Huge growth in crafting during lockdown

The number of visitors the platform receives increased by 58 per cent in April from February and more than two-thirds (71 per cent) were new visitors, with tutorial and beginner pages receiving the most traffic overall.

Product revenue has surged by 140 per cent, with knitting yarn contributing the most in terms of sales.

Crafting has become a popular activity while people have been forced to stay at home.

LoveCrafts’ beginner craft guide tutorial has seen a 8,704 per cent increase in visits over the past two months. Its ‘how to knit’ and ‘how to crochet’ guides have experienced increases of 310 per cent and 349 per cent respectively.

Data shows that out of knitting and crocheting, crochet appears to be the more popular craft currently, with the site’s ‘beginners' crochet patterns’ showing a 562 per cent spike in visitors, compared to 434 per cent for ‘beginners' knitting patterns’.

The page that has received the biggest increase in traffic is LoveCrafts’ DIY face mask tutorial, which saw a 2,369 per cent increase in visitors between the April 19 and May 2. LoveCrafts’ ‘kids crafts’ page has also noted a traffic surge of 1,210 per cent between February and April, indicating that parents are crafting more with their children while at home.

Edward Griffith, founder of LoveCrafts.com, said: “We’ve experienced a huge amount of support from our community of makers in the last couple of months. Crafting has brought people both joy and distraction during these stressful times and our data certainly shows how popular it’s become.”