Waterview resident ‘hooked’ on new hobby

Despite the challenges faced with the loss of a loved one, a recent move and a new environment, Granbury resident Pat Tyler has still managed to crochet her way to happiness — one stitch at a time.

The loss of her husband Owen in 2021 forced Pat to make a tough decision involving her home. She eventually made the choice to move to a new residence at Waterview The Point Independent Living.

“It wasn't home anymore when he wasn't there,” she said, solemnly.

Dealing with the stress of moving to a new home, Pat kept herself busy by picking up one of her hobbies from her childhood again — crochet.

“I've crocheted off and on,” said Pat, who is 87. “I learned the basic technique in the eighth grade in homemaking class. We made aprons and potholders. I used to roller skate a lot and I made a skating skirt.”

Pat took up crocheting again a few years ago when she wanted to make a stand for her plant.

“We had just redone our floors and put in hardwood, and I didn't want that wrought iron stand sitting on the hardwood, so I needed a little mat to put under,” she explained. “I crocheted a mat and then pretty soon I crocheted some more rugs and then I got into bags and baskets.”

Pat’s hobby did not stop there. Three years later, her apartment is filled with crocheted wall art, pillows, animals and dolls.

“I found there's a lot of free patterns on the internet, so I got a free doll pattern, and I got the basic idea of how dolls work to make them,” she said.

Her first crocheted animal was an elephant she named Peppy, while her first crocheted doll was inspired by a Kroger campaign ad.

"I got in the mail (an ad) that (had) a round faced woman with a tomato on her head and she was holding another tomato out in her hand, but that just hit me ‘I'm gonna make that woman,’ so I did. I call her Veggie Virgie,” Pat said.

From fictional characters to themed displays for every holiday, Pat is always working on something.

“It's kind of just a need to do something,” she said. “I enjoyed when Veggie Virgie turned out so well and it just kind of went from there. When I moved in here, we walked down the hall and saw these different displays on the doorways. My daughter-in-law said, ‘Well, there's something. You can do seasonal displays for your doorway.’ That was a suggestion that worked out well, so it kept me busy there for a while thinking of ‘What am I going to do next?’”

One of her most recent creations is an underwater scene that's displayed outside of her apartment.

“It's lifelike based on pictures that are on the internet, and I think people going down the hall have enjoyed this one probably more than anything else,” she said.

Her home is filled with many different crochet projects, and although Pat is unsure how many she’s made, she ensures that every single doll and animal has a name.

“I think names are part of their personality,” she said.

She said the doll Catfish Charlie (and his dog Cooper) is her favorite creation.

“I made the fishing pole and gave him a little environment where most of them don't have any, so Charlie's probably my favorite,” she said.

Pat said she can spend hours on a certain project, depending on how much it interests her.

“When I’m inspired, I’m pretty prolific and it goes fairly fast,” she said. “It just satisfies a creative urge.”

But crochet isn’t the only interest that satisfies her creativity. Pat is also a former artist and author.

“You know, I've had a long time, so I've had time to play with different things, and I've been lucky to have aptitude for a few things,” she said. “I haven't painted in 50 years. I minored in art in college. I love painting and I had space to do it. At the time, we had a house with a basement, so the basement could be my studio, but I haven't had that kind of space since then.”

She has self-published two books on Amazon: “Montana’s Legacy” and “Montana’s Challenge.” The plots of the Laguna Harbor series stories follow Montana Morgan, a young chef who inherits a hamburger joint from her recently deceased grandfather. She decides to turn the hamburger joint into a “destination restaurant,” and the story follows her journey as she tries to reopen the establishment.

"I'm not a great author, but I'm trying to learn,” Pat said. “I started it when I was 80 just to see if I could do it. I didn't finish it, but then I did after I moved here, and I wrote a sequel. I’m just doing it for fun. I'm not trying to make any money.”

The two books in her Laguna Harbor series are only available on Kindle. They can be found on Amazon with the name Patricia Tyler as the author.

As for her next project, Pat is currently in the middle of writing her next book.

"The one I'm writing right now, it's about a group of investors who bought a cruise ship from a bankrupt cruise company, and they're trying to get this cruise ship up and running and starting their own company,” she said. “They're trying to hire people, so some of the characters out of the (Montana) books traveled up to Seattle, so in that respect, some of the characters will be familiar to the ones who read the first two books."

Since Pat moved to Waterview, her health has improved, and she has made several new friends — many of whom befriended Pat because of her interesting crochet hobby.

"My health was getting bad,” she said. “I have COPD and I was getting to where I couldn't even have enough breath to walk across the street and see neighbors, but after I moved here and was forced to do more exercising — and by moving around and making friends with people — my health has improved immensely. I've got all kinds of good friends now — and you need that.”