When the final bell sounds at Gunn Junior High School and Fine Arts and Dual Language Academy in Arlington, students file into the library for their weekly after-school club meeting.
"Anybody not signed in?" Crochet Club Advisor and Librarian Katie Thayer asked. "Perfect! Remember that you should have out your skein and your hook. In just a minute we'll help you if you forgot your supplies today."
If you don't know what a skein and hook are, chances are you probably don't crochet.
"More people know what knitting is than know what crochet is," Crochet Club Co-Founder Kelsey Erlandsen said. 'So I wanted to start it because I love crocheting!"
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The club started small last year with about a dozen students. This year there are around 60 students in the crochet club, most of them beginners.
"I'm trying to make a square," 6th grader Anthony Guevara said. "But I ended up making something not a square."
Crochet might seem 'old school'...something your grandma does, not junior high students.
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"My grandma is like really, like, happy that I'm, like, bringing it back," Crochet Club Co-Founder Arabella Bentley said. "And that, like, a bunch of young people are doing it now,"
Full disclosure, I learned from my grandmother when I was younger. There's photo evidence I wasn't all that good. I proudly wore a crooked crochet vest I made for picture day in about 2nd grade.
"This is called a ribbing," Erlandsen said showing off a sweater she was wearing that she made. "I love it too much to care what other people say about it."
"Crochet is for all genders and all people," Guevara said, trying to stretch his non-square into a square. "It makes me feel accomplished."
"It takes me away from anything that happened at school that day, or anything that happened with friends," Erlandsen said. "It relieves me of stress, and it just helps me to be calm and to be relaxed, and just take me out of the world."
The Crochet Club's goal is to get everyone's skills up to speed so they can make items to donate to nonprofits and nursing/retirement homes.
"So it just makes me glad and happy that I get to share what I love with the people I love," Erlandsen said.
