Vintage crochet novel for Saudi Children

Shahd Alhamdan One Saudi lady has used online platforms to successfully turn her passion for crocheted toys into a startup business, under the name Ahad Crochet. Founder, Ahad Yamani, succeeded in returning an old phenomena that had largely vanished to the Saudi Market by using Instagram, WhatsAap, and Esty, an online craft shop. Her brand sells several sizes of crochet toys, tablecloths, books with crochet characters, and giraffes. Saudi Gazette caught up with Yamani in Besat El-Reeh, held at the Jeddah Centre for Events and Forums, where she was showcasing her products. Yaman, who is currently spending her annual vacation in Jeddah and will go back to Germany soon to complete her studies in medicine, explained that the idea came to her a year ago. “In Germany it is very cold in winter and you get bored of staying at home all the time, so I decided to learn crochet from the internet. I learned the skill during my pregnancy, so I started to make a crochet toy to my expected baby girl. I crocheted a giraffe - now my best selling,” she said. She produced several toys for her friends and family members upon request, but stopped for awhile because of her studies. Although she ceased making toys, the demand did not cease, so she decided to launch her own business, especially with a number of Saudi children book authors contacting her asking for her to make dolls of their characters. The result of this collaboration was a book titled ‘Eid in Jug’ and a pretty toy called Sama. “The book is about Eid Aladha habits for adults and children. Honestly, I liked the idea because it has a purpose behind it which is encouraging children to read. The first toy, I made it by my self but after that I started seeking for females to produce it in the Kingdom and it was hard because it was difficult to find women knew how to crochet these days and it is precise work,” she said. Currently, a group of women living in Rebats, as well as some female Yemeni refugees are working with her. She explained that one of the struggles that she faces is that people don’t appreciate the amount of work that goes into a doll, and so think her prices are too high. “Crocheted toys need precise time and high effort. To finish one toy you need around five weeks, and not all the materials with high quality are available in Jeddah; some of the materials are brought from Germany. For each book I produce around 10 toys only. Today, we have five books and one of the stories has around 8 crocheted characters.” Prices depends on the work. You can order your toy through Instagram by following @Ahad_crochet.