Members of Campus Crochet, Wayne State College’s new crocheting club, are turning a niche hobby into an opportunity for learning and positive impact.
Meetings are at 3:30 on Thursdays, usually in the student center.
“It’s just a nice little group where we all come in here, and we can crochet together,” Onyx Krenzer, the treasurer of Campus Crochet, said. “New people can learn how to crochet if they’d like. We just get together, talk about honestly anything, and just bond.”
Hanak said there is a table set up for anybody who doesn’t know how to crochet.
“They can come in, and we will have people teach them so that they can do it if they want to,” Hanak said. “It’s been really cool to see that there’s quite a few people who show up just to learn.”
“There’s a lot of people that know more than I do,” Krenzer said. “If I need help, if I don’t understand how to do something, they’re willing to help.”
Club president Chloe Bain said if people don’t have any experience, she has extra hooks so that they can still learn for the day to see if crocheting is something they enjoy doing before they invest in their own stuff.
“It gives people a chance to see if they would be into something new,” Krenzer said. “There are not too many people that I know that think crocheting is cool. They think it’s like a grandma thing. It’s nice to see people come in. Like, they’re wary about it, but then they start to do it, and they’re like ‘Oh, I can make cool things like hats and sweaters. This is actually a productive thing that’s really helpful.’”
Bain said in the future, the club hopes to turn that productivity into crocheting hats to donate and is making plans for potential fundraisers.
“We might crochet things, and then raffle them off to bring some revenue to pay for the yarn for the hats,” Bain said.
If she can get everything lined up, Bain hopes the club can work with Eva Olson from the Violence Against Women Act project.
“We’re maybe going to have her come and give a workshop while we work on our hats and talk about the dangers of domestic violence,” Bain said.
While members are planning big for the club’s future, they also enjoy the community they have now.
“I don’t really know too many people who do crochet, so I’ve been wanting to find people who have the same hobby as me,” Krenzer said. “It’s really nice to see that we get a bunch of people coming in looking for people with the same hobbies.”
“I think that it brings a very good place of safety because crochet is not a hobby that a whole lot of people have, but it’s one that takes a lot of time and patience,” Hanak said. “So, you know that everybody in there is someone who is patient and kind, and they put effort into work over time, which shows that that’s about the connections that they make with other people as well.”
