John's knitwear to be showcased on Kirstie Allsopp TV show
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Almost half a century after his grandmother taught him to knit, retired Caithness teacher John Glen is set to demonstrate his crafting skills on national TV.
John (59), who lives in Thurso, will be one of the contestants on Kirstie's Handmade Christmas, presented by Kirstie Allsopp, to be screened on Monday.
The Channel 4 programme was recorded in a Covid-secure setting in Devon over three days in October and John described it as “an incredibly positive experience”.
He will be seen making a festive jumper as he competes against other talented designers.
John established a knitwear cottage industry under the name of Caithness Croft Yarn after health issues forced him to take early retirement from his job as depute rector of Wick High School.
Originally from Glasgow, John had moved to Caithness in 1995 as a technical teacher at Thurso High School. He is well known locally for his many roles in Thurso Players, both on stage and behind the scenes.
John began knitting at the age of 10 during his recovery from a major operation. He was sent to live with his Granny Mac so that his parents could go to work.
“She taught me all the things she could do to keep a 10-year-old entertained in the early 1970s,” John recalled. “She taught me to knit, to sew, to crochet, to embroider – all the things that grannies in those days did as normal.
“When you look at some of the research that has been done on knitting, it has positive effects on things like mental health and recovery from all sorts of medical conditions.
“It’s a traditional craft. My grandfather knitted during the Second World War when he was in the Navy. They knitted their own socks because they had no choice. Some of the fishermen here knitted their own ganseys.”
Knitting became his main focus after health problems forced him to retire at the age of 56.
“I had a couple of massive blood clots, one on each lung, and I was told ‘this is an end-of-life event’. It frightened the living daylights out of me,” he said.
“I was told I needed something that’s sedentary that would keep me occupied because until these were gone I had to sit still and let my body do the repair work.
“I had been designing since I was about 14 – just things for the family and friends. So I published patterns online and started to build a little bit of a cottage industry.
“I was talking to some crofters at one of the local shows and they were saying that they were burying and burning fleeces because they couldn’t get any money back on them.
“I went and took away some of what they didn’t want, and speculated some of my retirement fee, and sent it off to a mill and had it turned into a yarn called Caithness Croft Yarn, and I started trying to sell that at some of the big yarn festivals across the country.
“My wife Janet and I load up the back of the car, she drives us there and we set up a table and we get the money to enjoy our hobby. We both knit, and this covers the cost of going off and having fun doing what we love.
“Because of some of the design work, some of these festivals have asked me to teach. I’ve taught at Loch Ness Knit Fest in Inverness and at the Perth Festival of Yarn.”
John also hosts regular classes at Messy Nessy soft play and craft centre in Thurso. These have resumed recently in a social distanced format.
He added: “The crafting community is fantastic and in Caithness there are some amazing crafters.
“I’m not the only yarn producer – I’ve got a brilliant working relationship with Graeme Bethune, from Dunbeath, who sells as Caithness Yarns.
“Graeme and I work together to promote Caithness yarns and designs.”
John explained that filming for Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas took place in a large marquee in Devon which the production team had turned into “a giant Christmas craft centre”.
He said: “They created an absolutely wonderful Christmas environment for us. Their Covid precautions to keep the cast, the crew and contestants safe were fantastic.
“They do a massive amount of background research and are very supportive. They were incredibly obliging – nothing was too much trouble. It was a really good fun experience.
“Kirstie comes around, she sits and has a coffee and a blether with you if they’re not filming. You might expect they would wheel the star in, they do their bit and vanish again. But no, she was in having a cup of tea and having a socially distanced blether with the crafters and with the crew.”
John was unable to reveal the result of the show but said he was up against some very stiff competition.
“It was an incredibly positive experience,” he said. “I had a whale of a time and if I had a chance to do it all over again I would happily do so.”
Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas featuring John Glen will be screened on Channel 4 on Monday, December 7, at 5pm.
