Lockdown was hard on everyone in the UK, but many of us could still go out to the shops and go out on walks with our household. However, there were over 3 million people that had to shield.
Sheilding means that during the various lockdowns there was over 3 million clinically vulnerable people in the UK that the NHS deemed high risk, these people included those of an older age, people with cancer or in remission from cancer, people with diabetes and many different types of underlying healh conditions.
Sharon Hadley, owner of Nails, Knots and Notions, said: "A lady I know runs her own craft business and she used to run workshops from her home, with lockdown obiviously we couldn't go there anymore but instead she started doing online classes. These really helped me in the first Lockdown because I was shielding for the first 12 weeks until the scientist knew that if your asthma is controlled then you don't have to sheild.
"With crafting I find that it has helped me through lockdown, depending on what I do, for example with knitting its very rhymetic and it's almost mediation like. Or when I am working with other softer material its very mindful and helps me relax. This is just one of the mental health benefits I get from crafting.
" Crafting has also helped other people in my life, after my dad passed away over a year ago my mum took up crafting to help herself keep busy, crafting helps people who have gone through all sorts of things."
There is an estimated over 11,000 crafting businesses throughout the UK, who sells crafts and crafting kits, with Sharons shop Nails, Knots and Notions just being one of them, they are all individual and all unique in their own way, many have flourished over lockown with more people taking up crafting then after before.
You can find Sharons online shop through her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NailsKnotsandNotions