Lifelong love of crafting becomes business

Demand for her items led Diana Sokol to create Diana’s Crochet Designs.

Diana Sokol, 28, of Rostraver Township vividly remembers her love of crafting in elementary school, but she never knew the hobby she made out of buying a crochet book would inspire her to start her own small business.

Sokol bought the book at a Scholastic Book Fair in elementary school and taught herself how to crochet. While her grandmother attempted to teach her to knit, she found joy in crocheting.

“I just really liked crocheting and I found that it’s really relaxing and as the years went on, I started buying more books and I thought if I know how to create the basic structures, I don’t think I need patterns,” Sokol said. “So, I started freehanding it.

“I was making things for friends and family, you know, personal things. And then, a few years ago, a lot of people kept saying you should sell your crochet stuff and I thought ‘Oh no then it wouldn’t feel the same,’ and then I thought wait a second, I could make some of it for money.”

She fell in love with the craft and decided to turn her hobby of making cute crochet items for all sorts of styles into a business.

Diana’s Crochet Designs was born at the height of the pandemic after Sokol was inspired by her late grandmother’s handiwork and the more free time she had for her love of crocheting.

“I was really nervous because I thought I didn’t really know how to get the funds and the means and I had to buy more stuff to invest money into this to get money out of it,” she said. “The main thing is getting things that people really enjoy and then saying ‘Oh, that’s cute,’ and makes them happy to hold them and give them as gifts for people.”

Sokol graduated in 2018 from Point Park University with a BFA in Ballet Concentration. She continues to teach ballet at the university as well as local studios.

“It’s the most fulfilling job ever and when I do have free time, when I come home from teaching, I need to decompress and calm down, I crochet,” Sokol said. “That’s a really great outlet for me to decompress because teaching dance is a really physical and mental job because you have to be very animated and you are demonstrating and I’m speaking, doing the movements, and then I have to really engage.

“There’s a lot of that, so when I come home, I don’t want to talk to anybody,” Sokol added. “I’m like everybody leaves me alone. I was to be in my own little world and crocheting really helps me calm down. When I don’t crochet, I teach. When I don’t teach, I crochet.”

Sokol said her operation is a “one-woman show,” as she runs the business by herself as well as her social media and advertising. She sometimes crochets during her breaks when she is teaching as she always keeps her latest project in her bag.

Her first craft fair was at the Fleatique at Chess Park in Monongahela, where she made purses, cup holders, scarfs, magnets. She then saw crochet patterns for stuffed animals, and decided to go into selling those on July 4, 2022 at a fair, where she almost sold out.

Sokol sold items at this past June’s Fleatique, where she again almost sold out, as well as the July 4 railroad-themed Street Fair. She is planning attend the fall Fleatique, Light-Up Night, a church event in Elizabeth, a fair in Belle Vernon and a classic car show Aug. 17.

Even though Sokol has a lot going on this fall, she said she still has time for custom orders and local deliveries.

“I definitely do find time,” Sokol said. “I have learned to pace myself and find a balance because sometimes all I want to do is watch historical documentaries on Youtube and crochet, and I just want to relax.”

After the stuffed animals became popular, Sokol had people asking to make customs items, which she continues to do till this day as well as craft fairs every year. “A lot of the things I make, it just pops up as an idea as a random idea in my head. I need to make the body a certain way and I really visualize things in a 3D way, so whenever I do it, I think of it like my brain rotates the image as it’s turning 3D and I see it and then I add the other elements. These ideas just pop into my head. All my things are very visual and I kinda see what it would look like.”

Sokol said smaller items may take 45 minutes to an hour to make, and the bigger items she makes may take three hours or more, but it depends on the item. The finer the yarn, the smaller the item, according to Sokol, who gets her yarn when she can find it on sale.

“She bases her prices based on how much time she takes on an item,” Sokol’s mom, Diane, who helps her at craft fair booths, said at the July 4 fair. “The work she does is fantastic. I don’t know how she does it sometimes.”

Sokol added she tries to make her prices for her items very reasonable so “it’s accessible to everyone” who appreciates her work. She enjoys making projects of all sizes, but wants to make sure her customer base is covered.

Sokol said she has made anything from a baby shower elephant blanket, a custom crochet pet dog, stuffed dragons and cows, a sunflower purse to crochet versions of her cat and bunnies made out of deceased relatives yarn to give as gifts.

“It’s just an extreme blessing to have people trust me with creating something special for them, I try to make things a variety of people will like,” Sokol said. “It’s great when I get to see someone’s face light up when they see a certain item.”

With the resurgence of crochet tops and bags in trendy clothing, Sokol realized people appreciated crochet more than they used to and that she should start taking her business online to Etsy after doing research.

She’s very thankful for the reviews she has gotten on Etsy, and makes sure all of her items are ethically made and clean compared to mass-produced crochet items.

“It’s not really about money, it’s about making people happy, which I love, because I want them to love crochet as much as I do and it’s fun,” Sokol said. “It’s really to make other people happy and I love seeing people appreciate the hard work that goes into it too. I really appreciate customers that say oh I appreciate the hard work you put into this. This is ethically made and I want to support your small business and that’s amazing. It’s good to support small businesses.”

Right now, Sokol is working on a big dragon plushie and is delivering crochet cupcakes for free to local bakeries with their permission. She has brought crochet gifts to Keystone Bakery in Monessen and Snowy’s Chocolates, Espresso and Ice Cream in Elizabeth, and hopes to bring them to more places.

“I don’t ask them for anything,” Sokol said. “I just felt like the shop could use a big cupcake. I just see things and think I can spruce up the place. You know how people say ‘Leave a little glitter wherever you go?’ I wanna leave a little bit of crochet where I go so people can see. Cute things make me so happy.”

People can find Diana’s Crochet Designs on Instagram, Facebook and Etsy at DianaSCrochetDesign.

Sokol hopes that one day her business will expand to a storefront.

“I go around in these small town areas and I see these abandoned storefronts, and I just think, could you imagine how amazing it would be to have the walls painted and to have these cute display tables,” Sokol said. “I think that would be really nice one day. I am fine working out of my house right now. I would love to have a storefront one day. That would be really cool.”

Sokol loves making surprise gifts for people the most, and wanted to thank the people who have supported her work over the past few years — whether that be through purchasing a product or checking out her social media accounts or just stopping by her booth to say hi.

“You don’t know how much it means to me because the people’s support allows me to keep making other people happy and allows me to continue my small business so I can make small towns a little bit brighter and cuter with things,” Sokol said. “It means so much for someone to look at something I make and say ‘Oh, that’s cute.’ It means a lot to me when people support me. That’s the biggest thing.

“The world needs more art in it. Life without art is just sad. There’s beauty in so much and when someone thinks something that’s cute and beautiful might make them smile a little each day when they wake up, that’s okay. I am so appreciative and I am so grateful. People really do not know how much that means to me because it’s very special.”