Members of the crochet club at their spring event crocheting flowers. NICOLEFITZSIMMONS/THEQUADRANGLE
By Nicole Fitzsimmons, Senior writer
The crochet club recently gathered at their spring event to celebrate the new season by giving students a space to learn and create tiny crochet flowers while listening to music and chatting.
Established almost a year ago, the crochet club meets weekly on Mondays for students to keep a designated time in their busy schedules for their hobbies. Three times per semester, the club hosts special themed events such as the Spring Event with yarn and a themed crochet idea for students to enjoy together.
The crochet club was created by Samantha Perricelli, Jessica DeFeo and Isabella Vidales to foster an open community to engage in creativity and learn about arts outside of the classroom.
Perricelli, a junior civil engineering major, first began crocheting a few years ago and emphasizes the importance of having time to meet and engage with your favorite hobbies.
“We just really wanted a dedicated private space to crochet because, you know, college is kind of hectic and it is a hobby of ours,” Perricelli said. “It’s nice to have a set hour every week that you kind of have to go and crochet.”
A major curve to learning crocheting is the difficulty of the beginning stages. Perricelli states how the crochet club is meant to be an open space to learn with a group of students, some with more experience.
“Everyone does it differently, so each board member and experienced crocheter is going to tell you a different way to do things, but you have to just keep doing it,” Perricelli said. “If you buy a kit, use the kit, and we’re totally open for you to take yarn back with you after the meeting so you can work on it by yourself.”
Perricelli encourages students to continue to practice and says that the club is more than willing to help and give advice to those who wish to become better at crocheting.
“We can also send YouTube videos if you want specific things and if you want advice specifically from people who have done crocheting for a few years,” said Perricelli. “But, you just have to try it, it’s not scary, we don’t bite and we’re here to help you and we will try our best to help you learn it if you want to.”
Jessica DeFeo, a junior marketing and global business major, also emphasizes the importance of practicing and watching tutorials to better your skills.
“Even though we have a dedicated space, I will say the most beneficial way to learn how to crochet and to develop your skills is to do it on your own and figure out everything on your own,” DeFeo said. “And also practice as much as you can. Because I feel like with any skill, it’s always going to be difficult to do it unless you get that practice.”
At events, the crochet club picks patterns for members to do for students of different skill sets. From creating granny squares, pumpkin-shaped coasters or St. Patrick’s Day koozies, there are opportunities for new members to learn, or experienced members to offer a helping hand or to create a bunch of crochet pieces.
Isabel Cameron is a senior psychology major and is a member of the crochet club that emphasizes the aspects of community, welcomeness and shared interests for new members to the club and beginners to crocheting.
“Advice I’d give to beginners wanting to join [crochet] club or wanting to learn how to crochet is literally that you don’t need to know anything,” Cameron said. “The club has a very large emphasis on community and learning. I spent the first couple weeks going to the club just teaching other people how to start, how to do the most basic things like chaining or single crochet and I enjoyed it a lot.”
Cameron says that keeping an open eye out for new ways to crochet on social media is a great way to better your skills and keep learning interesting.
“I like teaching people about something I am passionate about so I’d say just going with an open mind and a curious mind, you’ll be able to learn, and also Youtube, TikTok, Instagram, they are your friends when you are trying to learn crochet. I am a self-taught crocheter, I learned everything I know online over the pandemic,” said Cameron.
In the upcoming semester, the crochet club is going to continue holding weekly meetings and is going to send a form out to members about their experience and availability to continue being a welcoming, stress-free community on the Manhattan College campus.
“I think it’s definitely important to have a space dedicated specifically for artistic creativity,” DeFeo said. “I feel like when you’re in college, especially when you’re majoring in something or you’re doing something typically that’s not super creative. It’s hard to be able to continue to develop that. These kinds of spaces not only promote stress relief, but I think it’s also important just to be creative in general.”