Lynn’s crocheting passion now a business
Grade 11 student Lynn du Toit’s (17) passion for crocheting, which she started two years ago, has led to a successful business, Crochet by Lynn."I learned from my aunt, Jana Gous. She has a special gift for crocheting and wanted to share it with someone," she says.
Jana taught Lynn the basics and also gave her her first balls of wool, crochet pins and other crochet accessories. "From there on I taught myself, while she was always on hand to help," says Lynn.
Her need to be creative and to create something with her hands is her biggest inspiration. The fulfilling feeling of giving people a handmade gift, whether for comfort, birthdays, special occasions or just because, is very satisfying, says Lynn.
At first, she gave everything she made as gifts to friends and family. It was gratifying to her to see how excited and sometimes amazed they were about the gift. This spurred her on to live her love for crafts with passion. The requests to add another animal to the initial gifts and literally expand the "zoo" made her realise that this is a good opportunity to earn an income from something she enjoys doing.
Support network
"I got a lot of support for my initiative from my family. They helped me especially with the cost calculations and logistics to get the business off the ground. Their involvement and belief in my idea was my encouragement to push through!" she says.
When asked where she gets her ideas from, the Windhoek Gymnasium student says that she gets most of the patterns from the internet as well as from social media where she follows a few craft groups.
"Many of the animal patterns consist of the same concept, especially in terms of how you make the head and the body. I can already make some of the animals out of my head."
According to Lynn, the amount of time she spends making an animal depends on the amount of parts she has to sew together.
“It takes quite a long time to attach all the panels. It is e.g. much easier to make a hedgehog that consists of only five small parts than a turtle that has fairly large parts. A turtle can take up to four hours from start to finish."
Success
Lynn markets her business and stuffed animals on her Instagram page @crochet_by. Lynn regularly posts photos of her creations.
"On 31 August I exhibited at my very first market day," says Lynn. "At first I was unsure and nervous, because I doubted whether people would be interested in something handmade and crocheted. So much time and love goes into such an item, and I had to ask myself if anyone would buy something like this."
Despite all her fears, the day went better than expected and many people supported her. She took 30 of which 20 were sold, making the day a success.
Lynn hopes to inspire other young people through her business and initiative to follow their passion and possibly generate an income from it.
On request, Lynn has also made other items such as crocheted tops for girlfriends. The tops are a completely different method of creation. One top takes about three weeks to complete, partly because of the much thinner wool she has to use and the measurements which have to be precise.
Lynn's group of friends are very supportive of her business. She says it's already a joke among them as she always picks out her crochet work during a visit and then everyone sings in unison "Look, Lynn is crocheting again!"