As a child, I had crochet toys that my mom made from a 1983 Needlecraft for Today magazine. I loved playing with them, but as I grew up, I never really thought about making my own. Knitting and crocheting were things that my mom did, not things that I did. I was a painter and a photographer, not a crocheter.
That changed when I was 17 years old. I was in my last year of high school and I could have had 2 spare periods, but no, not me! I wanted to learn more! Especially more art based subjects and my school just started a fashion class where I could learn to sew! I was afraid of my mom’s old sewing machine as it was so loud (she’s since bought herself a lovely new one) and I wanted to learn from someone who wasn’t my mom. You know, teenage rebellion and all. I signed up for Fashion grade 11 and grade 12, one in each semester and said goodbye to free periods. It’s funny looking back at my fear of my mom’s sewing machine now as my sewing machine is my Grandma’s 1954 Elna Supermatic with a knee pedal! It’s a powerful beast!
Those classes taught me so much! About fabrics and the types of materials they are made from. About how to follow patterns and even how to design my own. I loved it and I loved sewing. I even made my own graduation dress for a historical fashion project! It was a Vogue Vintage 1954 pattern and it had pockets. Why don’t all dresses have pockets? Ok, I’m getting sidetracked, this is supposed to be about crochet.
One day in class when I and a few of the other students had finished our work early, the teacher brought out some yarn and some crochet hooks and taught us the foundations of chaining and then later single and double crochet stitches. I remember the first hook I used was gold and probably 5 or 5.5mm. I soon got hooked (haha, accidental pun!) and went to Walmart to buy my own hooks. I can’t remember my mom’s reaction when I came home touting this awesome new skill that I had learned. But I could totally imagine her thinking, “well yeah, you used to play with crocheted toys that I made for you.”
I do know that we must have had a similar conversation as she got out her old patterns and I decided to re-create one of them as my first project. I chose to make a camel from that same 1983 Needlecraft for Today magazine. I can remember sitting in the hallway at school during my lunch period with yarn and hook working away at it. I like looking at that camel today as it’s so clear which parts I made first and which I made last as my tension and stitch consistency improved drastically from start to finish. I gave the camel a little more hair than he needed which then inspired his name: Herbert the Headbanger.
I soon started crocheting hats and scarves and that’s what everyone got for Christmas or birthday gifts, whether they wanted them or not! I slowed down in university as I was so busy with classes and part-time jobs, but when I moved to South Korea in 2010, I picked it back up after finding a store that sold hooks and yarn. I started playing with designing some of my own creations around that time. My favourite design was a cover for my Kobo that had a Frankenstein-esque face on it. I also taught a few of my fellow expat teachers the basics and have quite a few fond memories of sitting around drinking wine and creating together.
When I moved back to Canada I started making my first blanket as a gift for my niece. It was in the shape of a star and I thought it was the coolest blanket ever. I’ve since made 4 of that same blanket, one for each niece and they all love them. I can remember working on the blanket on the YMCA summer camp bus on my way to work each day. I got a few of the young campers interested as they watched me work and it was my first time teaching kids how to crochet. It was great to see them learn the basics and be so proud of their work. I am a teacher at heart.
When I moved to the UK in 2015 to teach I was very out of my comfort zone and crocheting was something that I could come back to to relax and refocus. It’s odd how living in a country that shares the same language can give you more culture shock than living in one that doesn’t. When I moved to my second school in 2016 I had the opportunity to start a Crochet Club for the students. I was slowly starting to hone my teaching crochet skills alongside my teaching English skills.
I was back in Canada later in 2016 and started working at an International School. After a few semesters I asked if I could start a Crochet Club. I ordered supplies and soon had 20 beginners sitting in front of me ready to learn. The club was pretty popular and the students loved learning how to make amigurumi, hats and scarves. Although the first few meetings were insanely hectic. It’s very hard to run around checking that 20 different people are holding their yarn and hooks properly! I got into the rhythm of it after a while though. I also learned new techniques from some of my students who already knew how to crochet. It’s amazing how many different ways you can hold the yarn!
One of my favourite things to teach is crochet’s connection to math. Queue eye-roll from all my high school students. I love showing how some of the basic formula’s they learned in math can be used to help make even increases or decreases when working in the round. It’s also fun when I get a student who is a lefty as it challenges me to show them how to work left handed, which I’m not very good at. I also taught my aunt and my fiance, who are both lefties, how to do some basic stitches.
I love passing this skill on to the next generation and I believe that it can really help to improve your mental health as it’s almost a form of meditation. When you are feeling stressed, having something tactile to do with your hands and focus on can really help you out. I hope that I helped some of my students through teaching them as being an international student can be very stressful.
During all these years, I had never tried to sell my creations and I had never written my own patterns, even though I created quite a few unique creations. Over the past 2 or 3 years I have been crocheting more and more. Shortly before the pandemic hit, I decided to create a crochet based instagram account as my personal one was pretty much only crochet pictures anyway. On a Cat Creations was born.
I’ve been challenging myself this year with trying new things. I learned Tunisian Crochet and started a temperature blanket using it. I started writing my patterns down and formatting them. I created my very first sweater (which I’m wearing as I type this). And now I’m starting a blog with plans on making a YouTube channel full of tutorials so I can help teach new crocheters the world over.
I’m still not sure in which direction this skill will take me in the future, but I sure have a lot of yarn to use up, a whole bunch of hooks, scissors, stitch markers and stuffing, so there will be lots of crocheting in my future!