It happened by accident, really! I had gone home for the holidays and was really bored, so I pulled out the sewing machine I had gotten as a teenager but had never really used. I started making clothes from patterns. When I got back to Mexico, I wanted to continue making my own outfits but couldn’t afford a sewing machine. I always liked crochet and how it looked but never found actual outfits that I thought were cute. Around this time, I saw a photo of a vintage sweater and skirt set and thought, if I couldn’t get a sewing machine, I could try to learn to crochet and make something like that outfit. I found a yarn company I liked and started watching Youtube tutorials and slowly taught myself to crochet. It was quite frustrating at first, but once I got better at it, it became really calming.
Crochet, knitting, and embroidery are really present in Mexico. You see lots of handmade sweaters and baby clothes for sale in stores and at street stalls. There’s a group of women who get together around the corner from my house on Tuesday evenings and sit in plastic chairs and embroider together. It’s so cool. Mexico has such a strong artisan presence. After I had learned the basics, I met a woman, Patricia, who makes and sells baby clothes at the market near my house. She started giving me lessons and helped me put together the first crochet set.