A woman who taught herself how to crochet novelty outfits for dogs while enduring endless power cuts in her home has turned a hobby into a living, having discovered people love to use her patterns to make their own creations.
The woman, known on social media only as Jani, taught herself the skill after finding herself bored and unable to do much else while multiple power outages cut off her access to electronic appliances and gadgets in the winter of 2018.
The 31-year-old bought herself books and crochet hooks and then spent weeks perfecting her technique. Discovering she loved to crochet things for her dogs, she ended up designing more than 100 patterns. Having decided on pursuing this hobby, she turned to her two dogs, Sookie and Ivy, and settled on designing hats for them.
She then began to share her creations for her Staffordshire mixes on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, and Etsy, and soon gathered a legion of fans who loved her idea of hats for pets. Among her creations are broccoli, Easter bunny, sunflower and green bean hats.
The content creator from Boston, Massachusetts, said: “They look so cute in their hats. They love filming, but they take the hats off straight after. Sometimes I put on one when we go for a walk and it’s really cold.
“When people think of crochet, they think of something you’d see draped over your grandma’s couch. I think people associate crochet with something old people do. I’m trying to make crochet cool. You can do so much with crochet.”
Jani worked in sales before trying to make a business out of crochet. It took just six months for her to take it full time.
“When I start a hobby, I drop everything,” she said. “For the first three weeks I don’t think I put down the hooks. I already had an Instagram page for the dogs, so I knew I wanted to make them something.
“There a not a lot of patterns out there for anything dog related so I had to figure it out on my own. I made them a carrot hat and it just went crazy.”
Now Jani has made over 100 hats for Sookie and Ivy, with food themed designs becoming popular with her followers. “They love the broccoli hat,” she said. “I’ve done green beans, watermelon and dragon fruit.”
Jani lives with her fiancé who helps with the dogs while she films. “He’s super supportive,” she said. “He loves it.”
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Inevitably, her success has led to some internet trolls accusing her of abusing her pets. But she said: “I don’t force the dogs to do it — I couldn’t imagine doing that. I love them so much.”
Jani now makes content and sells her patterns online. She has also started making tutorials on the skill, posting them online.
“The goal is to have more of a crochet focus,” she said. “My co-workers are dogs. You can do so much with crochet and create any shape you want.”
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