The comfort of CRAFTING

With Hobbycraft reporting a triple surge of visitors to its online ideas page since March 2020, three readers tell us how their business has boomed

- KIM WILLIS

‘Crochet brings a little joy in these dark times’

Lisa Dobbs, 49, from Hull, is the founder of Wee Woolly Wonderfuls crochet kits.

Staring at a YouTube tutorial, with a ball of wool in my hands, I was baffled. I’d hoped it’d be fun to learn a new skill, but crochet was all confusing abbreviations and lingo. What I needed was a kit, including the wool and hooks – and easy-to-follow instructions! But I couldn’t find any kits for patterns I liked, so I decided to have a go at making one myself. Once I had the hang of the simple stitching rhythm, the possibilities were endless. I started making modern, fresh kit designs and, in 2017, launched Wee Woolly Wonderfuls.

I loved offering people a way into the crochet world. Orders were slow and steady until the first lockdown, when we suddenly started selling 100 kits a day. I joined Amazon Handmade and they were so supportive. It quickly became my biggest outlet. Customers loved Aimee the Giraffe, Henry the Hippo and Alfred the Lion. When rainbows became an iconic symbol of hope in lockdown, I made Sherbet the Rainbow Giraffe and Lollipop the Rainbow Bunny Rabbit, which people made as gifts for friends and family they missed. I thought things would slow down as lockdown continued, but it never has, and my husband, Paul, has joined the team.