Hello crochet tribe! I’m Teresa, I’m Portuguese, and I live in Alverca — a small town just outside Lisbon. Over the past few years, I’ve become completely hooked on crochet!
In this first post, which is really just to introduce myself, I want to share how croche crept into my life and ended up putting down roots.
Unlike some of you who’ve been crocheting for many years, I was never really into it. I do remember making a brown and yellow striped bag sometime in the 1970s — I must’ve been around 14 or 15. I really liked that bag and the colours I chose, but after that, I never picked up a crochet hook again. Still, I’ve always felt drawn to handmade crafts.
In my late teens and early twenties, I made a few knitted jumpers and discovered cross-stitch — which I absolutely adore! I also learned how to make Arraiolos rugs, which are a type of traditional Portuguese tapestry. I even started one… but never finished it, because life took over — I got married, and free time became a rare thing.
Over the years, I also realised that long projects are a bit of a struggle for me. If something takes too long, I get bored. (Anyone else?) In the crochet world, it feels like everyone loves making blankets. Me? I could never commit to something like that — just thinking about how long it takes makes me tired already! (laughs)
At one point, I fell in love with painting furniture and small wooden objects. I even tried to turn it into a business — it was called Com tintas e pincéis (With paints and brushes). But I gave it up when my son was born. Back then there were no social media platforms to help promote what we were doing, and between painting, marketing, and trying to find clients, it would’ve taken way more time than I had. I wanted to be as present as possible for my baby, so I took another path — one that, honestly, didn’t bring me success or personal fulfilment.
But that’s life, isn’t it? What matters is learning from the roads we take — especially the ones that weren’t really ours to begin with.
Even though my daily routines were far removed from anything creative, my heart was still very much connected to it. So when Facebook became part of my life, I naturally started following several pages dedicated to different forms of creativity.
One of those pages featured some fabric cushions that doubled as cat beds. Cats are part of my family, and I love keeping up with anything related to them. I wasn’t even tempted to buy those beds, let alone make them — sewing, like crochet, just wasn’t my thing.
Notice the tense: wasn’t. I’m starting to feel the urge to give it a go too… but for now, I’ll leave that idea on the back burner.
Anyway, I kept following the page, enjoying the fabrics and the beautiful craftsmanship you could clearly see in the photos. Then one fine day, the page owner introduced a new product — little amigurumi mice that served as toys for cats! I thought they were adorable.
Soon after, different granny square patterns started popping up. At the time, I didn’t even know the words amigurumi or granny square. These little squares were nothing like the ones I was familiar with — they were much more fun and varied.
Every time I saw them, I felt more and more like giving it a try. But I had no idea how to make anything like that!
Eventually, the lady behind the page started offering lessons, but I’d have to go to her house, and it wasn’t anywhere near mine — so that wasn’t really an option.
I should also mention that here in Portugal, only recently has crochet started to gain a bit of a fan base. Back in 2019, what that page was doing felt pretty groundbreaking. I had no idea how to learn the kind of crochet she was making. I only knew how to do single and double crochet.
And my hands were saying, “Well, if that’s all we know how to do, so be it — but we’re not staying still!” So I got to work, and here are my two first projects from 2020 — my crochet year zero:
a small shopping bag made with double crochet stitches, and a cover for a plant pot.
Do you remember when I said that getting married took away my free time?
Well, getting divorced gave it back to me… and that was wonderful!!!
I’ll leave you with two pieces I made before crochet took over a big part of my heart —
an incense holder and a little pouch I made as a gift, with dried lavender inside.
How I went from that to having crochet Etsy shop isn’t hard to imagine —
but I’ll save that story for the next post.
Like I said, I get tired of long tasks. And this first post is getting pretty long…
so I’m already a bit tired of writing! (laughs)
Sending hugs and kisses — until next time!
TeresaM