Every couple of weeks, I take a wander beyond my own corner of the craft world to see what else is happening — and this fortnight has produced a rather lovely collection of stories.

There is relatively little headline-grabbing product news this time around – probably because all of the trade shows are coming up soon!

Instead, much of the interesting activity has come from people using craft in unexpected ways: knitters turning air-pollution data into textiles, Japanese artisans working with international designers, heritage skills being demonstrated alongside contemporary craft in Wales, and a major London exhibition putting the work of independent makers directly in front of the public…

Every couple of weeks, I’m going to take a look beyond my own immediate crafting world and see what has been happening across the wider hobbycraft industry.

The idea is not simply to repeat product launches or company announcements, but to pick out developments that might inform, educate or inspire — whether they come from papercraft, textiles, pottery, digital crafting or somewhere entirely unexpected.

And this fortnight there is a particularly interesting mixture…