Hello and welcome to Solo Stitching! I’m so glad you stopped by to check out my shop!
If you follow me or listen to my podcast, I talk a lot about self-care, personal growth, and turning your passion into purpose.
Solo Stitching wraps all of that into a beautiful ball of yarn!
When people talk about self-care, we often hear about bubble baths, reading, listening to music, or getting a massage. Those are all great suggestions. But if we’re being honest, we’re busy! So it’s complicated to take time out of our day for something with no tangible results.
Caring for yourself through creativity is powerful! It relieves anxiety, helps you de-stress, and opens pathways in your brain that improve mental health.
But here’s the bonus! Caring for yourself through crocheting, knitting, and sewing feeds our need to multi-task. Creating handmade products opens the door of opportunity to accomplish your self-care objectives while simultaneously learning new skills and building confidence. It also allows you to care for loved ones through gifts, making things for your home, and building self-reliance. Amazing!!
Beginning Stitches
My mom taught me to knit when I was twelve.
I was determined to knit a blanket using these giant knitting needles I found stored in her craft box. So, I grabbed an old skein of yarn and watched as she showed me how to make a knitting stitch.
I practiced row after row.
It was a misshapen blanket that got skinnier and then fatter. The gauge was so tight I could barely insert the needle, and I quickly discovered that a blanket takes a long time to make, even with huge knitting needles.
I never finished that blanket, and I put down the yarn as I moved into my teenage years.
When I was sixteen, I discovered one of my friends was crocheting a blanket. It was beautiful! I asked her to teach me, and within a few minutes, I started my own crocheted blanket.
This time, I finished it!
The Hard Part
Over the next several years, I produced a few blankets, learned to sew, and even made clothes for my kids.
My first projects were not perfect, and some of them make me laugh when I think of how proud I was of them.
But with each completed project, I refined my existing skills, learned new skills, and developed a love for design and creating new patterns and projects.
When tragedy struck and I lost my husband to suicide in 2017, I put down the yarn again.
I desperately tried to distance myself from everything that reminded me of my old life as I traveled my grief journey. It took time and healing before some of who I was before his death started to resurface. Eventually, I was able to pick up the yarn again.
A New Chapter
This time, I picked up the yarn with the purpose of caring for myself through a creative outlet.
In the years that passed, I completed many hours of therapy and the deep emotional work needed for healing. So, when I started feeling the urge to be creative and heard the call of the yarn store, I had no idea the impact on my love of crafting by the emotional work I was doing.
My love for crafting and design merged with all I learned about personal growth, self-care, productivity, achieving goals, and providing for my family. It was exciting! The fog of uncertainty started to clear, and I saw a new path.
And so, Solo Stitching was born.
I have created Solo Stitching as a place for you to learn, be inspired, care for yourself through creativity, and build confidence…one stitch at a time.
As I continue to build the knowledge base, I will post new tutorials and videos, new projects in the shop, and open classes (one-on-one and group).
If there is anything you would like to learn, please email me at admin@ahighlyunlikelylife.com or drop down in the comments and let me know what you want to see and learn.
Thank you for being here! I’m excited to take this journey with you.
xo-
Lavena
