THREAD BASED. These colorful souvenir items handcrafted using crochet hooks and knitting needles are regaining popularity in Baguio City as they are sold along Session Road and in craft fairs. Susan Recolosado, 63 years old and a member of the “crochet aunties”, said she learned how to crochet from her mother since she was in elementary and used the same as a past time that made her survive the boredom of the lockdown during the pandemic. (PNA photos by Liza Agoot)
BAGUIO CITY – High school learners in this city in the 80s and 90s used to be seen with either knitting needles or crochet hooks with rolls of colorful threads packed in their school bags, with thread-based products as among the popular souvenir items here then.
Melanie Aquino or Lanie, a Baguio native who became a nurse in the United Kingdom, said she graduated high school in 1990 and started knitting and crocheting in her elementary years because these were popular among the youth.
She said that while she was not very good at making designs, she finished high school with several of her Technology and Home Economics (TLE) projects being thread-based as they were mandatory.
“Even in elementary we already had both projects. My classmates who were good at it were even doing toppers for themselves aside from table-top sheets for their houses,” she said.
Lanie said some of the girls at her school, an all-girls school, have cute and colorful needles and hooks that come in different sizes, which was a possession she envied from her schoolmates who could afford them.
Growing up in Baguio, she recalled that the Marbay shopping area, the building beside the city market for souvenir items, used to have a lot of knitted and crocheted apparel like the “cardigan” that also became popular during her high school days.
“If you were wearing that cardigan, you were ‘in’ because it was a fad. So, some of my classmates were even making their own. You can also see the Marbay sellers knitting or crocheting while attending to their stores,” she reminisced.
With no gadgets then and shops to be paid to complete school projects, learners have to sit on their chairs as the teacher looks at each student spending the class hour doing their projects as proof of their effort, until the date of submission.
Lanie also recalled the sight of the school grounds filled with the “girls” sitting and talking among themselves while holding on to their needles or hooks.
“Breaks and waiting time were for knitting or crocheting if you do not have clubs for extra-curricular activities,” she said in Ilocano.
But the popularity waned and people stopped holding on to the needles and hooks until during the Covid-19 pandemic when crocheted items started to be popularized and sold online.
Susan Recolosado, 63 years old, a member of the “crochet aunties” or an informal group composed of women fond of crocheting said it is her pastime.
“I am a senior citizen. This is my past time that I enjoyed and still enjoy doing, aside from earning a little from the products I make,” she said.
Susan said she was in elementary when her mother saw her interest and taught her how to crochet, initially doing simple lines and then making the design.
She said that with crocheted items popular when she was young, she used to do her own school bags, ponchos, skirts, bonnets, arm and leg warmers, and other clothes using the granny square, mesh designs or the square windows
When the Sunday Session road market was started before the pandemic, Susan started selling crocheted stuff, until now.
Pandemic buddy
Susan said crocheting became her ally against the boredom of staying home during the lockdown.
She was able to do a lot of stuff during the pandemic and the reopening of Session Road for the Sunday market opened an opportunity to sell the items she has made.
Her daughter, Therese, 20 years old, now a first year college student, also started to crochet about two years ago after seeing that the items are actually being bought.
"The popularity of the crocheted items is coming back and it is good because we used to be popular with this. I am glad that our handcrafted items are also being bought no matter how simple our designs are,” Susan said.
Susan said her group donated crocheted bonnets to cancer patients at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center during the pandemic.
“I was happy sharing the items because I was sharing a part of me to the cancer patients -- a bonnet that I made and spent time to do,” she said.
“A lot of people like me still make crochet project not just for the little amount we get from the sales but because this is a part of me and my childhood. Crocheting is also (a known character of) Baguio, and I am glad that crocheted items are again slowly becoming popular,” she added. (PNA)
