Keridwen is the name of a mythical Celtic Goddess of Nature who possesses a magic cauldron with three properties: inexhaustibility, inspiration and regeneration, symbolising the reproductive power of the earth. We, that is my husband John and myself (Erdmute, but also known as Sammy) chose it as the name for our former home in the village of Burghead, which is situated on a rocky promontory overlooking the Moray Firth in Grampian, Northeast Scotland.
We have lived on and off in Burghead for over 30 years, but in 2008 we decided to sell up and move down south to be nearer to all our children and grandchildren. - In January 2009 we moved into our new home in the town of Thrapston in Northamptonshire.

When I decided to launch my business selling Celtic cross-stitch designs a few years back it was a natural progression to call my business Keridwen Crafts.
 

I have always had a weakness for needlecraft. Throughout my school years, as far back as kindergarten, I thoroughly enjoyed being taught the finer arts of sewing, weaving and embroidery. And once our children had flown the nest and we called it a day as foster parents I had the time to concentrate more seriously on the finer side of cross-stitching.
My interest lay especially with Celtic Designs. I was fascinated by manuscripts like The Book of Kells, The Lindisfarne Gospels and The Book of Durrow, and both John and I enjoyed travelling around Scotland and Ireland, looking for ancient Celtic and Pictish remains like cross-slabs and stone carvings with their interwoven designs and medieval creatures. Alas, not many Celtic cross-stitch designs were available on the market, so I decided to design my own embroidery patterns.  Eventually my full-time hobby grew into a business. Out went the graft paper and in came a computer with a suitable stitching programme. My husband offered to do the accounts and the shipping while I concentrated on designing, stitching the first samples and eventually producing both charts and kits.

It has been a long learning curve, but I have enjoyed it immensely and hope to continue having new ideas for new designs for some time to come.