Life & Work with Jesse Peterson of Pasadena

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesse Peterson

Hi Jesse, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am a very creative, imaginative person with a strong analytical side, and have always faced a difficult dance to express my creative side and recognize its fullest potential while working in a career that is mostly analytical. My dad is an accountant and really wanted my brother and I to follow in his footsteps, so I majored in Finance at the University of Virginia and began a career in consulting when I graduated.

In February 2023 I had just seen the movie Avatar 2: The Way of Water, and I was really just shocked and in awe of how intricate and beautiful the CGI and visuals were. I started thinking to myself: someone (multiple someones in this case) MADE this. They spent years creating it from their own mind, with their own hands, and most people will just watch the movie for two hours, be like “oh, cool,” and move on with their life. Probably because I was doing a LOT of Excel and database work at that time, my mind kept coming back to – people create whole entire different WORLDS every day, and I’m running Excel formulas for eight hours a day. It fostered this really strong drive to create in me that I had put on the back burner, especially since I was in a (what I now recognize as) toxic relationship with someone who really didn’t value my creative side.

I had a beginner’s crochet kit in my closet that I had ordered from Amazon in the early days of the pandemic, and so I got it out, found a YouTube video about how to crochet the basic stitches, and made a swatch. My first swatch obviously wasn’t perfect, but it also wasn’t bad! I remember posting a picture of it on my Instagram close friends story and people saying “I’ve been trying to learn to crochet for months and I’m still not that good!” and realizing – wait, maybe I have something here!

Over the coming weeks I poured my heart and soul into crochet – I reached out to friends and learned what kind of yarn they liked best and where they found patterns, I learned how to read pattern shorthand, I bought some patterns on Etsy that were WAY too complex, and I just started crocheting. The first thing I ever made was a Kindle cover to give to my then-boyfriend, and I remember that when I gave it to him he said “I think maybe you want this more than I do.” Now I see that this was abusive, but at that time it just motivated me to get better and make cooler and bigger things.

As the Universe goes, this was actually perfect timing to pick up a new hobby, as I was laid off from my job a few weeks later. While I was sad about losing my coworkers who I really liked, and scared about having to pay rent without a job, I was really excited to have lots of extra time to crochet! I created a website, I photographed the things I created, and I started selling my crochet items – shirts, dresses, tote bags, hats, and more.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There have definitely been struggles, especially with pricing. Because of fast fashion, people are so accustomed to paying like, $20 to $35 for a shirt. But that same shirt takes me 12 hours to crochet, and then there’s the cost of good quality yarn! So I am always torn between – do I charge a price that will sell, or do I charge a price that pays myself minimum wage, much less a living wage? I’ve had several instances where someone reached out and wanted to buy something, and I worked through mockups to get a sense of what they wanted, and then they ghosted me when I quoted them a price. Which I understand! But it’s still really frustrating.

Crocheting is unique because it can only be done by hand. Anything you see in stores that is crocheted was made BY HAND. Once you know this, shopping becomes infuriating. I remember looking through a shop in Lisbon on a vacation and seeing all these crochet handbags and tote bags selling for like, $35. There’s just no way those took less than 8 hours to make at a minimum, so these people are being paid what? Less than $4 an hour? Because of course the distributor and the retailer are also taking a cut. I do a lot of social justice activism work too, and this was a really eye-opening experience for me in that vein.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Outside of the small volume of high-end crochet orders I take, I also work as an Organizational Change Management Consultant, but I would like to talk more about writing and astrology since that’s my true passion.

I am well-known in my friend group and across certain parts of the internet for my former dating blog, Tinder District, and the accompanying podcast, Just the Tip: The Tinder District Podcast. I’ve always loved and been good at writing, and it has been another creative outlet I’ve used to balance out my more analytical career. I also have gotten really into astrology, which helped me a lot in dealing with my chronic illness (endometriosis) that I’ve battled for years and has left me in a lot of pain and with a lot of “why is this happening to me?” questions. I’m now working on establishing a practice as an astrologer as well as re-establishing my writing.

Something that sets me apart from others is my voice. In my Change Management career, I’ve learned a lot about how to translate super-technical IT speak into something that is engaging to the average reader, and that’s really informed my astrology practice as well. I’ve read so many astrology books and listened to so many podcasts that are extremely technical, and while that absolutely has its place, it’s not digestible for the average person or astrology beginner. Most people don’t realize how smart you actually have to be to be able to have such a great understanding of a concept that you can communicate it clearly to people who have zero understanding of that concept, and I’m really proud of myself for developing and honing this skillset over the years.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I always love to collaborate across all of my creative media! I love to work with people who do other aspects of fashion design – sewing, embroidery, etc – as I love the look of a jacket with a crochet inlay, or a crochet sweater with some detailed embroidery. I see fashion very much as personal expression and the more fun you’re able to have making a garment, the more the wearer will enjoy it.

I’m also exploring new ways to create and share dating and relationship content now that I’m single, and spinning up my astrology business. Any potential collaborators or clients can reach me at [email protected]. You can also support me by following my Tik Tok account, @VirgoSunVeganRising, and my (free) Patreon where I post my writing at patreon.com/mutabledisaster.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jessepetersondesigns.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/jessedelalune
• Other: https://patreon.com/mutabledisaster

Image Credits
N/A – all images taken by me