AHEAD OF THE CROWD

Crafty community and online hub The Crochet Crowd has millions of followers, and at its heart is Michael 'Mikey' Sellick, the 'man behind the brand, who shares his story with us....

- Amanda Robinson

Online, crochet is an exciting virtual world, and that's one of the reasons why we love it! For many, The Crochet Crowd is a go-to place to find everything from how-tos for basic stitches and techniques to tips and patterns for making afghans, baby blankets, amigurumi, garments and so much more. The Crochet Crowd YouTube channel and Facebook page now have more than two million subscribers between them, and with a thriving website, a major collaboration with Yarnspirations, popular crochet travel retreats and a constantly growing wealth of creative content, the beloved brand shows no sign of stopping.

The face of this thriving crochet community is Canadian Michael 'Mikey' Sellick. He and Daniel Zondervan, Mikey's life partner and The Crochet Crowd co-creator, produce all the crochet magic from their home studio in Ontario. But just like the rest of us, Mikey had to learn his hooky skills from scratch.

Long before The Crochet Crowd-36 years before, to be exact - it was Mikey's mum who taught him the basics. And he was hooked. Wanting to move beyond the chain and double crochet stitches she had showed him, he looked further afield for more. "Bored with just knowing two stitches, I bought the Harmony Guide to Crochet at the craft store and began to learn other stitches," he explains.

As Harmony Guide was a UK publication, Mikey learned to crochet the UK way and continued to do so from 1988 until 2008. It was only later on, when he began to teach on YouTube, that commenters pointed out that he was using UK terminology. He hadn't realised there was a difference until then! "It forced me to learn a new language Canada had already begun to shift to USA terms by the time I was teaching online."

THE BRAND BEGINS