Meet the Maker

Who is this Yiya chick, anyway?

Thats me! 

Hi!  Thanks for visiting my blog.  I'm sure you've figured out by now that I'm Yiya, designer, brain and brawn behind Not Your Yiyas Crochet. I'm so happy youre here!

Deadpool is happy to see you, too!

I'm super interesting (ha!) so let me tell you a little about myself.  I'm 37 years young from the Boston, Mass (USA) area and am a proud mom to 3 perfect cats.  Seriously, they're amazing.  They keep me sane, and do some wonderful quality control on my makes.

Look at those faces!

Now that you've had a second to gush over the cats, lets get to what you came here for ... all things crochet!    My crochet journey started when I was about 6 years old and was lucky enough to have this art form passed on to me by my great grandmother, who lived in Knoxville, TN and always had a hook in hand (if you havent been, GO!  Its beautiful) .  Her home was covered in all things crochet.  From hand towels, to seat covers, to doily's, afghans and anything else you can construct out of yarn.  It was a fiber addicts DREAM .. if only I knew then what I know now <3 

Like most, i learned the basics first.  I learned to chain - and boy, did I chain.  Once I got it going, I was so excited I knew how to do anything, I'm pretty sure I made a chain long enough to fly a kite with.

The next time I visited, I had a bit more hand eye coordination and we delved into the world of Granny Squares.  It took me almost an entire week, but I had my first, lopsided ugly granny square complete and damn, I was SO proud.  That feeling, the feeling of holding something in my hands that I created, that I made with ONE piece of "string" was such a high - I was hooked (ba dum tiss).

Cheesy grin, half pony and a face of braces - I was hot!

I went home that year with a hook of my own and, though I didnt crochet every day, I did crochet enough that it stayed a part of my life ... I never quite finished anything though, until MANY years later.

Off an on through my early 20's, I would crochet when I was incredibly bored, but it didnt become a passion for me until a year ago (November 2017)  when I unexpectedly lost my grandfather.  I'm not sure why that event in my life caused me to turn to the hooks, but it did, and I'm thankful for it.  So many of us have experienced loss and felt that sudden punch in the gut.  I guess I turned to crochet to cope, to keep my mind busy.  The loss of this great man inspired me to create.

He was as awesome as he looks!

In March of 2018, I discovered Amigurumi .. and ya'll .... this was a GAME CHANGER!  I failed to mention earlier, I'm an avid gamer, reader and all around nerd, so when I discovered that i could make video game and comic book characters with yarn, it was an awakening!  I was about that Amigurumi life from that point on.  I do still enjoy all types of crochet, but there is nothing like watching a character come to life before your eyes.

Dragonborn (Skyrim)

I started this blog to share my love of all things yarn <3  Yes, this means I will slip some knitting in as well (shhh, I have a reputation as a hooker to uphold!) and bring you some of the tips and tricks I have learned along the way as well as fun, free and easy patterns!