My name is London Kaye, and I crochet and do ballet. I was born in Los Angeles, California with an artist for a mother and a writer for a father. One of my earliest creative memories is of the beach building sculptures out of all the seashells and sticks we could find. I did not realize it at the time, but choosing a creative path through life was being unconsciously ingrained inside of me. By the time I was in elementary school, I was doing gymnastics or taking dance everyday after school. I loved jumping, turning and flipping; it was fun, and I was good at it. It became my life, and by the time I was 13 years old, I won the title of Grand National Dance Champion at the big final competition in New York City.
This was right around the same time that I learned to crochet. My best friend’s mom taught me one afternoon, and for some reason, I could not put the hook down. I learned only the basic single crochet stitch, and that was all I needed to know to begin making scarves at a prolific pace.
A couple of years later, I broke my back in two places, requiring me to stop dancing for a whole year. I was devastated, but ultimately, I accepted my fate of watching my peers dance on stage as I sat in the audience. Because I could no longer go to dance class after school, I would crochet. It was the one thing that I enjoyed almost as much as dance, and it kept me sitting in one place. I began selling the scarves I would make to the girls at my dance studio and local shops in the area. I would make custom crochet scarves in any color combination your heart could dream of. Boys at school even began buying them for their girlfriends, and before you knew it, I had sold enough scarves to buy my car when I turned 16. Because I was so young at the time of my injury, I slowly did recover and was able to go back to dancing.
I did well in school and received a full scholarship to New York University for dance. Due to my previous injury I knew dance was not going to be my career, but I knew it would be a great way to get to New York and have an incredible college experience. I did not crochet much while at school, but I still had yarn and crochet hooks around.
After graduation, I had no idea what to do with my life, so I decided to get a job and then figure it out. I worked at the Apple store on 14th Street and 9th Avenue selling iPhones and computers. Everyday was filled with new customers and characters looking to get their Apple questions answered. I enjoyed having a steady paycheck and the other perks that come along with working for a big company, but something was missing. About this time, I heard Steve Jobs’ famous graduation speech given at Stanford University where he focused on the importance of finding what you love. This stuck with me, and I decided to give that a shot; I began watching Ted Talks, writing in a journal and making lists of the things I truly love…crocheting was always at the top of the list. At the time, I was still making scarves and had a basic website where people could purchase what I made but nothing more than that.
One night when I was working late, like magic, an artist by the name of Olek came into the store. She had a wild crochet bag unlike anything I had ever seen. I did not know who she was, but before she left I asked for her name. Immediately after she was out of sight, I jumped on a computer and Googled her name. Through one article and then another, I stumbled upon something I had never heard of before—yarn bombing. Yarn bombing is when you take a piece of knit or crochet and wrap it around an object in a public space.
“Everything You Can Imagine is Real” – Pablo Picasso
The very next morning I was so excited to give it a try! I took a scarf I had made and wrapped it around a tree outside of my apartment in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. It was April of 2013 and not much yarn bombing had ever been done. Instagram was still in its infancy, but I decided to make an account and give myself a challenge: Every day for 30 days, I would put something outside and leave it there for people to enjoy. I would crochet before work, after work, during lunch breaks and through the night. It was a fun time because I was teaching myself to crochet and making street art at the same time. I expected these pieces to get taken down or ruined by the weather, but the opposite happened. Right from the start, my neighborhood embraced it and started calling me the crochet queen. Before I knew it, I not only completed the 30-day challenge, but I made it to 50 days.
Crochet with London Kaye is a book I wrote with creatives of all kinds in mind. It is full of projects for beginning and advanced crocheter along with an entire section dedicated to photos of my past yarn bombs meant to inspire people to crochet outside the box.
During this time, I developed my own style and had the opportunity to work with a designer at New York Fashion Week. More opportunities continued to come my way, and after a year and a half, I was able to quit my job. I crocheted a billboard in Time Square for Miller Lite Beer and have been a fulltime artist and entrepreneur ever since. I have since worked for Disney, NBC, Gap, Starbucks and so many more incredible brands. I now also have a line of yarn in craft stores nation wide with Lion Brand yarn and have received a patent for an original crochet hook design I invented.
My best advice to others is to find what you love and don’t stop doing it, because good things will follow.
