Industry News: Jessie Rayot & Crochet Foundry

This week, we're thrilled to shine a spotlight on the incredible Jessie Rayot also known as Jessie At Home. Jessie is one of our gosadi Alpha users and the new owner of the Crochet Foundry! 

Get ready for an exclusive peek into her journey and the exciting plans ahead. From learning crochet at 8 from her great-grandmother to becoming the proud owner of an online crochet magazine and a leader in our field, Jessie's story is an inspiration to us all and a testament to the power of this community!

My great-grandmother, Helen Clark, taught me to crochet when I was 8 or 9. She was an amazing woman who was also a seamstress. When I was little, I always thought I’d grow up to be like her daughter, Vada Beetler, who was a well-known jewelry designer. I think I ended up as a merge of them both, and I can not think of any better fate.

For a while I was a costume designer and technician. I earned a BFA in costume design with a heavy focus on costume tech from The Theatre School at DePaul University – formerly the Goodman School of Drama. I tell you the formerly part because Patty Lyons was in the last graduating class of the GSD, she was a stage manager. Small world, right?

I bounced around the country for a bit, being a costumer for theatre and film, and eventually ended up at Adelphi University on Long Island, NY. I was the costume shop manager there, and held that job during 9/11. While there I also earned an MA in studio art, concentrating on sculpture and painting. Yes, I took a jewelry making class as well.

Then a fellow art student introduced me to her friend from NJ. And now I live just on the Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel, with that friend, my husband Doug, and our 16 year old twins. I started my blog, JessieAtHome.com, to share about the twins, and eventually it turned into a place for me to share my yarnie creations (I picked up knitting as well in my 20s), then into a business.

My love was there from the moment Grandma Clark put that hook in my hand. Crochet was a hobby of mine from then on.

When I started the blog, I realized other people were sharing craftiness on blogs, so I started doing the same. I loved it, and the crochet and knit part of the blog started taking over. I joined a group on CafeMom for crochet designers. Facebook happened and we moved the group, along with a similar group from another mom site, onto Facebook. Then things really took off. We became a community and started sharing information and helping each other grow.

That’s when I met Lorene Eppolite and we became fast friends. We would video chat for hours while we crocheted, took care of little ones, made lunch, whatever. One day she suggested we join the CGOA, go the conference, and enter the design competition. I said “OK” and ended up winning 2^nd place in the home décor category with a crochet blanket I had made years earlier and had to swipe off my daughter’s bed. After that, I had no choice but to keep going, I was having way too much fun!

I’m all about community. I used to have a hard time believing people really liked me and wanted to be my friend. I thought they were just being nice and taking pity on me. The fact that those last 2 sentences are in past tense is all because of the crochet and knit community, and it makes me happy beyond words.

The fellow yarnists I met in that crochet designer group and going to conferences and trade shows accepted me, just as I am. Not if I was thinner, if I wasn’t so loud, if I wasn’t so outspoken about equality, if anything. They accepted me. Me.

It was pure magic.

Now I live every day, doing my best to put that magic back into the world. I strive to make and keep the knit and crochet community a place where all are welcome, and where all feel that welcome. Just be kind and love yarn. If you can do that, then let’s play together!

Remember when I shared about becoming friends with Lorene? Well, she was one of the original founders of Crochet Foundry. I’ve always been a fan. I love how well-curated it is. 

There’s a style to it that makes it accessible to any crocheter. You can take the patterns, and play with the colors and what you pair them with, and you can make them fit into so many different styles!

So, no worries fellow fans, I know it’s not broken, so it doesn’t need fixing. I’m not going to make any major changes to what is already there, just improve some tech and add some features.

On a Monday in December, I received an email that was sent out to a small group of people by Furls, saying they were selling Crochet Foundry. I’ve gotten plenty of emails about crochet or knit businesses or assets being sold before, and they always get tossed into the trash pretty quickly.

This time, everything stopped. It was like the world froze and I saw it. All the years of meeting the most amazing and talented yarnists, of going to shows and festivals, of learning everything I could about this industry, it all came together. With Crochet Foundry, I could take the decade-plus that I’ve been in this industry, and the lifetime as an artist, and grow myself and Crochet Foundry to unimaginable heights. And best of all? I could take so many people I love with me.

So, two weeks, two loans, and many discussions with my husband later, I was the proud owner of an online crochet magazine.

As I mentioned before, Crochet Foundry’s not broke, so I don’t need to fix it. I plan to start right where it is and grow it. I’m very passionate about continuing the diversity in every way with the models, designers, and other contractors.

I’m working on moving the site from the platform it’s on now, to one that can also have a membership. It will still be found at CrochetFoundry.com; just one day you’ll log on and it will be a bit different. 

I’m keeping the purchasing options to a 1-, 3-, or 12-month subscription. I will also continue to sell the individual patterns as long as that was agreed to when the original contracts were signed by the designers, but it’s always a better deal to buy the entire issue the pattern was in then just the pattern.

Then, I am leaning towards adding a members-only area. Subscribers will be able to access bonuses. I still have to work that all out, some of the ideas are: bonus free patterns, additional articles about the yarn industry and those in it, maybe some craft tutorials, plenty of crochet tutorials, maybe a little “learn to knit” section.

It's all still rolling around in my head. I know the next few months are going to be all about getting into the swing of things and making sure Crochet Foundry continues at the high standard everyone is used to. Once I’ve gotten a nice rhythm going, then I can work on adding features, a step at a time.

This is kind of a continuation of the last question. I would love to add a knit version of the magazine. It would probably be 2 years or more before the first issue came out, as anything worth doing is worth doing right. And it’s not like I have a ton of free time.

I am also going to work on growing the community. Not just in the number of people in the community, also in the connection of the community. I want to add some virtual meetings. Sit & Stitches and such. I also plan on polling the community in the Crochet Foundry Makes Facebook group for ideas of what THEY would like. I mean, listening to the readers seams like a good plan to me!

A pair of neon leg warmers that make me feel like a kid in the 80’s again. Because you’re never too old to be young.

See more of Jessie's work by visiting her Designer Landing Page today!