Last summer, Sophia Hu went to the music festival Made in America and was looking for something to wear. Hu stumbled upon a crochet top online, but she thought that it was a little pricey. Since her mother crochets, Hu sent her the picture and her mom made her a similar top.
After her friends saw Hu, a fourth-year bioengineering student, wearing the top, some of them asked her where they could find them, and Hu’s mother made more. Hu has now started selling similar tops, all handmade by her mom, on the UCLA Facebook group “Free and For Sale.” She has posted twice this year, once last quarter and another time this spring. She said she has sold five or six to her friends and about 10 to 12 online.
“I didn’t expect the huge response. I told my mom, and she got really excited and that’s why she made a bunch more,” Hu said.
Hu said each top costs about $20-$25, and smaller ones are less expensive because they require less fabric. She said she saw a similar top to the ones her mom makes in a Los Angeles boutique selling for $60.
Hu translated for her mother, Ying Liu, who is retired. Liu said she has been crocheting since she was 7 or 8 years old. She said each top takes about three hours to complete.
“It depends on my mood. If I’m feeling happy, then it will probably take me about three hours. But if I’m in a cranky mood, I crochet a lot slower,” Liu said.
Hu said her mother also crochets tablecloths and blankets, but they have not sold those.
“It’s fun, because I like to crochet, but I haven’t really had a crocheting project in a long time or a need to crochet at this rate,” Liu said.
Hu said, although Liu has attempted to show her how, she cannot knit or crochet.
“My mom has tried to teach me how to knit and tried to teach me how to crochet, but I can only make really lumpy rectangles, so I just kind of gave up on that and leave her to do it,” Hu said.
Liu said she does not follow any patterns and makes the tops so that they fit Hu, so sometimes changing sizes can be difficult.
“Sometimes I’ll crochet it and it will look weird, and then I’ll take it apart and then do it again, so that’s the most frustrating or time-consuming part,” Liu said.
Hu said she has taken requests from her friends and given them to her mother.
“I’ve always wanted to get one of the tops, but I never actually went out of my way to buy it. When she texted me about her mom making knit tops for everyone, I was like, ‘Oh, I want one too,'” said Hu’s friend Ariane Cuyno, a second-year biochemistry student.
Hu has not taken requests from online, though. She posts pictures of the tops she already has and sells those through “Free and For Sale.” She has a no-hold policy on the items she sells, and she said one potential customer became angry when another customer paid first and took the top that the the first customer had wanted to try on.
“They’re all strangers, and you don’t know how reliable they are,” Hu said. “Aside from that one incident, I’ve had pretty positive responses.”
Although they have been successful in selling the tops so far, Hu said they do not plan to continue selling any more in the near future. She said Liu has become too busy to continue crocheting them.
Both Hu and Liu said they talk more now because of the tops they sell together. Liu said Hu texts her more often than before.
“(Liu) gets really happy when she hears people like (the tops),” Hu said. “My relationship with my mom has improved because of this.”