Valentine’s Day: a time for the celebration of all things love. However, not everyone’s Valentine’s involves romantic love. Love is so much more than that. It’s for our friends, our families, each other, and ourselves. What better way to celebrate love than by crocheting? On Tuesday, February 15, 2024, the Honors Advisory Board held their Flowers for Friends event. People were able to crochet a bouquet of flowers for themselves or for their friends and family. Getting to celebrate self and platonic love along with an awesome skills workshop? Sign me up immediately.
When walking into the Honors Lounge, I was greeted by our lovely HAB Events staff as they described to me how the activities would work. There were three stations available: crochet flowers, card-making, and paper flowers. Each station had staff members aiding the creation process. The goal was to visit each station and create bouquets of mixed materials for a gorgeous DIY flower arrangement.
I started off with flower crocheting since I figured it would take the most amount of time. There were three different types of flowers that you could make, and each type had a video tutorial. Ichose to make the poppy flower with cream-colored yarn to get started, though there were also options for lavender and roses. I’ll admit that getting the crochet started was a bit of a challenge, especially for someone like me who has never picked up a crochet hook in their life, but it just took a bit of “getting-in-the-groove.” Once you solidified the specific movements necessary, it was just a matter of muscle memory and counting.
“I’ll never stop crocheting,” said Emily Kangal (Class of 2027). “[This event/HAB has] unleashed a beast within me.”
Things got really crafty over at the paper card and flower making stations. There was an assortment of stickers, colored paper, markers, and other materials to make your flowers and cards as colorful as you’d like. This one was a bit more intuitive as far as skill level is concerned, so you really got the chance to get creative and chat with your friends for a bit. We were all treated to Indie Pop and candy while we were in our little creative bubbles.
Due to a snowstorm, this event had to be pushed back to being the day after Valentine’s instead of the day before. However, I think this made the event really succeed in trying to stay away from the romantic side of the holiday. We were all just there to make cute little flowers and cards for ourselves and for our friends.
Overall, this was a highly successful event. As someone who wanted to escape Valentine’s Day, it was a much-needed celebration. It can be easy to shut in, but it was even better to go out and do something for myself. Now, I have cute crochet flowers to decorate my dorm room, and the best part is I don’t have to keep watering them. For more events like this one, be sure to keep an eye out on Setter Sync and all Pforzheimer Honors College socials.