starting out

When I was just four years old, my mother sat beside me and placed a needle in my tiny hand. She wrapped her fingers around mine and guided each stitch, teaching me not just how to sew but how to be patient and present. We spent years making blankets together for the Linus Project: a non-profit who provides handmade blankets to NICU babies and children who are experiencing traumatic events. This is where I first learned how to include love in my work. Every stitch could offer comfort, care, and warmth to babies and children while they went through the most difficult times of their young lives.

There is a kind of quiet you sit with when you finish something you’ve made with your own two hands. It is not the kind of silence that asks for approval. It is the kind that holds its breath and hopes. Sitting at the edge of my bed, folding the last corner of a baby blanket I planned to enter into the county fair. The stitches were tight, the yarn was soft, and I had redone the trim three times because I wanted it just right. I had never entered anything before. The walk to the fair booth was not far, but I felt every step in my chest. It is one thing to crochet for family. It is another to place your work on a table for strangers to judge. Still, I did it. I handed over the blanket and smiled, but truthfully I wanted to turn around and say never mind. I was proud, but I was also scared. I remember that first quiet so well. I was in the 4th grade.

That same feeling has come back to me lately, now that I have started Crocheted Stars. It is a different kind of fair, but the heart of it feels the same. Taking commissions means putting myself out there again. It means saying, “This is what I love, and I hope you love it too.” I still get nervous before sending off an order. I still second-guess a color choice or wonder if the yarn feels right. But now, instead of handing it to a judge behind a folding table, I hand it to someone who asked for it. Someone who trusted me to make something just for them.

And that is even more meaningful.

Crocheted Stars is not just a business to me. It is a continuation of a lifetime of making things by hand. It is the next chapter after all those fairgrounds and folding chairs and prize ribbons. It is built on the same foundation: careful work, honest hands, and a deep belief that slow things are still worth something. My vision is to grow this little shop with the same love I’ve always brought to my yarn and hook. Every commission is a story I get to help tell. Every piece I make carries the quiet hope that started with that very first ribbon. Every person who visits this site, who asks for a gift or a keepsake or something special to hold, becomes a part of that journey with me.

So thank you. Whether you’re just browsing or thinking about a custom order, I am so glad you’re here. You are helping me turn the courage I found at the county fair into a dream I get to live every day.

With all my heart,
Ersula Elaine