If you’re looking for a Christmas gift that’s perfect for the sustainable crocheter in your life, Hannah Latham from Derby — founder of Crafteer — has something truly special on the horizon.

Her very first crochet pattern and kit, a whimsical little fishbowl, is now on Kickstarter as she tests the waters to see what makers think. By day, Hannah is a software and app designer. But after taking a year out for major surgery, she’s been reconnecting with her passion for crochet.

The fishbowl is just right for anyone who’s mastered the basics of crochet. The kit comes with all you need to dive straight in, or you can just get the pattern and use up your yarn scraps.

And while the full kit will be ready in the early New Year, you can gift it for Christmas with a sweet “coming your way soon” card.

Hannah’s fishbowl isn’t just something to make. It’s a celebration of creativity, resourcefulness, and heart.

Her story and process below, in her own words.

Discovering Crochet: From Childhood Crafts to a Hospital Hobby

I got into crafts through my mother. Her way to amuse us in the school holidays was to take us to Hobbycraft. We would pick a craft, and that's what we’d do for that holiday. We did knitting, paper marbling, soft toy making, mosaics… you name it, we probably did it.

I discovered crochet quite far down the line. Because of a rare medical condition, I was once again in hospital, struggling to find something to do. Someone gave me this “learn to crochet” magazine, and I just instantly fell in love with it. It's funny, people say you're either a knitter or a crocheter. As though one or the other will just naturally fit with how your brain works. I'm not a knitter, but I just instantly understood how crochet works. I absolutely loved it.

The Creative Freedom & Focus of Crochet

I think it's the endless variety that I love. There are over 500 different crochet stitches, so there's always something new to learn and make. You can do jumpers or hats as with knitting, but you can also make 3D things like toys and baskets. The flexibility and creativity of it really appeals to me.

There's a wonderful book called The Crochet Every Way Stitch Dictionary that’s full of beautiful patterns of different stitches that people have invented over the years. You could never get bored doing crochet, I’m learning something new every time.

Crochet: a Creative, Mindful, and Uniquely Human Craft

I design software and apps, and then I lead teams to deliver them — it's an inherently creative job. I think I just love all forms of creativity. I also think better when my hands are busy. It then frees up my brain to find its best self.

Crochet has been a great craft to occupy me while I've been in hospital. There’s a lot of dead time spent waiting, and I love making that time productive. It's also been a wonderful conversation starter. While you're crocheting, waiting for your appointments, so many people come up and talk to you. Just sittting there, doing a craft in public, is a great way to bring a smile to people's faces.

*Hannah’s current hospital project is a puff flower blanket.*

In the era of AI, which is having a big impact in my professional world, I also love that crochet is a phenomenally human craft: no one has ever been able to teach a machine to do crochet. There are machines that can knit, but no one's ever been able to make a machine that crochets. It’s exceptionally intricate and needs the 360 degree movement of human hands.

Computer programs can also design knitting patterns but not crochet ones. Crochet, by definition, needs that human element. I find this quite magical.

Inspiration Behind the Crochet Fishbowl

I never had any pets when I was a kid. I've ended up with accidental fish — I have a pond in my garden and fish have just appeared in them. And it scratched that itch that I'd always wanted to have an aquarium. But based on my success record at keeping houseplants alive, I would genuinely worry for the wellbeing of the fish!

Earlier this year, someone created an image of a crochet fish bowl with AI and it went viral on social media. I looked at this picture and I thought: I can do something like that. So I just sat down and had a go.

Not everything was successful on the first attempt, but that’s normal. You learn through trial and error. And eventually I got to something that looks quite cool.

Sustainable Crochet: Using Ethical and Leftover Yarns

If you’re really into craft, it's really easy to end up with a cupboard full of yarn… and storage space eventually becomes a problem! It's always good when you can actually use things you've already got rather than having to go out and buy more.

But then, the world's at your fingertips when you've got a cupboard full of yarn. That’s something I really saw with my mom — she had this huge attic full of supplies and leftovers so she could instantly step up when charities and communities asked for people to make things.

One of my big frustrations with crochet is often how difficult it is to find the yarn. Shops tend to stock wool for knitting much more than they do crochet cotton. I also prefer yarns that have come from ethical supply chains or where the supplier donates some money to charity if you buy it.

I find it great to be able to swap and share yarn with other people, as we do at my crochet group. It solves a genuinely difficult challenge: how do you find a small amount of a niche yarn in a specific color?

Because I wanted this fishbowl to fit on a windowsill, it’s quite small. That inherently means you're using small amounts of everything. That's partly why I've ended up doing it with embroidery cotton because it was one of the few ways I could find to get small amounts of cotton yarn.

It’s a great leftover project.

Expanding Crafteer: Future Crochet Projects

In my profession, designing apps, we're always told to test the market and see if your ideas land. So, Kickstarter is a really great route for doing that.

I'd then like to create other patterns and kits. I love the idea of enabling other people to make these things. Projects in progress include crochet pot plants and tissue box houses, which are covers that go over tissue boxes and the tissues come out like smoke.

I’m also fulfilling my life long dream of making my first post box topper - a giant Christmas angel called Fred. You can watch his making story unfold on my YouTube channel.

In the same way that an engineer designs things and solves problems, a “crafteer” is someone who actively and passionately practices crafts, and is always in pursuit of the next great project.

I may one day branch out to other crafts. But right now, crochet is the one for me.

Follow Crafteer on Facebook and Instagram, and grab Hannah’s fishbowl pattern or kit on Kickstarter.

Know someone working with materials in exciting, sustainable ways and/or making a difference in their community through craft? We’d love to feature their story. Get in touch at hello@destasher.co.uk.

Hannah Latham: The Brand New Crochet Fishbowl