I didn’t know how to crochet, but I watched what others were doing, and taught myself how to make scarfs and hats. That was all I crocheted for a long time. But, one day I was looking at a teddy, and my daughter said ‘you could make that’. So I tried, and everything sprung from there!
I find crochet brings communities together. I’ll sit by myself, working on a crochet project, and before long I’ll look up and people have gathered round to see what I am
doing.
But I can also lose myself in my own world when I’m crocheting. Sometimes, if I have a problem I can’t solve, I stop thinking so hard about it and pick up my crochet. Working with my hands, creating something, unties knots in my mind and the solution to my problem often flows out.
Sometimes, if I have a problem I can't solve, I stop thinking so hard about it and pick up my crochet. Working with my hands, creating something, unties knots in my mind and the solution to my problem often flows out.
I see the love children have for their teddies – how they just won’t let them go, and often stay attached to them even after they’ve grown up. Whenever I make my teddies and bunnies I do so with that feeling of love in my heart.
If I’m creating something for a particular person, I’ll also crochet with them in my mind. I think about the colours I associate with that person and how I hope my work will make them feel. I recently made a water bottle carrier for a friend’s daughter, and it was so emotional receiving her voice note expressing her happiness.
I’m a Community Outreach Worker for a charity that supports mothers who are in vulnerable circumstances. For example, victims of sex trafficking. One of the ways we help these mothers is by putting together maternity bags for them. I crochet teddies and bunnies for the bags, so the baby will have a toy to cuddle. Through these bags and other projects, I think I must have made over 250 bunnies so far!
I'm a Community Outreach Worker for a charity that supports mothers who are in vulnerable circumstances. One of the ways we help is by providing maternity bags. I crochet teddies and bunnies for the bags, so the baby will have a toy to cuddle.
Through these bags and other projects, I must have made over 250 bunnies so far!
I travel around London a lot for my work, and I often crochet on the bus or the train. Sometimes I’ll find myself sitting next to a mother or father with their child and they’ll say how much they like the teddy I’m making. I may have been crocheting it for a specific purpose, but I really want to share the joy the teddies bring, so I’ll give the teddy to the family on the bus and then make another!
I enjoy working out how to make something new. But, for me, a crochet project needs to be exactly right – I sometimes even get up in the middle of the night to undo and redo work I’ve done because I want to make it perfect.
I’ve also been told that my teddies and bunnies have a special style. And, one day I was on a train when I saw a lady holding a teddy I recognised. I asked her about it, and it was true – she’d received it from the charity I work for. It was one of my teddies! That meeting on the train made me proud to realise that what I do really does stand out.
My desire to learn new skills doesn’t stop at crochet. Through Breaking Barriers, I recently received a laptop so I can start training in immigration law. I’ve faced my own challenges with the UK legal system, and won my case in court by representing myself. The laptop will enable me to study for the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner exams, as I want to become an immigration advisor.
The reason I make teddies and bunnies is because I want to give back and help other people, and I hope that the OISC training will mean I can do so in a whole new way.
My desire to learn new skills doesn’t stop at crochet. I recently received a laptop through Breaking Barriers so I can study for Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner exams, to become an immigration advisor. The reason I make teddies and bunnies is because I want to give back and help other people, and I hope this training will mean I can do so in a whole new way
