Yarn was scattered across the room, while freshman Samantha Fullen eagerly looped her crochet hook over and over again. It was the middle of the night and her confused sister woke up to Fullen in the middle of a crochet frenzy. That night, she finished making three small frogs and a granny square. This was the first time she had tried using a crochet hook instead of her hands.
Fullen was named February’s Artist of the Month for her stuffed bunny, Alani. Librarian Elizabeth Main announced this during the first week of February.
“I like to see everyone’s faces when I show it to them,” Fullen said. “I really like to see people enjoy the things I give.”
According to her, Fullen attempted to crochet multiple times before she fully became invested, two years ago. She started off with her hands first rather than a typically-used hook.
“I found using my hands was the easiest way to crochet,” Fullen said. “After a year of doing that, for some reason in the middle of the night while I was crocheting, I just picked up a hook and it just made sense. All of a sudden it clicked.”
She said that crocheting became a hobby she picked up through her family. Her mom, younger brother and cousin, paraprofessional Tianna Ham, are the people who have influenced her.
“It feels amazing to know that I’m leaving a legacy and I’m inspiring the ones I love to do creative things in life,” Ham said. “I’m so impressed with what Samantha’s done. I maybe showed her how to crochet one little granny square a couple of years ago at a family reunion and from then she’s just taken off and done so much with it. It’s super exciting to see something that I’m passionate about, other people are too.”
Crocheting soon became more than a hobby, it was a boost to Fullen’s self confidence.
“With crocheting, I feel like nobody’s judging me,” Fullen said. “When I first gave (librarian Main) my bunny, I was very scared that other people walking by would look at it and be like, ‘I could probably do that,’ and just walk on. So when I see people amazed at what I do, it really gives me the confidence to keep going.”
The biggest challenges Fullen has faced are figuring out how she works best and using a method known as a “magic ring,” to make circles.
“When you’re crocheting, you have to keep a steady tension, so people tend to wrap yarn around their fingers and sometimes if you don’t wrap it right, it can twist up around your finger and cut off your circulation,” Fullen said. “I definitely don’t have the patience. I threw that bunny across the room four times, I don’t know how it’s still intact.”
The top things on her crocheting bucket list are creating more stuffed animals like Alani and a full-size blanket.
“I just want an army of stuffed animals, I don’t really know why, but I also want to crochet a full size blanket,” Fullen said. “That takes a lot of time, I tried once, failed and I unraveled all the yarn and never tried it again.”
The best part about her craft is the final product.
“You always get something that you can cherish,” Fullen said. “You could even give it away, take a picture, frame it if you want and look back on your stuff. It’s something you can see your growth through and think ‘Wow, I’ve come that far.’”
Namely, the stuffed sloth Fullen made for her younger cousin, Rylee.
“I even sewed little clothes for it and she loves that thing to death,” Fullen said. “I crocheted it back when I started, so now it’s falling apart and she won’t let me take it back to fix it. She told me, ‘No you’re going to have to make me a new one, you’re not getting it back’.”
After Main talked to her about the library’s Artist of the Month competition, Fullen decided to enter Alani, which was inspired by Ham’s recent project of stuffed bears wearing overalls.
“It gave me the idea to make a bunny picking strawberries but when I tried to make the strawberry it turned out more round, so I ended up just making it whatever fruit people wanted it to be,” Fullen said. “Whatever you think it is, go with it.”
Main thought it was important to showcase Fullen’s “talent” as a part of displaying students’ creativity around the school.
“As a person whose grandmother taught them how to knit and crochet, but never progressed past potholders, I thought (the bunny) was just amazing,” Main said. “My grandmother used to make Afghan blankets and everything, then my other grandmother did quilting, so I really liked those old skills. I personally cannot do them, but I’d like to reward people who can do those things or have an interest in it, plus the bunny was super cute.”