My name is London Kaye, and I crochet and do ballet. I was born in Los Angeles, California with an artist for a mother and a writer for a father. One of my earliest creative memories is of the beach building sculptures out of all the seashells and sticks we could find. I did not realize it at the time, but choosing a creative path through life was being unconsciously ingrained inside of me. By the time I was in elementary school, I was doing gymnastics or taking dance everyday after school. I loved jumping, turning and flipping; it was fun, and I was good at it. It became my life, and by the time I was 13 years old, I won the title of Grand National Dance Champion at the big final competition in New York City.
This was right around the same time that I learned to crochet. My best friend’s mom taught me one afternoon, and for some reason, I could not put the hook down. I learned only the basic single crochet stitch, and that was all I needed to know to begin making scarves at a prolific pace.
A couple of years later, I broke my back in two places, requiring me to stop dancing for a whole year. I was devastated, but ultimately, I accepted my fate of watching my peers dance on stage as I sat in the audience. Because I could no longer go to dance class after school, I would crochet. It was the one thing that I enjoyed almost as much as dance, and it kept me sitting in one place. I began selling the scarves I would make to the girls at my dance studio and local shops in the area. I would make custom crochet scarves in any color combination your heart could dream of. Boys at school even began buying them for their girlfriends, and before you knew it, I had sold enough scarves to buy my car when I turned 16. Because I was so young at the time of my injury, I slowly did recover and was able to go back to dancing.
I did well in school and received a full scholarship to New York University for dance. Due to my previous injury I knew dance was not going to be my career, but I knew it would be a great way to get to New York and have an incredible college experience. I did not crochet much while at school, but I still had yarn and crochet hooks around.
After graduation, I had no idea what to do with my life, so I decided to get a job and then figure it out. I worked at the Apple store on 14th Street and 9th Avenue selling iPhones and computers. Everyday was filled with new customers and characters looking to get their Apple questions answered. I enjoyed having a steady paycheck and the other perks that come along with working for a big company, but something was missing. About this time, I heard Steve Jobs’ famous graduation speech given at Stanford University where he focused on the importance of finding what you love. This stuck with me, and I decided to give that a shot; I began watching Ted Talks, writing in a journal and making lists of the things I truly love…crocheting was always at the top of the list. At the time, I was still making scarves and had a basic website where people could purchase what I made but nothing more than that.
One night when I was working late, like magic, an artist by the name of Olek came into the store. She had a wild crochet bag unlike anything I had ever seen. I did not know who she was, but before she left I asked for her name. Immediately after she was out of sight, I jumped on a computer and Googled her name. Through one article and then another, I stumbled upon something I had never heard of before—yarn bombing. Yarn bombing is when you take a piece of knit or crochet and wrap it around an object in a public space.
“Everything You Can Imagine is Real” – Pablo Picasso
The very next morning I was so excited to give it a try! I took a scarf I had made and wrapped it around a tree outside of my apartment in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. It was April of 2013 and not much yarn bombing had ever been done. Instagram was still in its infancy, but I decided to make an account and give myself a challenge: Every day for 30 days, I would put something outside and leave it there for people to enjoy. I would crochet before work, after work, during lunch breaks and through the night. It was a fun time because I was teaching myself to crochet and making street art at the same time. I expected these pieces to get taken down or ruined by the weather, but the opposite happened. Right from the start, my neighborhood embraced it and started calling me the crochet queen. Before I knew it, I not only completed the 30-day challenge, but I made it to 50 days.
Crochet with London Kaye is a book I wrote with creatives of all kinds in mind. It is full of projects for beginning and advanced crocheter along with an entire section dedicated to photos of my past yarn bombs meant to inspire people to crochet outside the box.
During this time, I developed my own style and had the opportunity to work with a designer at New York Fashion Week. More opportunities continued to come my way, and after a year and a half, I was able to quit my job. I crocheted a billboard in Time Square for Miller Lite Beer and have been a fulltime artist and entrepreneur ever since. I have since worked for Disney, NBC, Gap, Starbucks and so many more incredible brands. I now also have a line of yarn in craft stores nation wide with Lion Brand yarn and have received a patent for an original crochet hook design I invented.
My best advice to others is to find what you love and don’t stop doing it, because good things will follow.
