What began as a pandemic hobby for Adayna Wallace has evolved into a passion project, a campus conversation starter, and a possible future club at Rutgers–Camden.
The sophomore visual arts major and Honors College student can be seen around the university wearing her own creations of crocheted wares, like her hats emblazoned with the recognizable Rutgers block R graphic. Students and administrators have often stopped to ask Wallace about her woven work, which has grown into an entire collection with different styles and stitches.
And while she’s happy to share her knowledge, crocheting is just one facet of this first-generation student’s very full life on campus. Wallace is pursuing dual concentrations in animation and painting & drawing within the visual arts program and is considering pursuing a BFA. She balances a full arts course load with an on-campus job at the Visual, Media, and Performing Arts office, serves as a resident assistant, and stays active in multiple organizations including the Animation Alliance, Tri-Alpha Honors Society, and TRiO.
Between her middle and high school years, however, she took up crocheting to fill up time as the pandemic moved most activities indoors. Wallace picked up the hobby slowly, working her way from beginner-friendly granny square patterns to larger projects like hats and scarves. One of her proudest creations is a large, color-blocked sweater inspired by the JW Anderson-designed piece Harry Styles made popular in 2020. That project took several months for Wallace to complete.
Wallace rarely works from patterns, and if a piece doesn’t suit her style anymore, she recycles the yarn to create new projects from it. “I'll find an image of something that I really like, and then I'll just try to see if I can make it myself,” she said. “It can be very frustrating, but it's also very fulfilling to know I can do that.”
Wallace hatched the idea for a crochet club at Rutgers–Camden before she even officially enrolled at the university. A prospective student, she recalled visiting campus wearing one of her woven R crocheted hats when someone asked her, “‘Did you make that? This is the place for you. We need something like this on our campus. I hope you decide to join us,’” she said.
That welcoming exchange—with a future colleague from the Office of Housing and Residence Life—only affirmed Wallace’s decision to attend Rutgers–Camden. “I loved it when I first started walking around here. I loved the tight-knit feel of the campus,” she said. “My mom and I were able to meet one of the animation professors at Arts Day and become even more comfortable with the campus. So, it wasn’t too hard of a decision.”
In her first year on campus, Wallace walked her friends through making granny squares in small group lessons; this year, she takes part in the Crochet Drop-ins the Honors College hosts once a week.
Now, Wallace is starting to put the wheels in motion for a formalized club; she envisions a community where students with varying skill sets can stitch.
“I've run into many students on campus who’ve said, ‘I'd love to be a part of that,’ ‘I've always wanted to learn,’ or people who already do it or people who knit as well,” she said. “I just want us to be able to come together in space, to have time to do projects. We can all put time aside rather than having to make time throughout the week. I know some people really like to have a stable block of time. I know I do.”
