Brinley Crochets

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“Hey, what’s this?”  I brought my car to a quick stop, and backed up. Not a lemonade stand. Good, I’d had 4 cups of lemonade already from enterprising youngsters taking advantage of our Community Garage Sale weekend. This stand was different. Under the shade of a little tree out by the street, there was a whole menagerie of stuffed animals, and standing by it was a smiling young lady, enthusiastic to tell about her animals. Brinley Peterson is a rising sophomore at Bear Creek High School, and she crochets. Brinley crochets little animals, and some big ones. I bought a little gosling to keep my rubber duck company, and I asked her to check with her parents about meeting for an interview. This week I met with Brinley and her mom… 

Rubber Ducky looks up to the new resident

Bruce: Thanks for meeting with me. I think lots of our neighbors will be as fascinated as I am, not just about all the cute animals and how you make them, but about how you are clearly building a business with them. To start, how long have you been crocheting and how did you get started?

Brinley: I got started with our family’s visit to my grandparents’ home in St. Louis, Christmas 2023. I got a beginner’s crochet kit with instructions and Grandma sat with me and helped me get started. She was so patient and it was a fun thing to do with her. We practiced with the simple designs that came with the kit and by New Year’s Day I reached the point where I felt I could expand and make different designs, and I loved doing it. It’s really easy to master if you know how to do it. So you were hooked?  Yes, you could say that. 

Some of your designs look complicated. Do you do your own designs?  I have bought some designs from other creators, and I have made some of my own patterns. I do it by a “try and see” method, see what works, and write down the steps. Sometimes there’s a lot of frogging. Frogging?  Yes, that’s what you call it when you have to go back by undoing stitches. (I didn’t ask at the time, but I looked it up and it’s frogging because you have to “rip it, rip it” Ribbit, ribbit!)  Most of my work is in the amigurumi style, for making the round shapes of the animals. When I asked about that word she showed me the starting point of one of the animals, a perfect little star at the origin of the spiral rows that would expand and contract to form the shape. She then pointed out:  But it’s not all amigurumi. Some of the parts, like the wings here, transition to a chain stitch for flat crocheting like you would use on a scarf. It took a lot of practice to be able to combine the two. 

I hope you did OK with your stand on our Community Garage Sale day. Have you done other shows and marketing channels in building your business?  

My sister and I started with a little booth at the Yetman Family Farm selling hair scrunchies. We liked the interactions with people and showing off our work. 

Since getting into crocheting, I had a booth at the Dakota Ridge Craft Show last October, and the Bear Creek one in December. I also competed in the Young Americans Bank Youth Business competition, where participants put together a business plan and answered questions from a panel on our business model. That really made me think about how I run the business.

In what way?  Well, it made me realize how much I had undervalued my time and my creativity at first. In my earliest craft fairs I was almost giving the animals away. Even then, I started learning that some people would be really appreciative of the work and skill in the product, and others would just look and pass on by, thinking they could find some mass-produced toy cheaper. Just seeing reactions like that taught me a lot about people, and about appreciating the value of my craft, with the animals being handmade. I have even made animals modeled after a loved pet like this cat – she showed me a life-size cat with a distinctive tuxedo pattern – and that’s something you can’t find in a store. 

Palm Street: @BrinleyCrochets

Speaking of value, how do you go about setting your prices?  It’s time and materials. The price of yarn has really risen dramatically in the last year, and learning to value my time has been an important lesson, even as I get more efficient in completing the work. I know how much time each piece takes. The goose you bought takes about 45 minutes, and my big octopus here was 9 hours. 

How about online marketing?  Are you on Etsy, or any of the other craft platforms?  I tried Etsy, but it didn’t seem to be a good fit for me. I like Palm Street, and that’s my main online outlet now. After I incorporated as an LLC and got my special event tax license, I participated in the Arapahoe Community College Market and that was a big learning experience. 

It’s summertime now, but I expect you have to do a lot of time management during the school year…  That’s true. It’s easy to know what to do though; if I’m not doing homework I’m crocheting. In the summertime I can build up my inventory since that’s when people buy less. That requires some longer-term planning than just making what I need for the next event. 

In closing, what advice might you have for other teens who want to turn a creative hobby into a rewarding business?  I like turning people’s imaginations into reality, such as the cat I showed you that was patterned after someone’s pet. It meant so much to them. The personal connection is what turns creativity into something that people will value and remember – and it makes me feel good too. 

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