We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Samantha Paul a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Samantha, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I learned how to crochet by watching YouTube tutorials and teaching myself. Knowing what I know now, I would have connected with the crochet community earlier to speed up my learning process. Having the ability to pause and rewind, to see specific steps again, was essential to my learning. I waited until I had been crocheting for over a year before starting my Instagram account to share my creations. I believe my biggest obstacle that stood in my way was myself. I have learned so much by posting on social media and connecting with the community. If I could do anything differently I would have started posting sooner!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a crochet content creator and clothing pattern writer. I also have multiple chronic illnesses and disabilities, including hypermobile ehlers-danlos syndrome, juvenile idiopathic arthritis and a few more. I learned to crochet years ago to make holiday gifts for my family. It wasn’t until my health declined in 2024, that I dedicated myself to posting my work on social media. At the time, my health issues became so severe that I had to leave college. I was pretty much stuck crocheting on my couch because that was the only thing I could do. I decided to pull my phone out and started posting 3 times a day on TikTok. No makeup, no fancy equipment, just me on my couch, lip-syncing to silly audios and showing off my work. I dedicated myself to posting daily no matter what, and slowly but surely I began to grow a following. I started off trying to sell my crochet pieces but didn’t find success there because I realized most of my followers also crochet. I pivoted, and started writing crochet patterns for the items I was making myself and I have found people are most interested in those patterns.
I’m proud of the community I have created and I am honored to be able to uplift other artists, especially those with chronic illness and disability.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist for me is seeing how I inspire others to create art. I started creating art to help myself get through difficult times. It took me time to gain the confidence to post my work. Once I did, I was surprised to see how many people were inspired by it. I occasionally get messages from people saying I inspired them to start crocheting or to get back into it. One message that touched me the most was from a young person saying they have some of the same chronic illnesses as myself, and that my videos inspire them to crochet. I try to be the representation I wish I had seen when I was 12 years old dealing with so many health issues. I always knew I would not go down a traditional career path, but I had no idea that where I am now would ever be a reality for me.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I first started building my following on TikTok. I began posting three times a day because I heard somewhere that was the “magic number.” I consistently showed up every day as my authentic self, no matter how poorly the videos performed. It took some time, but eventually my follower count started to increase. I think the most important thing is consistency. Choose how often you want to post and stick to it! I know it’s difficult to keep going when the results aren’t showing but sticking to it really pays off. If I could do anything differently I would have started crossposting my content much sooner. I initially focused only on TikTok, but once I started reposting my videos on YouTube and Instagram I started getting more partnership opportunities. If you’ve been thinking about building a social media presence this is your sign to go for it, you never know what may happen!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.knottedbysam.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/knottedbysam/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KnottedbySam
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsknottedbysam