love is stored in the yarn by Mel N. '24, MEng '25
help i can't stop crocheting
Over IAP, I joined the ranks of bloggers who have fallen into the black hole of fiber arts. (It could happen to you! It could happen to anyone!)
At the end of last semester, the UA Incomm01 the undergrad association innovation committee! they do a lot of cool projects around campus -- the banana lounge is actually an incomm project held a Craft Market where student artists could sell a variety of creations, including prints, figurines, tote bags, custom jewelry.
As I was scrolling through the options, admiring all the cool things people were selling, I saw a crocheted strawberry cow.
…
oh my god i need that immediately.
I couldn’t go to the market myself since I had something going on at that time, but I asked my friend Tiffany L. ’24 to get a strawberry cow from the artist on my behalf. Soon enough, it was sitting on my shelf in all its strawberry glory.
djfhgksdfkjghsdfg so cute
After that, it was settled: I needed to learn how to crochet so that I could make stuffed animals like that. But I was so intimidated by all the terminology and the complexity of patterns and the neck-breaking speed that some people crocheted at that I kept putting it off. Still, I’d find myself inevitably lingering on the crochet videos that popped up on my feed.
At the same time, I’d gotten myself a shiny new UROP for IAP. It was my first time working in a wet lab after two attempts at computational UROPs that I eventually dropped. During onboarding, I offhandedly mentioned wanting to learn how to crochet to one of my direct supervisors, which was how I found out that they were also obsessed with crocheting. So was the new grad student that joined at the same time I did, and there were two other people that knit. For a relatively small lab with about ten or so people, that’s a lot of fiber artists.
(There’s also an interestingly large percentage of people in the lab that don’t drive, including my supervisors, and my PI didn’t get his license until three or four years ago.)
(…I felt right at home. At this point I don’t think I’m going to learn how to drive anytime soon.)
Fiber arts became a frequent topic in my conversations with other lab members. When I told my supervisor that I wanted to get into amigurumi, which is the art of crocheting stuffed animals, they gave me a whole bag of extra stuffing left over from one of their projects.
They also sent me info about a queer fiber arts circle happening at the Boston Fiber Company. So that Sunday, I rounded up a couple friends with my borrowed crochet hooks and my first few balls of yarn, and off we went to Broadway Station on the Red Line.
I’d started crocheting just two days before, with some slightly sad-looking attempts at flowers. These were the first things I’d ever made.
oh girl….
The last one didn’t look so bad!! But needless to say, I was not an expert.
It was okay, though, because there was a wide range of skill levels, and everyone at the event was so incredibly nice.
“I’m here because making friends in your twenties is hard, and I’m hoping fiber arts can help me meet new people,” one person said.
“That’s smart of you,” someone else said. “I’ve never met a mean knitter. I mean, the community is just so incredible.”
And it’s exactly that sense of community that makes me so happy whenever I think about crocheting. People are more than willing to help others out, whether by sharing tutorials or resources. There are so many beautiful creations out there and an overwhelming sense of positivity.
I slowly got better at crocheting. I would come home from a long day at my UROP, collapse in my chair, and crochet for hours. I finished my first big project, a brown and white cat hat02 essentially a folded rectangle that makes it look like you have cat ears when you wear it , and even though I’d underestimated my supply of brown yarn and messed up at the end when trying to stitch it together, the sense of achievement that rose up within me was enough to make me giddy for a whole day.
very much giving santa vibes but we love it!!
A few weeks later, I went to the New England Farm & Fiber Festival with some friends. It was really cool to see all the homespun wool selections, along with the vibrant creativity and skill on display. There were also live sheep!!
Here are some of my more recent projects. I’ve been really obsessed with Mahum‘s crochet patterns on YouTube– she has the prettiest projects ever.
Not bad for a month of progress!
I’m also on the design team for the Banana Lounge, working on small projects to curate the feel of the space. This semester, I’ve been given the chance to crochet things for the Lounge and buy as much yarn as I need. There’s a whole world of possibilities: amigurumi bananas? Leaf bunting for the doorways? Various amigurumi fruits?
I’m really glad that I found crocheting at this time in my life. After years of being too art-blocked to draw, it’s given me another creative outlet, and the physical element of creating something makes it feel absolutely magical.
TLDR: please talk to me about crocheting it’s the only thing i ever want to talk about these days i want to see your projects and hear about your favorite types of yarn. i love you all happy valentines day
- the undergrad association innovation committee! they do a lot of cool projects around campus -- the banana lounge is actually an incomm project back to text ↑
- essentially a folded rectangle that makes it look like you have cat ears when you wear it back to text ↑