Stacey Trock's Fresh Stitching

I was born in Silver Spring, MD in a year that I won’t reveal (honestly, it’s just an awkward age. The young, hip people think I’m starting to get old, and the experienced adults think I’m too young to be doing what I do… we’ll just leave it at that). My mom taught me to crochet when I was around 6, largely as a tool to keep me quiet and occupied. When my goal (to crochet the longest chain anyone ever had), became too boring, my mom quickly taught me single crochet to keep me further occupied. By the age of 12 or so, I was regularly entering my crocheted creations into the Montgomery County Agricultural fair, and getting very cute ribbons. In retrospect, I was a fairly creative child with horrible fashion sense. I designed a purple and brown triangular wrap with a big flower… (okay, it’s embarrassing now, so we’re just going to move on.)

By high school, I had begun crocheting afghans in math class (my teachers agreed to allow this, because it kept me quiet… there is a theme here, if you look for it.) But, by the time I went to college, I just didn’t need any more afghans (or hideous wraps), and so, I put my hook and yarn aside.

I finished college and then I had one of those quarter-life crises, and thought, ‘what would I like to do in life?’ Well, the answer was quite obvious: work in a yarn store!

So, I emailed my local yarn store and asked if they were hiring. They said that, unfortunately, they couldn’t hire someone who couldn’t knit- because a very large percentage of their customer base were knitters. However, they were nice enough to show me how to knit, and told me to come back when I had it under control.

About 2 weeks later, I came back, having completed a Noni bag (the Lunch Bag, if you want to know), and it was determined that I could knit sufficiently. Concurrently, I had begun designing stuffed animals, and started my own little company, selling amigurumi patterns.

Needless to say, I’m as happy as a clam! (Or, as my Aussie boyfriend would say, ‘happy as Larry’… to which I reply, ‘how do I know how happy Larry is?’… and he says, ‘you have a better chance of finding that out than finding out how happy a clam is’… and I decide that he’s totally right about that). I have the best job in the world: designing things that make me (and other people) happy.

I design, I teach knitting and crochet, I help customers pick up dropped stitches, and now, I blog. I hope to let you in on my world: what it’s like to design, what my calendar looks like, where I get my ideas, and tips and techniques. I’m immensely grateful to be able to do what I do, and I know that it’s my customers that let me keep doing it! So, thanks, blog-reader, you!