Crochet craze: Clark County middle school students crochet for calm and connection at club

Completed projects will be donated to raffle at Arcadia Senior Living Lookout Ridge in Washougal

By Monika Spykerman, Staff writer

April 16, 2026 8:03 am

Life, Schools, Washougal

English teacher Ellie Kingsley, right, crochets with eighth-grader Millie Derheimer on March 24 during a crochet club meeting at Pacific Middle School. (Taylor Balkom/The Columbian)

Eighth-grader Millie Derheimer crochets March 24 during a crochet club meeting at Pacific Middle School. (Taylor Balkom/The Columbian)

Sixth-grader Nikol Nazarets, left, talks with crochet club instructor Bailey Navarro March 24, 2026, during a crochet club meeting at Pacific Middle School. (Taylor Balkom/The Columbian)

Sixth-graders Sophia Goulding, from left, Morgan Brumbaugh and Avery Baxter sit on the floor and crochet during a crochet club meeting at Pacific Middle School. The crochet craze has spread around the school and some teachers even allow crocheting in class. (Taylor Balkom/The Columbian)

School nurse Ian Bader, from left, crochets with sixth-graders Sophia Goulding, Morgan Brumbaugh and Avery Baxter during a crochet club meeting at Pacific Middle School. (Photos by Taylor Balkom/The Columbian)

Sixth-graders Abigail Westman, left, and June Mathena chat during a crochet club meeting at Pacific Middle School. Mathena is one of three girls who petitioned the school to start a crochet club. (Taylor Balkom/The Columbian)

Club leader Bailey Navarro, right, works with sixth-grader Bethany Raby during a crochet club meeting at Pacific Middle School. (Taylor Balkom/The Columbian)

Sixth-graders Abigail Westman, left, and June Mathena sing a tune from “K-Pop Demon Hunters” while crocheting on March 24 during a crochet club meeting at Pacific Middle School. The girls in the club say that keeping their hands busy helps them feel calm and focused. (Photos by Taylor Balkom/The Columbian)

Sixth-grader Nikol Nazarets, right, looks at the cute crochet work of sixth-grader Estella Cholak during a crochet club meeting at Pacific Middle School. (Taylor Balkom/The Columbian)

Pineapple, diamond, brick, bobble, spike, wattle, bamboo, butterfly, popcorn, puff, corkscrew and cactus. That might sound like a top-secret World War II code or a sophisticated word association game, but it’s actually a list of crochet stitches.

The young girls in Pacific Middle School’s knitting club might not know every one of the 150 crochet stitches, but they’ve certainly mastered the basics. With the help of their club instructor, Bailey Navarro, they’ve embraced this “granny craft” and found an antidote to everyday anxieties in a world that gets more tangled every day.

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