KAPS student crochets her prom dress

For Rhiannon Gillespie, a student at the Katherine Anne Porter School, fiber arts come easy.

She only recently discovered that she had a special affinity for crocheting. In the two years since teaching herself how to do it from You-Tube videos, she has created blankets, vests, hats, dolls and the prom dress she wore to the school’s annual dance.

Artists who crochet use a hand-held shepherd’s hook to interlock loops of yarn or thread into a textile. The craft utilizes more than 100 different stitches which can be fashioned into anything from doilies to apparel.

In January, Gillespie had the idea to crochet her prom dress. She adapted the patterns she saw in the online tutorials to create a garment she liked. The bodice was created using a single crochet stitch, and the layered tutu-style skirt was crafted using a double crochet stitch which yields a slightly more open weave.

Crocheted in black yarn, the skirt featured a layer in aqua, lavender, coral and champagne. She finished the contrasting ruffle in a lace stitch to which she added tiny metallic ornaments. To add a bit of glamor, the outfit included an over-the-head, longsleeve shrug made with the same yarn as the ruffle that was woven with metallic threads.

Just 16 years old at the time, Gillespie finished the dress in April — just in time for the prom. She found the skirt to be “. . . a little heavier than expected,” she said, “but otherwise it looked good and felt good to wear.”

Since learning to crochet, the teen completed a number of projects, thanks in part to having been descended from a long line of crafters and engineers. Her mother is an avid crafter and her great grandfather, an engineer, held patents on a variety of inventions. Besides crocheting, she makes jewelry, paints, sews, designs her own outfits and cuts her own hair.

“It all trickles down,” Gillespie said about the family’s talent and creativity. She accepts commissions and recently created a custom blanket she adapted for a traveling nurse who requested a size larger than most patterns accommodate. The young artist envisions owning a business where she can earn a living and crochet at the same time. Examples of her work can be seen at the KAPS booth at the next Market Days event in July.