N.S. woman goes viral for Maud Lewis-inspired crocheted sweater

Cool crochet creations Crystal Garrett chats with the creator behind Grace's Handmades about her work and creative procrastination.

A Nova Scotia woman who found her passion for crocheting during the pandemic recently went viral for one of her creations.

Grace Tompkins, a biostatistics PhD candidate in Waterloo, Ont., is originally from Truro, N.S.

The 26-year-old took up crocheting as a quarantine hobby in 2021.

“I started doing something called ‘No Statistics Saturdays’ to kind of maintain a work-life balance. I always watched my mom knit, just dishcloths and stuff like that, and it was just too slow for me,” she says.

“So, I went into our little yarn cabinet and my sister had a crocheting hook laying around, I picked it up, tried it. I wasn’t horrible at it.”

She admits the first sweater she tried to make was “unwearable.”

“I just kept going at it and eventually I was making wearable things and getting better at it and it’s been such a good stress relief for me, as a student.”

From there “Grace’s Handmades” was born – social media accounts chronicling her crocheted bags, hats, tops, tapestry and more.

Tompkins says her sister Emma is also artistic and runs a successful Instagram page called “Housecat Arts.”

“It kind of overnight exploded. In December, when I posted a reel making actually her Christmas gift, I had to block her for a little bit so she wouldn’t see it,” she says. “It’s still not really a business, I don’t really know what I’m doing, to be completely honest, it’s more of like my creative outlet, but I’m kind of working on the business aspect of it.”

Tompkins’ latest sweater design was inspired by Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis’ famous 1955 “Three Black Cats” painting.

Tompkins says it was her most time-intensive project to date.

“I think, like many other Nova Scotians, I have just a love for Maud Lewis. I have a print of it in my living room and I look at it every day,” she says. “There’s been a lot of other crochet artists that have made famous paintings into different things, like tapestry crochets, bags, sweaters, and I thought, ‘Well I can do that.’ So this is kind of just what happened. I whipped up the sweater in about three months, posted it online and it went wild.”

Tompkins says she expected the sweater to get some attention, because she has many Nova Scotian followers, but not as much as it did.

“I kind of thought it would stay within the crochet community, but when I posted it on Twitter, there were people -- who I would say are not crafters -- that were just so drawn to it,” she says.

“People have been messaging me left, right and centre, saying, ‘Oh, I need one for so and so and I need one for myself and do you have a pattern?’ It’s been amazing, but overwhelming at the same time. The reach has been incredible.”

Tompkins says the final result was her first attempt at the sweater.

“I mean there was a lot of – I would do a row, undo it, redo it, stuff like that. But yeah, I completely freehanded it, there’s no pattern and it happened to fit me like a glove. I think it was meant to be.”

She adds that crocheting has been a bit of a distraction from her PhD, but she welcomes it.

“I do think it’s important to have balance, so I don’t mind that this kind of is happening. I think I’m kind of like statistician by day and a crocheter by night. It’s cool to have something to do in the evenings that is not math,” she says, laughing.

Tompkins says anyone looking to pick up crocheting should try to be patient.

“I have a reel that says your first project is going to flop – it’s so true. You can look at the first sweater I made, it’s horrendous. Rome wasn’t built in a day, this isn’t my first sweater,” she says. “Start simple, make some dishcloths, make some potholders, stuff like that. It’s such a good craft, I would be so happy if one person picked up a hook because they saw this sweater and thought it was cool.”