The Needle Arts Club at USF St. Petersburg is out to make a knitter # or a crocheter, or a sewer # out of you.
“We want to make it a social, friendly community,” said Nora Khatcherian, freshman and club vice president. “Once people try, they really get into it.”
The club began as a way for those well versed in the ways of the needle arts to teach the craft to the student body. Khatcherian, who was new on campus, found that knitting and related crafts brought people together. Noticing there weren’t many art clubs on campus, she sought to develop a community that bonded over a mutual love of the needle arts.
“My roommate started it,” she said of the club’s origins. “She did crochet, I did sewing. We wanted to [create] a club where we could teach it.”
The Needle Arts Club’s board consists of students majoring in biology, education and political science, among other fields.
“We’re totally across the board, which I think is good,” Khatcherian said. “You don’t have to be a specific major to try. We are all pretty different, but we all come together through this.”
The Needle Arts Club focuses, for now, on teaching its members the basic skills. The first month of meetings will focus on learning how to crochet; the next month the club will teach the fundamentals of knitting.
“Our first meeting was entirely crocheting,” Khatcherian said. “It was fun. Everyone was really happy.”
Eventually, the club wants to crochet granny squares, a simple blanket pattern for blanket making. Future projects might also include teaching members to sew and branching into selling the club’s creations online.
The club may even make its own page on Etsy, an online marketplace for vintage and handmade goods. Products would range from clothing to hacky sacks and desk decorations.
“We do all kinds of stuff # we make scarves, hats … It’s really versatile,” Khatcherian said. One member even makes crochet Pokéballs modeled after those in the media franchise Pokémon.
Another long-term goal for the Needle Arts Club includes reaching out to the larger St. Petersburg community via charity.
“We want to do a service slant to it. We’d like to make stuff and donate it, and teach at children’s hospitals and nursing homes,” Khatcherian said.
For now, though, one of the club’s biggest aspirations is to garner a following.
“We would like to be a really big club, so we can have more outreach in the community,” Khatcherian said, citing the success of the USFSP Longboarding Club. “We want to make a difference on campus because that’s the point of clubs.”
Of the appeal of needle arts, Khatcherian said, “It’s kind of becoming cool again to do crocheting. Not to be anti-capitalism, but I think people appreciate when something is handmade. It’s becoming popular again for good reason. [The board and I] all really like handmade stuff. It’s pretty special.”
The Needle Arts Club aims to bring to USFSP the “appreciation for handmade objects and the ability to try, because some people have never tried and now they can,” said Khatcherian. “I made this, and you can too.”
Get stitchin’: The Needle Arts Club currently meets at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays in the University Student Center Ocean Room, but the group will be polling members soon to see if other meeting times might work. Supplies are provided.
I have an old crochet pattern my mother had since the 1960’s. It is the “Lords Supper”. My mother crocheted one of these large panels in late 1060’s and one in Dec 2006. She has since passed away. I had the first one for a long time and finally threw it out. It took her so long to finish it by the time she was done it was too tight on one end and could not be stretched to compensate. I do have a photo of it and can email it to you if you like. I can donate this pattern to your club if you want. Let me know.