Meet the girl who loves to crochet!
By Joan Janzen
An internet search revealed that the average age of people who crochet is 18 to 54 years, with 30 percent being 55 and older. However, 11-year-old Mckayla Jorgensen from Kindersley isn't your average crocheter.
When I met Mckayla, she was wearing a floppy crocheted hat that she had made. She had worn it to school and received quite a few compliments. Who knows, maybe sometime soon, all her friends will be wearing a Mckayla Crochet original hat.
Mckayla Jorgensen not only taught herself how to crochet, she also creates her own designs without using a pattern. She is surrounded by some of her amazing stuffies and wearing her handmade hat and sweater. Photo by Joan Janzen
She crochets hats, sweaters, and every stuffy she can imagine, including bees, dragons, horses, octopuses and more. You name it; Mckayla can make it for you.
"I told her I wasn't buying any more stuffies 'cause she has way too many," Mikayla's mom, Lee Ann, said. "Now she's making her own stuffies."
Not only does she make her own stuffies, but Mckayla also creates her own designs and colour schemes without using a pattern. Or she creates something that she's seen in a photo.
I assumed her mother had taught her at least a stitch or two, but Lee Ann said she doesn't even know how to crochet. "My cousin taught me," Mckayla said. She had visited her cousin in the Yukon two years ago. "She taught me the basics, and I taught myself the rest. I just loved it!"
After being taught a quick stitch, Mckayla began researching stitches on YouTube. Since then, she has worked her way through many balls of yarn.
What does she do with all her creations? "I sell them or keep them, give some away," she explained. Last week, she started her own Mckayla's Crochet Facebook page and plans to book a spot at the farmer's market in Medicine Hat. She's planning to save the money she makes from sales.
She estimates it takes her twenty minutes to complete a small item and about two hours to complete a larger one. "She crochets an average of one to five hours a day. If it's not nice outside, she'll crochet all day long," Lee Ann said. "She'll come in the morning with something fully done." Evidently, her daughter crochets when her parents think she's sleeping. "She never gets sick of it. It's her favourite thing to do."
Holding up a crocheted snake, Mckayla explained it was her very first project. "I started at the head and stuffed it while crocheting," she said. "I didn't see it anywhere; I just thought how to do it."
"She thinks outside of the box when it comes to creativity," her mom said.
Thanks for sharing your talent with us, Mckayla. Maybe someday you will teach us how to crochet.