I engaged with many crafts as a kid, including learning around age ten from my mother how to crochet a long chain. As I’ve shared in Crochet Saved My Life, when I hit my worst period of life-threatening depression in my late twenties, I read somewhere to try to find joy in things that you loved as a child and for some reason crochet came to mind. I started crocheting, it helped me in a variety of ways, and I spent the next decade deeply immersed in research and writing about the mental and physical health benefits of crochet and other handcrafts. This is a topic I continue to love and share expertise in.
Some of my favorite personal crochet art projects are:
- crochet wall hangings
- 3d crochet: soft sculpture, hyperbolic crochet, and fabric books
- wearables
- contributions to collaborative community fiber art projects (and Mandalas for Marinke, which was my own collaborative project)
Craft as therapy
One of the books I’ve written that I’m most proud of is . I created all of these original exercises which include using crochet as meditation, practicing letting go and facing fears through crochet and journaling, using crafting to build relationships and so much more. These exercises have been utilized in a variety of settings by myself as well as by others including by therapists working in inpatient care and with incarcerated individuals. Although I am not licensed as a therapist, I received a Masters degree in counseling psychology and have spent well over a decade researching and working in trauma-informed craft-as-therapy.