I enjoy crocheting very much! My mom is an avid crafter, and I remember watching her work on various fiber arts projects while we watched TV when I was a kid. Over the years, she taught me some of them. I do a decent enough job at hand sewing things, I can enjoy cross stitching, but my real passion so far has been crochet!
I always feel nervous about sharing my projects. I worry that I seem like I am bragging, or that it's boring to other people. But no more! This is my website, and if you did not want to look at my projects then you wouldn't be here. I am not sure how often I will update this, as I am not the best at photography (or remembering to take pictures of my work). But I am excited to try and share my joy, and hopefully inspire anyone reading this to try and make projects of their own!
One of the first projects I ever made was a hat for my grandma. She was diagnosed with cancer and undergoing treatments that made her lose her hair. My mom helped me pick out yarn in a color she liked, and a book full of patterns for hats. I don't have any pictures of this, and since Grandma died before I turned 13 I can't exactly ask her where it went. There might be a picture of the hat (or even of my grandma wearing it!) somewhere at my parents' house, so if I ever get around to looking for it (and if I feel comfortable posting pictures of someone I know on the internet) I might post it here. For now, know that the hat was a peachy-pink, that it was about as good of crochet work as a 11-12 year old could do, and that I hope it brought Grandma some comfort in a very difficult time.
I think I made another hat from the same pattern I used for my grandma's hat, but in a green yarn. I have no clue what happened to it. I think it turned out to be too small. It too is lost to time, as are any pictures of it. This would have also been sometime around ages 11-13. I think I ended up associating crocheting with death, and I developed some of my more serious mental health difficulties around then, so I didn't pick up the hooks again for many years.
Years later, I was attending college in another city. I didn't have the money to live away from home or buy a car, so I was commuting every day by bus. There was a commuter bus (now defunct sadly!) that ran from my hometown to downtown of that other city an hour's drive away, and then a city bus (bus pass paid for with student fees to my university) that took me from downtown to my school in about half an hour. Then to get home I would make the same trip in reverse: 30 minutes on the city bus, then another 60 on the commuter bus. My parents and siblings dropped me off at the bus stop in the morning and picked me up in the evenings. They were long, cold waits, especially as winter was setting in.
I had a fairly light class load, and a lot of time to kill between classes or while riding the bus or while waiting for it to be early enough to leave campus to get on the bus (since it was meant for commuters with a 9-5 schedule, the earliest it left from downtown was 4:00pm. Not ideal for a student whose classes ended well before then!). I was also getting increasingly depressed, since I was getting very little sleep, social interaction, or food. Doing something physical with your hands is very good for mental health, so I asked some friends from my previous school what their favorite colors were and started making scarves! I also looked up patterns for making crochet flowers, and made as maybe different ones as I could find for my at-the-time partner.
For reasons that I should hope are obvious, I dropped out of college after that semester. The original plan was to take off a semester to get a job, save up some money, and then go back again the next fall with some new hope in my heart and enough money to reliably buy myself lunch more than once a week. However, the spring semester that I did not sign up for was Spring of 2020. About a week after I'd finished orientation at my new job, everything went online (I worked retail at an "essential business", so I continued working) and continued to be online for several years. I didn't trust myself to actually be able to focus on an online class (nor, to be frank, did I trust any professors to actually teach effectively through video. Some of them adapted well! But Wowza have I heard some horror stories) and I was making bonus money at my work, so I just kept working. Due to working part time, I had plenty of time to finish my friends' scarves! I mailed them off to the various places they'd scattered, and that was that.
The other project I remember making was a set of fingerless gloves! I needed to be able to touch the register screen while working, but my hands would get cold from being so close to the constantly opening-and-shutting door. My mom and I both had a lot of different scrap yarns, so I made the gloves a multitude of colors. I was even able to sneak in some pride flag stripes! Unfortunately, one of the gloves caught on a blade and was beyond my ability to fix (I was unharmed!). I can't really remember any other projects I worked on at that time of my life, but I know I made other things because I was slowly collecting all sorts of colors of yarn.
As soon as I learned my big college in the big city was starting to have in-person classes again, I started looking at the money I'd saved up and planning to move to a little apartment there. Fortunately, I found a place that was Easily within budget! Unfortunately, it was still a 30 minute bus ride from campus, since anything I could find closer was too expensive for me. And so, I once again had a decent amount of time to kill in a day, and not exactly enough textbook readings to fill it.
I started with a couple simple circles to help me get used to crocheting in the round. They ended up a bit more cone-shaped than flat/circular like I wanted, but folded in half they make great rests for cups and plates! I keep one in my room on my nightstand, and the other on my desk next to my computer. They help make sure any hot drinks I may have don't damage the finish on my furniture. They were made out of some random scrap yarns I had, so one of them has a pink center and purple border, while the other is mostly pale green with a little bit of white.
My next project was to help me get used to crocheting in back-and-forth rows again. Yet Another Scarf! But this time, it was for me. It's a rather simple thing, in the colors of the genderqueer pride flag. I wear it a lot, and it makes me happy.
My next project was a trans pride flag scarf for my girlfriend. Our relationship was still fairly new, but it was a simple enough project that I felt safe from running into the dreaded Sweater Curse so many fiber artists complain of. Plus, if she didn't appreciate the gesture enough for my tastes or our relationship broke up before I finished it, I could just give it to someone else. Luckily, she's extremely supportive of my various crafty endeavors, and is also aware of how much time and work goes into things. When I asked for her input on what stitches would give the best texture or whether she wanted it to have fringe on the ends, she gladly gave it! She's been wearing it in winter for the past several years, and it always makes me happy to see her so cozy-warm.
At this point, which projects I was working on at which time starts to blur. I've simply made too many things! I found a pattern for a hat that I really like (link to be added here when I remember to) that I've tweaked to make a bit larger and fit on more heads. I've made a lot of different versions of this hat, each in different colors. I've made several more scarves in trans pride colors (modified to be a simpler pattern than the one I gave my girlfriend). I've made all the different pieces to a pansexual pride colored sweater to give my girlfriend (still awaiting sewing them together! Once again, I avoided the Sweater Curse by 1) having a girlfriend who takes my art seriously, and gives honest input when I ask for her color preferences or how she wants things to fit and 2).....not yet finishing the damn thing). I've found a doily pattern I like and made several versions of it in different colors of crochet thread. I've made several other things that I can't discuss here in case the people I'm gifting them to see this and the surprise is ruined. I've attempted, multiple times, to make myself a sweater, only to find that I have no idea what I'm doing and honestly would rather work on something else. And I'm certain there's plenty of other things I've made that I can't think of yet!
I have a couple projects in the works that I'm not planning on giving away. And so, I feel fine talking about them here!
The first one is a cardigan. I know, last section I mentioned trying to make a sweater. But this is different! It uses a nice wool yarn in a deep purple I enjoy, and a complex pattern that makes it more likely to fit me in a flattering way. And, most importantly, it's part of a series of projects. I intend to make it part of a cosplay! My original timeframe on this was to start it in 2024 and have it done in time for the local anime convention in 2025. Sadly, health issues and work on a series of other projects meant that this was pushed far to the wayside. I still have a few more pieces left to finish on this, and not really much of an idea of when I'll be able to manage it. Hopefully I'll have this project (and the rest associated with that costume) done by 2026. And if not, then at least I'll have this nice cardigan to keep me warm!
(This page is still under construction! I'll hopefully add more projects soon, as well as some pictures! I'm getting bored of writing for now though, so I'm done here for now.)