11-Year-Old Donates Crochet Designs to Ethiopian Orphanage Where He Was Adopted

This 11-year-old loves spending his days crocheting, but his favorite part comes after he finishes his designs and puts his hook and yarn away.

“I give some to an orphanage in Ethiopia where I was adopted from, and I really enjoy doing that,” 11-year-old Jonah Larson of La Crosse, Wisconsin, told InsideEdition.com. “It’s just so great knowing now that I have this gift to crochet that I can use it to give back.”

Jonah told InsideEdition.com that he taught himself how to crochet from YouTube tutorials when he was just 5 years old and hasn’t stopped crocheting since.

“I crochet because it’s very relaxing for me, because I have a very busy mind, and it’s nice to have a little quiet time when I come home from school,” he joked. “My family and teachers and stuff are just glad I’m making them stuff and not playing video games or something unproductive.”

Every day, he spends nearly five hours crocheting and coming up with different designs for Afghan throws, hats, coasters, bags, boots – just about anything he can think of.

“I just love looking through Pinterest to see what other people create and then I like making my own patterns by deviating from theirs,” he said. “My favorite projects to crochet are whatever I’m working on at the time.”

He explained it now takes him less than an hour to make a hat and around six hours to make a full Afghan throw.

In addition to donating and keeping his designs, he also takes commissions and sells some of his products through Instagram and has earned around $5,000 from his creations over the years.

Jonah said he now plans to learn different techniques and possibly attend crocheting summer camps to improve his skills.

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