Meet Leo McCreary

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

Leo, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

I keep my creativity alive by coming up with new ideas to crochet. For example I started making crochet stress balls and those became my biggest hit. From that, I started making crochet slinkies, pop its, and other fidgets.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I started crocheting 10 years ago when I was 10. I started out with making blankets and scarves but about 4 years ago I started making plushies and taking my plushies to markets to sell.

I do many markets in Jax all throughout the month. I try to list the dates on my Instagram: Leos_crochet_

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I think if I knew that plushies, specifically fidgets would be a huge hit I would have started that from the beginning. These are the backbone of my business.
Also learning that craft stores are very expensive and getting supplies online or from other non craft stores help you stay in a budget.
A skill I wish I had when I was first starting was being fast at crochet. Most of my plushies take about 15 minutes. While they used to take an hour for the same plushie.
I think one thing that can help crocheters is having stitch markers. These are very helpful to have while you are crocheting.
And to write down everything you sell so you can continue making your best sellers.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

I like to suppress everything at once and then let it out by crocheting. One moto I live by is if it doesn’t bother you in 7 years don’t spend more than 7 seconds worrying about it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://popl.co/card/qdaDGhLe/1/s