‘We are friends who love to crochet’: Off The Hook crochet club hosted its first community crochet-a-thon

For 12 hours, community members flowed into the Salt City Market community room on Saturday, November 11. They covered different shifts, crocheting hats for Off The Hook Crochect Club’s first crochet-a-thon. 

By the end of the night, eight volunteers and members of Off the Hook crocheted about 60 hats. 

The hats will go to the unhoused and to refugee communities, Off the Hook founder Jaleel Campbell said. Off the Hook is hoping to produce another 40 hats for the community and will be accepting handmade crochet hat donations from community members until November 19. 

“We’ve heard of dance-a-thons, we’ve heard of phone-a-thons, let’s do an extended crochet event,” said Off the Hook founder Jaleel Campbell.

Some participants crocheted for the first time while others’ expert hands weaved back and forth in a steady, familiar rhythm. 

Lenia Young, the youngest participant, crocheted three hats. Chucky Moody, a crocheter for more than 50 years, stopped by to donate a hat he designed.

“We are friends who love to crochet,” Campbell said. “This group of people is just a good time, so being able to share space and build community while creating for these different causes is fun.” 

Campbell, who is from Syracuse’s Eastside began crocheting at 10 years old at the former Hamilton Street Boys and Girls Club in Tipperary Hill. He turned the skill into a “side hustle,”  selling hats and scarves to his teachers, friends, and his mother’s coworkers. 

Throughout the day, Off the Hook members helped crocheters with tutorials. The members encouraged newer volunteers and members. Music and movies played in the background. 

Every several hours of working the group took interval breaks to stretch their hands, following along with a YouTube video exercise. The group participated in hand stretches like thumb taps, hinges, palm stretches, and wrist rocks.

Off the Hook members Lauren Ligon, Michele Dyess, and Syeisha Byrd sat with groups of eager learners, guiding them from the moment they picked up a crochet needle and selected their chosen yarn color(s) to the final presentation of their newly designed hats. Dyess and Ligon taught the crocheters a lesson: the thicker the yarn, the bigger the needle. 

CJ Butler, a member and communications and marketing manager at the Allyn Foundation, started crocheting 10 months ago when the club started. She is responsible for Off the Hook’s communications, marketing and administrative operations. 

“We had received the Community Black Equity and Excellence Grant, so that was a big catalyst for us being to put on this kind of event, and begin to ideate on ways that we could expand our reach to the community,” Butler said. 

Off the Hook used funding from Wegmans and Salt City Market to put on the event. The grocery chain provided gift cards for meals and the Salt City Market authorized the use of the space for free and supplied yarn and materials for the crochet-a-thon, Butler said. 

All hat donations and contributions can be dropped off at Campbell’s arts studio located in the Lincoln Building at 109 Otisco St. or at Salt City Market. Participants can email Campbell or contact Off the Hook on their Instagram page (@offthehookclub)

“A lot of the people who interact with us, they are just here to give moral support and to just support the vision,” Butler said. “I think it resonates with people that desire for community.”