Welcome dear reader to my new blog, Defining Stitches. My name is Breanne and I am a 30-something year old from California who has developed an interest in recent years in various fiber arts beginning with crochet and most recently venturing out into sewing my own clothing.
A bit about me
My interests in these areas really took hold during the pandemic (like lots of us, huh?) but was really a result of me trying to cope with my depression that came with prematurely having a baby in February of 2020, COVID, and then slowly coming to the realization that I had ADHD, followed by the realization that I also was ASD. I needed something to hold on to that brought me joy and for so long I had convinced myself that I was a person that did not have hobbies and did not know how to enjoy anything other than watching all of the TV possible. Crocheting allowed me to slow down and really untangle my thoughts and remember that I actually like crafting and creating things and helped me understand myself a little bit more with every stitch.
Prior to Defining Stitches, I have tried out a blog/Instagram/Etsy shop by the name of mstyarns (which stood for (mostly) strategically tangled yarns) but I never fully enjoyed the name – I agonized for a while over it before settling, which very much reminded me of my former struggles picking an AIM username in my youth – and very quickly felt stuck creatively because of it as I slowly got more into sewing and not always using my yarn. I also enjoyed embroidery and cross stitch, so it really just felt like it did not fully encapsulate everything I wanted to do and talk about. With this new year, I am hoping that rebranding will help me feel less stuck and allow me the comfort in sharing more of what I am actually doing with my hobbies instead of making me feel like I’ve abandoned my instagram/blog for something else that is technically related under the fiber arts hood, but is not strictly with yarn.
My journey into the fiber arts
*Note: None of the links to products in this post are affiliate links. I just wanted to post the links to what I was referring to for your reference!
Knitting
The first fiber art I ever had experience with was knitting when I was in elementary school. I don’t remember that much, but I remember learning the basic garter stitch with straight needles and this pastel variegated yarn. I completed one scarf and then forgot about knitting for a while.
In high school, my mom was doing something with loom knitting and I decided to try knitting again and promised her a scarf. Sadly, the scarf was never finished. Sorry, mom.
Then, when I was pregnant I remembered knitting and decided I wanted to knit a soft toy for my baby. I picked up the book Baby Knits Made Easy and made the little cat toy from the book.
From this, I learned how to knit in the round, stockinette stitch, and how to embroider on details. I also made my first purchase from Lovecrafts.com and I believe this was my first Paintbox Yarns purchase!
Crochet
While my son was a baby, I thought it would be nice to make another item for him and found a pattern for a bear lovey. This project remains unfinished to this day, but it allowed me to venture out and purchase a basic set of crochet hooks from Michael’s. These went into a box and were forgotten for a little over a year.
Time passes and a little over a year ago I hit a low with my mental health. I experience a bout of trichotillomania after struggling to cope with my depression/anxiety and at some point a clump of my hair falls out. It was near Fall/Winter, so I lived exclusively in beanies. Around this time, I find myself at Barnes and Noble and I see The Mandalorian Crochet Kit. I decided that I wanted to try crochet again because I felt the need to focus on something that wasn’t my hair falling out and purchased the kit. It probably sat around for a couple of months before I actually opened it and crocheted Grogu and gave it to my son as a gift.
This was when it clicked. I felt inspired to make more than just Grogu. I went to the library and found some amigurumi books. I made Quasimodo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame for my husband. I made myself a lanyard. I bought the book Knotmonsters: Potted Plants and made my mom a half-improvised orchid for Mother’s Day.
I still struggled with the trichotillomania and after winter was over, I found that I could not wear my beanies anymore. I found a bandana pattern on Marching North‘s site and made several for myself. It made me feel better about what was going on with my hair and I delighted in people asking if I had made it. Crochet really started to help me feel better about myself and where I was at.
There are countless other mini-projects that I found myself doing around this time, one of which was making mini drawstring pouches for this club on my school’s campus which they sold and donated the money to the Humane Society. It was a nice time and I felt very excited to be learning. I also learned Tunisian crochet during this time and really enjoyed working it in to the pouch designs.
Sometime after this I started my Etsy page and my Instagram. I ventured into making bags and made both my mom and my sister-in-law a bag as a gift. It was after this that school started back up in August, then I suddenly stopped crocheting after getting bogged down by teaching stuff again.
Embroidery and Cross Stitch
During my crochet peak, I learned some basic embroidery for embroidering on the faces for amigurumi projects. I’ve always been interested in embroidery so I naturally felt more inclined to look up how to do it myself. I ended up finding a cross-stitch pattern at a local small business and loved it. I then went searching for more patterns, bought several, and am still in the middle of the first one I tried over half a year later (oops).
I then bought an embroidery kit from Michaels and and STILL in the middle of that one as well. I really want to finish these but keep distracting myself with other things. I know I’ll get back to it though.
Weaving
This one didn’t really go anywhere but I did buy this loom from Michaels to use as an experiment when I was still interested in crocheting bags and just got straight up curious. Maybe later I’ll dive deeper…
Sewing
This has been the latest thing for me. During summer, I bought my first-ever sewing machine. I went with the cheapest option from Walmart because I was honestly not sure if I would even do anything with it. I ended up making a bag for my mom complete with a liner and zippered pouch because I guess starting simple wasn’t an option.
I made myself a basic elastic waist skirt with some cheap cotton fabric from Joann’s and I’ve probably worn it about once. Shortly after this, I removed the needle and assumed I would just pop it back in and continue a new project, but apparently that was enough of a barrier for me to ignore it for about 4.5 months because I did not yet know how to put it back in (silly, but true).
One thing about me is that I have not been comfortable with my weight ever since having a baby… except the weird thing is, I actually returned to my normal size right after having my son. It was once I was on antidepressants and experiencing hormonal changes and also an immense amount of stress that I actually gained more and have not yet found myself back to where I would like to be. The struggle has always been finding clothes that fit properly, and I felt more inspired to sew as I found myself stuck in a cycle of buying clothes and not having them fit and feeling like I wasted my money and my energy. Early last month, I found Sewing Therapy and her Instagram page. I immediately knew I wanted to try out her Hanbok skirt pattern and I ended up completing it in short bursts throughout a weeklong period! Making the skirt was not perfect and I definitely need to practice sewing in a straight line for a very long time, but overall it was a success and I love how it turned out. I’ll discuss this project in a future post, but I credit it with reminding me how much I enjoy crafts and that I would like to do so much more with it.
What do I plan to do with this blog?
To be honest, I am not entirely sure. I want to explore the new skills and I want to use some of my mathematical and teaching background to provide a different sort of resource for people who are interested in learning. I want to share my progress and just be able to talk about how my WIPs are going. I’m just going to try to have fun with it, and hopefully it becomes something worthwhile.
I hope you find this enjoyable and stick around to see what I end up doing with this, and be sure to follow my Instagram at @defining_stitches!