By Kelly Kennedy, Social Media Editor
A tight knit group of friends started a new club here on campus to help students get creative and meet new people – the Crochet Club. The Crochet Club is a new club at Manhattan College this semester, where four students are hoping to share their love for crocheting with the community and help teach others how to crochet as well.
Samantha Perricelli, a junior, had the idea to start this club last spring semester. Perricelli is now president and founder of the Crochet Club.
“I started crocheting a little over two years ago and I had a couple of friends that crocheted as well. So we decided we wanted to make a space for people who want to learn how to crochet or for people who want to become better at crocheting,” Perricelli said.
The crochet club hosted their first meeting last Monday in Kelly Commons. Around 30 crocheters showed up to the first meeting.
Isabel Cameron is a senior who just joined the Crochet Club.
“I joined the crochet club because it was so exciting to me that there was now a community of people who share my interest. I feel like recently crochet has become such a huge trend and to have a community at the school is amazing,” Cameron said.
Crocheting is an art form that in many cases, has been passed down from generation to generation. Many of the girls in the club learned how to crochet from their family members, according to Perricelli.
“I feel like the majority of people when you ask them how they got into crocheting, are gonna say either their grandma or their mom taught them. For me it was my grandma. My grandma has made so many blankets that I had in my house growing up. So she kind of introduced me to crocheting. She gave me yarn and all of her extra tools. And then I got into it just by watching YouTube videos to learn how to do it,” Perricelli said.
Crochet club is bringing a creative outlet to the campus community, and is also aiming to help others learn how to crochet. You don’t have to have any knowledge of crocheting to join. The club offers a fun place for students to hang out and even learn how to crochet.
“For anyone who’s interested but worried about not knowing how to do it or having to do it right, it really doesn’t matter. It’s totally okay to join regardless of your skill level. And we just want this to be like a really good community for people on campus. And even if you don’t want to crochet that’s totally fine,” Jessica DeFeo, vice president and co-founder of Crochet Club, said.
The club aims to host plenty of casual meetings throughout the semester, where they will try to help members all get a base knowledge of crocheting. They are also planning to host a few events around the holidays.
“Right now we have four that are planned with no set date yet,” Perricelli said. “But we’re going to have a granny square event sometime in September. We’re going to do a Halloween themed event where we’re going to make little figurines, crochet pumpkins and ghosts and different Halloween figures. And then for Thanksgiving, we’re gonna make turkey and pumpkin coasters so that we can all learn how to make the magic circle. December’s event is just a little destresser. We’re going to do snowflakes or something, like a warm holiday feeling.”
The crochet club currently does not have set meeting times, but those interested in joining can follow their instagram account, @mc_crochetclub for more information.