Two Worlds, One Creator

╔═══ ✧ ✦ ✧ ══╗

DUAL-WIELDING MY WAY

INTO THE NEW YEAR

╚═══ ✧ ✦ ✧ ══╝

I don’t take selfies. I avoid them like buggy code. But this year, I decided to show up — laptop in one hand, crochet hooks in the other. It felt awkward and brave and strangely right. A tiny act of courage to kick off the year.

Selfie level: Unlocked. Chaos level: Always maxed.
Chaotic good energy activated.
I code, I craft, I create— dual‑wielding my way into the new year.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some days it feels like I’m forging code in the dark, hunched over my keyboard as if it were an anvil—each keystroke a strike that might reveal something powerful… or dangerous. 

Other days I’m tending to my code like it’s a harmless side quest—only for it to rise up without warning, a mini‑boss emerging from the shadows of my own making, taunting me to try debugging it… if I dare. 

And in between all of that, I’m wrestling with yarn that seems determined to fight back—frustration sparking through my hands as a single knot rises like a tiny, infuriating beast.

Lately, it feels like I live in the loops — loops of logic, loops of yarn, loops of life.

This past year taught me something straight out of an isekai: creativity doesn’t belong to just one world. It lives in whatever weapon I choose to wield!

And the first loops I learned to overcome were not those of logic, but of yarn.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

╔═══════ ✧ ✦ ✧ ══════╗
WORLD ONE: THE REALM OF YARN & HEART

╚═══════ ✧ ✦ ✧ ══════╝

Over the last year, I’ve been leveling up nonstop—

        single crochet, double crochet, half‑double, even the wheat stitch

—each one lighting up as a new node on my crafting skill tree. Honestly, I hear the anime ‘ding!’ every time I unlock a new stitch.

What started as a simple invitation to craft with my grandma evolved into a full‑blown passion before I even realized it. Now I’m constantly plotting new project ideas like a protagonist planning their next power‑up.

And honestly, what better way is there to show love than crafting something with your own hands for someone you care about?

Crocheting isn’t just a hobby anymore—it’s become my lightning rod. When my little world starts to shake, I lose myself in the stitches. Counting them grounds me. It gives me the steadiness I need to face everything outside my crafting bubble.

╔═══ ✧ ✦ ✧ ═══╗
FIRST ARTIFACT ACQUIRED:
THE CROCHET HOOKS OF DESTINY
╚═══ ✧ ✦ ✧ ═══╝

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

╔═══════ ✧ ✦ ✧ ══════╗
WORLD TWO: THE WORLD BEHIND THE SCREEN ╚═══════ ✧ ✦ ✧ ══════╝

Coding, just like crocheting, wasn’t something I planned. It just… happened. One day the opportunity appeared in front of me like a glowing quest prompt, and honestly—how could I refuse? I’ve always been the kind of person who can’t resist learning a new skill -- especially when it feels like a doorway into another world.

So, I stepped through. I started learning how to build worlds from behind the scenes—how to shape logic, summon functions, and tame the chaos hiding in the shadows of my own code. And fixing bugs? That became its own kind of magic. There’s nothing like the quiet, electric thrill of watching something finally run exactly the way you intended.

Coding taught me discipline in a way nothing else ever has. It’s not about speed; it’s about precision. One wrong character and the entire structure collapses like a tower struck at its weakest point. And trust me, I’ve seen enough red error messages to fill an entire villain’s lair.

╔════ ✧ ✦ ✧ ════╗

SECOND ARTIFACT ACQUIRED:

THE KEYBOARD OF ARCANE LOGIC

╚════ ✧ ✦ ✧ ════╝

And as I traveled between these two worlds, it hit me — they weren’t separate quests at all. They were shaping the same core skills I needed to level up. Somewhere along the way, I stopped seeing crochet and coding as polar opposites and started seeing the shared keys that unlock both.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

╔═══════ ✧ ✦ ✧ ══════╗

THE THREE KEYS OF THE DUAL-WIELDING PATH ╚═══════ ✧ ✦ ✧ ══════╝

🔑Patience:

You won’t always get it right the first time. Sometimes you have to frog your project. Sometimes you have to delete the whole file. Both worlds demand the same thing: give yourself room to learn, to fail, to try again.

🔑Perseverance:

You can’t give up. You won’t always understand it immediately, but if you stick with it, you’ll make what you envisioned — or stumble into something even better along the way. Progress is rarely linear, but it's always worth the climb.

🔑Creativity:

This is the heart of everything. Crochet and coding became vital to me because both let me create something from nothing. They give me different ways to express myself, different ways to explore, different ways to grow. There’s always another idea waiting to be discovered.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I used to think I had to choose. Now I know I was meant to dual‑wield — two crafts, two worlds, one creator. 

I don’t know exactly what I’ll create next — but I know it’ll come from both worlds. I’m entering the new year like Kohaku with her twin knives — a fierce, dual-wielding warrior from my favorite anime, Dr. Stone… except I’m armed with a laptop and a set of crochet hooks.

Happy New Year, my friends. 🥂 Here’s to another year of building, stitching, learning, and becoming — across both worlds.

🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸

Alisha Kemmerlin

Founder of CodeInTheHook — where anime energy, crochet creativity, and coding chaos come together.

“Crafting code and crochet projects while surviving my own filler episodes.”