When your days are spent digging through misconduct reports, court transcripts, and stories that break your heart, you need a way to put yourself back together.
For me, that’s crochet.
Yes, crochet. Keep your grandma jokes to yourself, because Granny-Crafts are fantastic outlets for mindfulness and mental health. There’s also a fun collector aspect to it with the various hooks, yarn, and patterns, especially if you’re into The Woobles, like I am.
But most importantly, once you build the muscle memory, there is a rhythm to crochet that somehow slows the world down when everything else feels like it’s on fire.
It reminds me that there is beauty in creation, even when you cannot be still.
Stitch by Stitch.
There’s a reason why so many advocates, case workers, and frontline organizers burn out. Because this work is emotionally abusive and we’re fighting a system that doesn’t sleep. And when the system isn’t being a nightmare, there’s an absolutely endless supply of people who want to fight you, call you a liar, tell you that what happened to you didn’t happen the way you experienced it, and discredit your work. And so the system and the people blind to it do not care nor apologize.
Crochet forces me to step back and slow down.
The soft pull of the yarn. The click of the hook. The satisfaction of finishing just one row. It’s grounding. It’s repetitive. It’s soothing. And in a life filled with chaos, that repetition heals. It’s something that is familiar when everything else feels up in the air.
Yarn Doesn’t Gaslight You
Unlike court systems that pretend the abuse didn’t happen, or prosecutors who play word games with ethics violations, yarn doesn’t lie. Yarn doesn’t gaslight you. Yarn doesn’t tell you to sit down and shut up or threaten to arrest you for publishing an article.
You pick it up, and it becomes something because you made it that way.
It’s one of the few parts of my life I can control when everything else feels heavy.
Crafting in the Face of Injustice
Sometimes I crochet while reviewing FOIA documents, attending meetings, or watching court hearings. It keeps my hands busy so I don’t clench them into fists and scream. It gives me space to stay emotionally grounded while taking in things that are anything but.
And when a project is done, whether it’s a scarf, a beanie, or a simple granny square, I feel like I’ve reclaimed a few minutes to myself, a little piece of me, and a tiny bit of sanity.
Rest Is Resistance
Crochet is more than a hobby. It’s a declaration that even in a system designed to exhaust and deplete everyone who comes into contact with it, I choose creation over collapse. I choose softness over sharpness. I choose to build something for me, even if it’s just a blanket, because this world takes so much from advocates.
So if you ever see me with yarn in my lap and a stack of documents next to me, know that I’m not escaping the work.
I’m fighting for me, so I can keep doing it.
🧵 Want to Help?
The fight for justice needs warriors, but it also needs weavers; people who hold the threads, stitch the stories, and create spaces where we can breathe.
Support the work. Sponsor an investigation. Or just sit beside me with your own craft and help carry the weight.