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My name is London Kaye, and I crochet and do ballet. I was born in Los Angeles, California with an artist for a mother and a writer for a father. One of my earliest creative memories is of the beach building sculptures out of all the seashells and sticks we could find. I did not realize it at the time, but choosing a creative path through life was being unconsciously ingrained inside of me. By the time I was in elementary school, I was doing gymnastics or taking dance everyday after school. I loved jumping, turning and flipping; it was fun, and I was good at it. It became my life, and by the time I was 13 years old, I won the title of Grand National Dance Champion at the big final competition in New York City.
This was right around the same time that I learned to crochet. My best friend’s mom taught me one afternoon, and for some reason, I could not put the hook down. I learned only the basic single crochet stitch, and that was all I needed to know to begin making scarves at a prolific pace.
A couple of years later, I broke my back in two places, requiring me to stop dancing for a whole year. I was devastated, but ultimately, I accepted my fate of watching my peers dance on stage as I sat in the audience. Because I could no longer go to dance class after school, I would crochet. It was the one thing that I enjoyed almost as much as dance, and it kept me sitting in one place. I began selling the scarves I would make to the girls at my dance studio and local shops in the area. I would make custom crochet scarves in any color combination your heart could dream of. Boys at school even began buying them for their girlfriends, and before you knew it, I had sold enough scarves to buy my car when I turned 16. Because I was so young at the time of my injury, I slowly did recover and was able to go back to dancing.
I did well in school and received a full scholarship to New York University for dance. Due to my previous injury I knew dance was not going to be my career, but I knew it would be a great way to get to New York and have an incredible college experience. I did not crochet much while at school, but I still had yarn and crochet hooks around.
After graduation, I had no idea what to do with my life, so I decided to get a job and then figure it out. I worked at the Apple store on 14th Street and 9th Avenue selling iPhones and computers. Everyday was filled with new customers and characters looking to get their Apple questions answered. I enjoyed having a steady paycheck and the other perks that come along with working for a big company, but something was missing. About this time, I heard Steve Jobs’ famous graduation speech given at Stanford University where he focused on the importance of finding what you love. This stuck with me, and I decided to give that a shot; I began watching Ted Talks, writing in a journal and making lists of the things I truly love…crocheting was always at the top of the list. At the time, I was still making scarves and had a basic website where people could purchase what I made but nothing more than that.
One night when I was working late, like magic, an artist by the name of Olek came into the store. She had a wild crochet bag unlike anything I had ever seen. I did not know who she was, but before she left I asked for her name. Immediately after she was out of sight, I jumped on a computer and Googled her name. Through one article and then another, I stumbled upon something I had never heard of before—yarn bombing. Yarn bombing is when you take a piece of knit or crochet and wrap it around an object in a public space.
“Everything You Can Imagine is Real” – Pablo Picasso
The very next morning I was so excited to give it a try! I took a scarf I had made and wrapped it around a tree outside of my apartment in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. It was April of 2013 and not much yarn bombing had ever been done. Instagram was still in its infancy, but I decided to make an account and give myself a challenge: Every day for 30 days, I would put something outside and leave it there for people to enjoy. I would crochet before work, after work, during lunch breaks and through the night. It was a fun time because I was teaching myself to crochet and making street art at the same time. I expected these pieces to get taken down or ruined by the weather, but the opposite happened. Right from the start, my neighborhood embraced it and started calling me the crochet queen. Before I knew it, I not only completed the 30-day challenge, but I made it to 50 days.
Crochet with London Kaye is a book I wrote with creatives of all kinds in mind. It is full of projects for beginning and advanced crocheter along with an entire section dedicated to photos of my past yarn bombs meant to inspire people to crochet outside the box.
During this time, I developed my own style and had the opportunity to work with a designer at New York Fashion Week. More opportunities continued to come my way, and after a year and a half, I was able to quit my job. I crocheted a billboard in Time Square for Miller Lite Beer and have been a fulltime artist and entrepreneur ever since. I have since worked for Disney, NBC, Gap, Starbucks and so many more incredible brands. I now also have a line of yarn in craft stores nation wide with Lion Brand yarn and have received a patent for an original crochet hook design I invented.
My best advice to others is to find what you love and don’t stop doing it, because good things will follow.
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