It was the 2021 Olympics at Tokyo when Tom Daley, UK’s ace diver, not only won his country a gold medal, but also charmed the cameras with his nimble crocheting hands.
Wherever you caught sight of Daley—whether lounging on the benches, poolside, or watching other people’s games, you could see him with his crochet needles, working with great dexterity. He even made a tiny sleeve for his gold medal, earned with partner Matty Lee in the men’s 10-metre synchronised dive.
Daley inadvertently forced the world to sit up and take notice of an art form once limited to elderly women, challenging an entire gamut of gender stereotypes along the way.
British diver, Tom Daley crocheting on the stands during Tokyo Olympics 2021
Hop skip to 2024 in India, where a wave of young entrepreneurs has emerged, launching small-scale crochet businesses and harnessing the power of social media to build their brand and customer base.
For 24-year-old Kunal Chourasia, a Mumbai-based full-time crocheter, crocheting wasn’t always a readily available career choice. Starting off as an IT professional in a multinational firm and later a marketing firm, Chourasia found his crochet calling only during the Covid-induced lockdown.
“I started experimenting with designs during the lockdown phase. I used to create different shapes, different patterns, and so on. There was a point where I just thought of starting something of my own, and that is when I launched my Instagram page to put up my creations. And eventually, I started getting orders once the lockdown eased off,” he said.
Today, he deftly runs his own business off Instagram, that his parents were once completely against. “The day I left my full time marketing job, my parents asked me to leave the house, which I did. But we reconciled after 15 days, and since then there has been no looking back.”
Back in January 2023, he would get around 20-30 orders every month, and now the orders have gone up to over 60-100 a month.
“The income now is roughly five-six times more than my IT job.”
The experience resonates with 28-year-old Aishwarya Bysani from Bengaluru, who goes by the moniker Curly Crochet on Instagram. She picked up crocheting during the lockdown and has since transitioned to becoming a full-time crocheter on Instagram, primarily focusing on wearable items such as sweaters and caps.
Moving beyond the conventional recommendations of journaling and meditation, therapist Ketaki Mahatre suggests that taking up activities like knitting and crocheting can significantly benefit our mental health.
“The repetitive motions, the focus involved, and the fact that you are physically and emotionally engaged with a tool is a great mental exercise,” she said.
Mahatre believes that when people experience anxiety or nervousness, repetitive actions or ‘actions that loop in a way’ help the nervous system find a rhythm to calm down.
While the majority of evidence supporting this claim is based on personal accounts, a study carried out by the University of Wollongong found out that participants reported feeling happier, more in control, and a greater sense of usefulness after crocheting.
Crocheting turned into a refuge for Prabhal Mehta, a 29-year-old aspiring surgeon from Hyderabad, after his heartbreak. At first, he saw it as a way to take a break, but soon it became his safe space, helping him focus better on his studies.
Mehta said, “When I got into crocheting, it felt like I was stepping into a peaceful zone, just following the flow of my hands.”
Encouraged by his mother, who’s quite skilled at crocheting herself, Mehta grabbed a yarn ball and a crochet needle as a means to heal and discover himself.
“In this process I realised crocheting wasn’t just about keeping my hands busy; it was also about finding beauty in the details, which I found really aligned with the precision needed in surgery,” he said.
From every perspective, the traditional stereotype of handcrafting, typically tied to an elderly woman bent over her needles and yarn, has undergone a remarkable shift. Now, it’s become a source of both financial empowerment and mental nourishment for today’s young adults.
