DESPITE her grandmothers and mother being keen knitters, Jo Severino said she was always more interested in learning to crochet.
A tiny crochet dog her great grandmother made for her that became a prized possession left an imprint on her that’s lasted ever since.
“When I was about five, I used to visit my great grandmother at the nursing home, and she used to crochet little animals and doilies and teapot holders,” Severino said.
“My mum and grandmothers were knitters but I wanted to crochet, and they didn’t.”
Severino remembered a road trip across Australia where she sat in the middle of the back seat between her two brothers who were learning to knit themselves footy scarves.
“I spent the trip undoing their mistakes, knitting a few rows, giving it back,” she said.
“I was six or seven. So I could knit and sew from a very young age.”
Living in Pakenham at the time, her mum purchased a spinning wheel to make wool from the family’s sheep.
“She didn’t let me use it,” Severino said.
“And I remember feeling really put out because she taught me to do every other craft that we ever did, but she was very protective of it.”
As an adult, Severino lived in America where she spent her time sewing and quilting, though the desire to spin wool never left her.
When she got sheep, she was finally able to fulfill her dream of buying a spinning wheel and learning to spin.
“I thought I’ll teach myself to spin, so I bought a Dutch spinning wheel and we’d sheer the sheep and I’d start spinning,” she said.
At the time, Severino was working at a produce farm, and began making herself crocheted fingerless gloves from the wool she’d spun.
“The girls at work saw my fingerless gloves and said ‘could you make me a pair?’” she said.
“So I made a few pairs and then they said ‘you should sell them here at the farm’. I made about a dozen pairs and had a market stand.”
On returning to Australia, she remembered visiting an aunt in Broken Hill as a teenager, and decided that was where she wanted to live.
“I thought, where am I going to make my home? And Broken Hill is hot, it’s in the desert, there’s an art scene, a school, and I thought what more do I need?” she said.
Severino now works as a teacher, and crochets gloves and tops that she sells at the Broken Hill Community markets under Mandala Fibre Arts.
She also teaches crochet workshops at the Broken Hill Art Exchange, and said moving to the Outback was one of the best decisions she’s made.
“I haven’t regretted for one minute moving to this town!” she said.
She’ll be selling her handmade crochet goods at this weekends Broken Hill Art Exchange Makers Market in the Kitchen Gallery at the Grand Hotel between 9am-1pm on Saturday.
