Casper's Fibrecrafts Journey (Part One)

I am genuinely surprised that the first fibrecraft I truly clicked with was crochet. When I was younger my mum and her mum used to knit quite a lot, and though she'd do her best to teach me she'd always tell me it looked like crochet because there were so many holes. I gave up after that for many years.

Actual crochet, however, kind of snuck up on me. We were all absolutely wrecked during 2020, let's be real. It wasn't an easy time and a lot of people took up crafts at that time. I was one of them - I was BORED OUT OF MY MIND. So, I saw a Pinterest post one day, I can't remember what had been made, but my brain just decided to go 'welp, let's learn to crochet'. This was at 4am, mind you. 

The next day I took a little trip to Hobbycraft (I didn't know about KnitNotts then, shhh). I picked up a 4mm hook and a ball of green acrylic yarn, nothing special, and as soon as I got back I looked up how to make a chain on the internet. I made a chain, I learnt what double crochet was, and I started off doing just rows and rows of double crochet until I figured it out.

There we have the first crochet thing I ever made. You can see that I started from that wiggly bit and went around until I got to the top section, where the rows are actually pretty straight. It took me a headband to figure out double crochet, and from then on I was absolutely HOOKED. 

So, what do we usually do when we've figured out the bog basics of crochet? We make a granny square. I read tarot, so I figured I could make a nice little granny square card pouch, and I did! I went back to Hobbycraft, got myself some grey yarn, and made a little granny square.

Magically it turned into a super cute little card bag, and I think that's the point I realised that there really were no limits to what I could do now. It was so freeing after spending so much of the past year inside, doing nothing, creating very little and not holding enough space for my own creativity in my life. It was like therapy. 

From then on, I just made anything I could. I made my first amigurumi attempt, a bee for my tattoo artist. I made a granny square blanket that I affectionately call the spite blanket (I had to finish it out of spite and I have now given it to my cat). Hats. Cowls. Blankets. Teddies. I even tried some socks, but they are long gone now. They were dreadful! I made the stupid decision to crochet gifts for every single one of my family members that year, and I only decided that in September. It was tough, but the sudden influx of skills was absolutely worth it. I progressed so much out of the sheer pressure of needing to get things perfect for the people I love.

I got a bit burnt out after that, and focused on crocheting for myself for the first time in a while. March of 2021 saw me finish the first garment I was proud of, something I affectionately called the 'Fuck It Cardigan'. No pattern, no colour plans, just holding all of my yarn together and striping it to make my favourite cardigan of all time. The pockets are also H U G E. You've probably seen me wearing this in the shop.

After the Fuck It cardigan, though, something quite magical happened. A little shop called Knit Nottingham came into my life, and I'll tell you all about that later ;) x

(Thumbnail pattern is a paid pattern from @made.in.the.moment on Instagram)