Stitches & Stories is a collaboration between Jo from Bobbin Sisters Yarns and Jules at North Books. We thought a book group of crafters who sit and discuss books while they work alongside each other would be rather fun. Jo takes the credit for coming up with the textile-themed books.

The group meets on the third Thursday of every alternate month from 4pm to 6pm, and refreshments will be included.

Bring a stitching project with you and don’t forget to read the book in advance! See below.

JOIN THE CLUB

The book club meetings are seated events, so places are limited, and events can get pretty full. Please email Jules on jules@northbooks.co.uk to add your name to the list. Participation is free if the book is purchased in advance from North Books at a 10% discount.

At North Books, 4 Castle Street, Hay-on-Wye on Thursday 20 August, 4–6pm.

THE BOOK

A jolly Christmas gathering - the final book on S&S’s 2025 reading list was Jenny Colgan’s Close Knit

The fourth book of 2026 up for discussion on Thursday 20 August is Fabric by Victoria Finlay. This book is available from North Books at a 10% discount.

Bestselling author Victoria Finlay spins us round the globe in a vibrant exploration of cloth through the ages.

She beats the inner bark of trees into cloth in Papua New Guinea, fails to handspin cotton in Guatemala, visits tweed weavers at their homes in Harris, and has lessons in patchwork-making in Gee's Bend, Alabama. And through it all she uncovers the hidden histories of fabric: how and why people have made it, worn it, invented it and made symbols of it. Interlaced with Victoria's own story of grief and recovery, Fabric is a lush patchwork of travel, history, memoir and culture - an unforgettable look into how we have made fabric, and how it has made us.