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Alumna’s crochet business creates custom orders, pop culture-based designs

Alumna Melanie Taing founded her crochet brand Taingled to fund her graduate schooling. She said she makes Disney and “nerd culture” based projects such as crocheted Infinity Gauntlet gloves and “Avatar: The Last Air Bender” blankets. (Courtesy of Melanie Taing)

By Brooke Cuzick

Oct. 21, 2019 9:48 p.m.

Anyone can be Thanos with a little help from Taingled, a crochet shop.

Playing off Disney’s “Tangled,” alumna Melanie Taing’s crafting brand began as a way to fund graduate school. Taing said her crocheting journey started early on in her life, with her mom teaching her to knit items such as scarves and hats. Taing said the difficulty of knitting led her to try crocheting in college, where she felt she could more easily express her passion for Disney and “nerd culture.” To channel her interest in media such as the “Avengers” movies and “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” Taing said she crochets pillows, blankets and other various clothing items revolving around pop culture trends.

“I was honestly really bad at (knitting),” Taing said. “But I came back to it in early college at UCLA, … and I feel like being a better student and a better learner made me pick it up much quicker, and it kind of just caught fire, and I was obsessed with making everything.”

Before selling her products to the public, Taing said her work was purely personal passion projects. One of her first crocheted items was a blanket inspired by “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” which included panels of the four elements the show focuses on: water, earth, fire and air. Taing said she spent weeks working on each square of the blanket and around $80 on materials.

[Related: Students thrift to create sustainable, affordable fashion line inspired by UCLA]

Taing’s roommate saw the hours and effort that she had put into crafting the custom blanket and suggested that she advertise it on the UCLA Free & For Sale Facebook page. However, because of the high cost of goods and the work she put in, Taing said she was hesitant to see if anyone would buy her blanket for a reasonable price.

After posting the blanket, Taing said she received an offer of around $120 and many more messages requesting other custom orders. She then turned to the crafting site Etsy, on which she said she found it difficult to reach customers while making a profit, as the site takes a portion of the sellers’ sales.

“If you’re not already popular on Etsy, you’re not likely to make sales,” Taing said. “So I took a step back away from Etsy and thought about how maybe I can expand on it in a different way. And the biggest part for me was trying to figure out my branding and figure out what I wanted to offer.”

When Taingled started to grow in its online following and Taing began to receive more orders, customer and family friend Lindsey Hartman stepped in to help with the crochet projects. Taing bought headbands and yarn to make custom Mickey Mouse ears in school colors for graduation season, and Hartman said she tagged along to collect the supplies. While watching Taing tactfully pick out each type of yarn and count each stitch to ensure every product followed the patterns perfectly, Hartman said she realized how demanding crochet work is.

“(Woking with Taing) really made me grow such appreciation for that art and for her because of how much time goes into each individual piece,” Hartman said. “You really have to have a passion for it; otherwise, you would never finish, because it takes a lot of time and dedication.”

[Related: Student’s unique scrunchies aim to outdo others in the business of updos]

Part of Taing’s necessary attention to detail includes times when she deviates from the patterns she finds online and makes her own custom ones. When making items such as bralettes, she said she considers her customer’s measurements, as bodies aren’t always perfectly symmetrical. She adjusts each of her patterns to ensure the clothes aren’t weighed down as a result of using too much yarn, but also still properly fit the person she’s making them for, she said.

When working to make a specialized order of a crocheted Infinity Gauntlet – inspired by “Avengers: Infinity War” – Taing said she had to rework her original pattern. Originally using a pattern based off an adult full-fingered glove, she had to adjust and improvise her pattern to turn it into an “infinity mitten” for a baby customer. Vannara Chea, the customer who ordered the glove for her son’s Halloween costume, said she enjoyed how Taing worked to meet the needs of her order by taking many measurements to ensure the costume piece fit perfectly.

“I like the fact that (the glove) was handmade,” Chea said. “She makes it so convenient, and it’s specialized.”

Looking forward, Taing said she hopes to make products to pay tribute to her Cambodian identity. The Cambodian genocide left the community with a shortage of art, so by creating things such as crocheted Cambodian-inspired dolls, she said she hopes she can contribute to the resurgence of creativity. By expanding her brand outside of sites like Etsy and founding her own website, Taing said she feels she can reach the bigger audience she desires in order to be more influential in the creative world.

“(Crocheting) is a lot of time, it’s a lot of work, a lot of carpal tunnel, a lot of money, and if people don’t like it, then it’s a little difficult,” Taing said. “When I can figure out what exactly people like, then I can maybe branch off from there and offer products through my own website, which is primarily what I think the future would look like.”

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Brooke Cuzick | Alumna
Cuzick previously served as a senior staff writing for Arts and Entertainment. She was the Music | Fine Arts editor from 2019-2020 and an A&E reporter from 2018-2019.
Cuzick previously served as a senior staff writing for Arts and Entertainment. She was the Music | Fine Arts editor from 2019-2020 and an A&E reporter from 2018-2019.
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