We recently connected with Sara Winters and have shared our conversation below.

Sara, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

Growing up, my parents had us involved in chores and yard work from an early age. On Saturdays, I remember that we would all work to clean up the house or do some outside projects before we could play and have fun. Being the 3rd of four kids, if everyone worked together it went faster. I would say that those Saturdays working as a family taught me both work ethic and the importance of team work. Heading into my teenage and high school years, I had to learn more independence quickly as my dad got sick and passed away when I was 16. As hard as this life event was and still is, it taught me how to figure things out on my own. If there is something I want to do, I find a way. Just because there isn’t someone there to do it for me or help me through it, doesn’t mean I’m not capable. I had the opportunity to watch my mom be both parents. This wasn’t easy for her, but watching her be the strong one taught me a lot of about myself too. It taught me to stand up for myself and fight for what is important to me even if it’s not an easy road.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into crochet as a way to make special gifts for family and friends. When my sister announced that she was pregnant with their first baby, I didn’t want to just buy a gift. I wanted to make something that he could love on and play with for a long time. I decided to learn to crochet. So I asked a friend to show me the basics, and then I was off. Crochet gifts became my go to gift for baby showers as a way to make something more personalized than a store bought gift.
It was always fun to watch the moms to be open the gift that would be for their babies, and even more fun to see the pictures they would send of their little ones with the crochet toys.
When I had a little boy of my own, we decided it would be best if I stayed home with him. So I quit my teaching job and the little tyger was born. By this point I had several friends and friends of friends who would purchase crochet animals from me for their own family members, and it just spread from there. Finding the confidence to get your name out there and to self promote has definitely been a challenge for me. But with the encouragement from friends and then from complete strangers, I have continued to grow my business.
The best compliment I have received from customers is repeat business, and referrals. That tells me that my product is worth it to them. I still make fully stuffed crochet animals, but my focus now is on lovey style animals. It’s my goal to bring smiles to the faces of anyone who holds one, and then for them to last! I want a small child to be able to take their lovey on all of their life adventures. They hold up through the wash and all rough play that a little person can throw at them.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

One of the biggest pivots I had to make on life took place when I first graduated from college with my teaching degree in Michigan. I applied to every school district in the area and was getting no response. The principal of the school I had done my student teaching at told me if he had a job opening it would be mine, but there just weren’t any jobs available. With the thought in my mind of just subbing my first year, I contacted an aunt who lived in Mississippi and asked if there were teaching jobs by her. She said yes, and sent my resume to the principals in the district she worked in. With in a week or so I had two phone interviews and a request to drive 12 hours for an in person follow up. After driving across the country and accepting a job where I only knew family, I had 2 weeks to pack up all of my belongings and move across the country to start a new life.
Since moving almost 10 years ago, I have made some of my best friends, I got married, and now have become a stay at home mom running a small crochet business. That was definitely the most life changing pivot so far.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I make every crochet item that I sell. Crochet is something that can’t be machine made, so it is a true art form. I only learned how to crochet about 5 years ago, and since then I have continued to find better ways to improve my craft. When I first started crocheting I didn’t know the importance of making sure that all arms and legs of an animal were secure enough to stand up to toddler love. This led to a few repairs being done to gifts I gave to family members and friends. I have now pretty well mastered securing arms and legs.
After watching a lot of crochet masters on Instagram I have also learned to make the eyes extra secure, with adding a little bit of fabric behind the eyes. Most recently I learned I was crocheting “inside out.” This wasn’t necessarily wrong, but I think it definitely makes a difference in the final product. It’s a fun experience to continue to find new yarns and new techniques to continually improve my product.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @the_little_tyger
• Facebook: The little tyger

Image Credits
Cecily Sammons Sara Winters (myself)