up to when we aren’t home – which is what spurred me on to give life to so many different items, and thus… my brightly coloured inanimate things with faces style was born!

Migraine, part of the Yarntistry Bothers series – available here

The Bothers are a way to pull negative feelings out into the palm of our hand and see them as less threatening – something to be empathised with and cared for. They were a total passion project for me that I honestly didn’t expect would be as well received as they have been, but they seem to have really struck a chord with a lot of people.

Your little Blips are adorable! How has crafting and being creative contributed to your mental wellbeing?
I’ve been living with Generalised Anxiety Disorder for 10 years now and my creativity has been a lifeline to me on more occasions than I can count. Creative hobbies have always contributed enormously to my mental wellbeing but crochet has added another level of meticulous and repetitive but beautiful fun to my brain-medicine arsenal. I feel as if honing a productive craft, whatever that may be, brings a sense of self satisfaction that really helps when you’re struggling, emotionally. To hold something in your hands that you designed and brought into the world with your own two hands is incredibly rewarding, not to mention the process is like a shot of pure zen for the most part (until you get a yarn tangle and Hulk out, of course!)

Lou’s Blips are miniature scented Bothers that fit perfectly in your palm for comfort on the go, because we all have blips in our emotional lives – available here

I think my superpower is empathy. It’s one of those unfortunate superpowers that comes with a bit of a soreness to it, since I tend to feel, well, everything, always.

What’s your superpower?
I think my superpower is empathy. It’s one of those unfortunate superpowers that comes with a bit of a soreness to it, since I tend to feel, well, everything, always. It can be a bit overwhelming at points but it also means that I can relate quite easily to others and understand how best to help them. The Bothers were a total passion project for me that I honestly didn’t expect would be as well received as they have been, but they seem to have really struck a chord with a lot of people and I have my empathic nature to thank for the idea I suppose!

What are The Bothers?

The Bothers are a collection of lovingly handmade, miniature art dolls made by Lou designed to separate our difficult emotions from our bodies and place them gently in our hands. Each Bother is designed to embody the feelings that often seem too hard to bear alone: worry, grief, guilt, shame, insomnia, doubt…

These comforting creatures are the result of a highly engaged passion project and £1 of the proceeds from every single one of them that finds a new home is donated to Mind, the UK mental health charity.

Find The Bothers on Yarntistry here > https://folksy.com/shops/Yarntistry

My proudest achievement as far as Yarntistry goes, was being approached by Simply Crochet Magazine to host their YouTube channel

What’s your proudest achievement so far?
My proudest achievement as far as Yarntistry goes, was being approached by Simply Crochet Magazine to host their YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/user/SimplyCrochetMag. At the time it had only 4/5 videos on it and they had, miraculously, loved a silly video I had shared with them a few days before. They asked if I wanted to host and manage their channel under a new format so they could try and reach a different audience and I was thrilled. I create regular videos for them now and we’ve just finished a year-long, collaborative project with a major yarn brand, which has been a joy.

I’d really like to expand and develop the Bothers range this year to include some of the more commonly felt emotions that affect us all, like grief, loneliness, regret, self-doubt…

If you had a personal assistant, what jobs would you delegate to them?
Social media duties! Absolutely social media duties, without a shadow of a doubt! I used to love creating content for my various social media pages but, honestly, as my order books have filled up more and more in recent times I just don’t have the hours to put into it anymore!

I would love love love to team up with Laura from AbstractCat – her yarns are absolutely stunning

Is there anyone you would like to collaborate with? Now’s your chance to let them know.  
I would love love love to team up with Laura from AbstractCat – her yarns are absolutely stunning and it would be wonderful to create a Bother using some of her beautiful hand-dyed yarns.

Crochet Mellows by Yarntistry, designed to remove the stigma surrounding medication and self-care – available here

I’m hoping for a happy, healthy 2019 where I finally learn some time management skills. Not likely, but a girl can dream!

What are your hopes for 2019?  
I’m hoping for a happy, healthy 2019 where I finally learn some time management skills. Not likely, but a girl can dream! I’d really like to expand and develop the Bothers range this year to include some of the more commonly felt emotions that don’t pertain specifically to diagnosable mental health issues, but that affect us all: grief, loneliness, regret, self-doubt etc. The Bothers are a way to pull these negative feelings out into the palm of our hand and see them as less threatening – something to be empathised with and cared for. My hope is that every time someone meets a Bother, that they feel the instinct to care for it and, in turn, learn to care for themselves too.

If I could offer one piece of advice it would be to share everything that you make, no matter how you feel about it, because chances are those things could send you down an entirely different, wonderful path.

What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started your business?
I wish that I had known to just throw my ideas out into the world, regardless of whether I thought they were good enough or not. There were so many occasions that I didn’t share things I had made that could have ended up being best sellers. The reception The Bothers received was such a huge surprise to me, and they’ve now become not only my biggest sellers but the creations that I’m most proud of. I get messages at least every other day from people who have found some level of comfort from their Blips and Bothers; people who have gone out of their way to reach out and tell me about the impact that these little guys have had on their wellbeing, and it makes me tear up like a big baby pretty much every time.

If I could offer one piece of advice to myself five years in the past it would be to share everything that you make, no matter how you feel about it, because chances are those things could send you down an entirely different, wonderful path.