Lions and tigers and spiders, oh my!

My best friend is in grad school for a marketing degree, and when I first told her that I wanted to call my crochet shop The Itsy Bitsy Spider, she suggested I reconsider. "Spiders don't give such a good vibe," she reminded me. "Some people can be creeped out by them." But, the more I thought about it, the more the name appealed to me, and so it stuck.

First, there's the story of Arachne. In it, Arachne, the greatest mortal weaver, is turned into a spider because she challenged the goddess Minerva to a weaving competition and lost. Arachne has always been a favorite character in Greco-Roman mythology and is well known to many of us who weave our days away with a ball of yarn and a crochet hook.

Then, there's my experience as a new mom. I recently left my job in Corporate America to stay at home with my daughter. I do not regret the decision, but I do miss having the creative outlet my job offered me. That's when I got the idea to make and sell crochet dolls.

Motherhood has also re-opened my love of nursery rhymes and songs. Now-a-days, toys have electronic components and play music or interact with children in some other way. I like to keep things simple for my daughter, but she does have a few toys that play music... one of them is a key set that plays the song "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

So, there you have it. The name of my crochet business really has two key elements. My love for the fiber arts (just like Arachne) and my love for my daughter (whom I've been teaching the motions for The Itsy Bitsy Spider among many other things). For me, it reflects an idea balance in my life between family and the arts that make me who I am.