Knotted Neon is the Toronto-based crochet artist behind the most playful and subversive creations

When you catch a glimpse of Aynsley Grealis's crochet creations, it's hard to look away. From fungi-themed balaclavas and bento box handbags to a purse that looks like a plushy plate of oysters on a bed of ice, the Toronto artist's work is getting a lot of attention.

Grealis has amassed a following of over 270,000 on her dopamine-inducing Instagram account, @knottedneon; published a book of fanciful crochet patterns for handbags and hats (aptly named Mad Hatter); and weaved her own way with her subversive style. 

"I feel like my whole life has just become crochet," she said. 

Originally, crochet was simply a hobby she enjoyed as a kid — something she'd abandoned when she decided to pursue painting more seriously. "I, for some reason, decided that painting was the only way of life," she said. "And then I was like, 'Wait, you can kind of do anything you want.'" 

It wasn't until the spring of 2020, when the world felt scary and uncertain, that Grealis returned to crochet for comfort. "It was sort of one of those lockdown activities," she said. "I was stuck at home and I was like, 'People seem to be doing this crochet thing. I'm going to give it a shot.'" 

It didn't take long before the painter, a graduate of OCAD University, traded her brushes and canvas for a crochet hook and yarn. Four years and thousands of stitches later, her pandemic hobby has grown into something bigger than she could have imagined. 

"With painting, I was very stuck in my little box and couldn't think outside of that," she said. "So I think I had to just sort of leave." Now, free to experiment, Grealis lets her playful ideas guide her work.

"I've definitely leaned a bit more into that with crochet … with the food-themed bags that I make," she said. "They definitely are kind of goofy and fun and they make people happy." But it's the attention to detail that sets her pieces apart from other whimsical creations you see online. 

Look closely and you may notice a tiny white bead moonlighting as a grain of salt on crochet avocado toast or a zipper pocket hidden under the lid of a squishy sardine tin. "I do just try to find things in day-to-day … life that I can pull inspiration from," she said.

While her pieces take hours — and sometimes days — of concentrated work to complete, she makes sure the childlike sense of fun is never out of reach. 

"I have a three-year-old nephew, and whenever I'm making a new piece, I always show him, and he goes, 'Wow, that's funny!'" she said. "If I have his seal of approval, I'm like, 'Perfect — I have done it.'"

Each piece starts as an idea, which she'll sketch out. For her structured bags, she cuts and glues together a dense water-resistant foam, using new skills she's learned over the past few years. "It's kind of fun," she said. "It feels more sculptural." 

From there, Grealis works in pieces, pinning and sewing different panels and textural elements around the foam so the bags hold their shape. "There's been a lot of just progression in fibre arts and crochet and knitting," she said. "People are really just pushing the boundaries of what you can do with it … and using materials that you maybe wouldn't before." 

Over the past couple of years, Grealis has witnessed the art evolve from mostly shawls and socks to a world of "endless possibilities" — and it's accessible too. While arts such as sewing require more equipment, it's easier to get started with crochet. "A hook, some yarn and YouTube can get you really far," Grealis said. 

Grealis also sells custom patterns on her digital storefront. The step-by-step guides with photos allow people to replicate her coveted bags and designs. But as an avid improviser, she admits creating patterns doesn't come naturally to her. "I don't count stitches — I just kind of add things wherever I feel like it looks right," she said.

"So I guess I am a perfectionist with a final product, but with the process in which I get to that point, I'm pretty loose about it.… I've had to learn to do things in a more correct way, which has been a bit of a learning curve." 

And that willingness to try and to share her work has only opened doors. This past summer, she paired up with the British Olympic diver and fellow crochet artist Tom Daley to create a pattern for a croissant bag. (The video of Daley launching the bag on his Instagram has almost eight million views.) Their collaboration video, which features them pulling various items out of the crochet croissant  — including Daley's gold medal from the 2024 Paris Olympics — has more than one million views. 

But apart from all the attention, what Grealis loves about crochet is that she's been able to connect with her inner child. "I get to be surrounded by … soft balls of yarn all day," she said. "I kind of get taken back to this hobby that I really liked as a kid.… I feel like I've just come full circle."