Sew, who's doing it? Four people give their opinion of the art of needlecraft.

Claire Kilroy, author of All Summer, Faber and Faber

I don't sew, but my mother does, and she makes loads of stuff for me; she improvises. She has just made me a fabulous skirt with material from Murphy Sheehy. I don't sew because I know I wouldn't be any good at it, and I don't want to learn; you have to be quite dextrous, don't you?

We knitted socks in primary school when I was about six and the boys weren't allowed to do it; their fathers came down and complained because they thought their sons were going to turn out to be pansies.

Kassandra O'Connell, director, Irish Film Archive

I love sewing and make lots of my own clothes. It was definitely my mother I got it from, rather than school. It's such freedom, being able to use a sewing machine; you can buy things second-hand and alter them, or make your own clothes and know you're wearing something different. I knit too. In the days when knitwear was fashionable, I used to think nothing of knitting myself something to wear on Thursday night for going out on Friday!

Therese Fahy, professor of piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and newly-appointed pianist-in-residence at the University of Ulster

I learned how to sew and knit at school, but I was the absolute worst in the class. I just wasn't interested. I've never been interested since. I learned to knit gloves with four needles and I lost a needle, so the gloves turned out all wrong. On the day at school when we were supposed to show the finished version of what we had made, I hid my knitting and I got killed for losing my gloves, but it would have been worse if they had actually seen what I had made.

Sinead O'Doherty, of Gerry Lundberg PR, which is publicising the Dublin Theatre Festival

I remember with horror knitting a little pink jacket at school. I haven't sewn or knitted since leaving school. Maybe it's a time thing; who has the time these days to be making things when you can buy them so cheaply? I did enjoy knitting, but now I wouldn't ever wear anything I made myself. Nothing would look fashionable!