She goes by the name The Geeky Hooker. (“Not THAT kind of hooker. The kind armed with a crochet hook.”)
Meet Cindy Wang, healthcare professional by day and crochet ninja by night. She’s also pretty funny.
The Geeky Hooker is dropping off Deadpool and Wolverine in Vancouver next week for you to find! (Photograph By CINDY WANG)
The 34-year-old, hailing from Houston, Texas, has become known for crocheting little superheroes and leaving them in cities for people to find and keep.
And her next stop – after she swings by Seattle – is Vancouver.
It’s basically a crochet scavenger hunt, with updates posted on her Twitter and Facebook accounts. When you find a critter, all that she asks is you take a picture of it and let her know where its new home will be. We’ll fill you in on how to play later on.
Wang has crocheted the perfect Vancouver superheroes to drop off.
Of course, she chose Deadpool, duh, and the second character none-other than Wolverine.
ICYMI: I'm going to Seattle and Vancouver next week, and I'm bringing some critters with me! https://t.co/qhvWJCyI1V pic.twitter.com/Ql6isKeRje
— Geeky Hooker (@GeekyHooker) September 19, 2018
She told the Courier she started crocheting in 2011 out of sheer boredom.
“I came across a cute photo of a little crocheted ninja and thought to myself; ‘I wanna learn how to make that,’” Wang said in an email ahead of her visit.
“Next thing I knew I had a book from Amazon.com, a new set of crochet hooks and a pile of yarn from the craft store.
“The rest was hooking history.”
Wang’s interest then crossed over to her love of comic book characters.
“I got bored crocheting generic dolls when I first started out. I decided that by adding some fun colors I could turn these lumpy little dolls into lumpy little superheroes,” she said.
It was around the same time that she was inspired by Catlanta, an artist based in Atlanta who leaves little cat magnets behind for people to find.
“I was also about to attend San Diego Comic-Con for the first time,” Wang said.
“When I read about Catlanta in the news, I thought it might be fun to try something similar in San Diego with all these little superheroes that I didn't plan on keeping.
“I started up a twitter account with the name Geeky Hooker (not THAT kind of hooker!) and took a leap of faith that my little critters wouldn't end up in the trash.”
And they didn’t!
“Thankfully people actually found a good portion of the little guys that I hid around, and I had so much fun with it that I've kept up with the tradition every year at San Diego Comic-Con,” Wang said.
“That expanded out to me doing drops now and then if I went on vacation.”
The Geeky Hooker crocheted Frida (Photo courtesy Cindy Wang)
So far Wang’s dropped crocheted characters in San Diego, Houston, Austin, San Francisco, New York City, Portland and Chicago.
But her superheroes have ended up all over the globe. Even as far as Australia, Taiwan and Italy.
She said she has crocheted “too many to count.”
“I've been doing this for eight years now, if I had to guess I must've broken the 100 mark this year,” Wang said.
“I rarely keep them for myself, but I've got a few that I've made as keepers.
“There's something fun about dropping a little character and then just running off! Then I'm frantically checking Twitter to see if anyone's found it.”
The Geeky Hooker says she has crocheted too many characters to count! Here’s Han Solo and Princess Leia. (Photo by Cindy Wang)
It you’re going to get involved in the hunt, the little charters might be hard to spot. They're all only about three inches tall.
They’re hidden in just about anything — bushes, planters, tucked away into statues, random crevices in walls.
“Sometimes I'll have them out in plain sight. I've found it surprising how often people don’t notice the ones that are out in the open,” Wang said.
So, what’s the purpose of all of it?
“Just to have fun, and hopefully create fun for others,” Wang said.
If you’re keen to learn how to crochet like Wang, she’s also just released a book called Literary Yarns.
Now down to business. Here’s how you join the hunt:
- Follow the Geeky Hooker on Facebookor Twitter, but Cindy highly suggests Twitter for drop-tracking.
- Follow the hashtag #CRITTERDROP to filter out tweets if you want to see the ones pertaining to the drops only.
- Set up a Twitter mobile alert on your phone! This isn’t required, but it’ll help! This way your phone will buzz every time Cindy makes a post on twitter, so you won’t miss a single drop!. Instructions on how to set this up can be found here.
- If you find a critter, let Cindy know that you found it! Each one is tagged with a card with her contact info. She just asks for two things if you find one: 1) Send her a photo of your new friend, and 2) Let her know where the critter’s new home will be so she can add it her map! She does this knowing that there’s a potential that anyone could swipe the critter and never get back to her, but it doesn’t make it any less disheartening when one goes missing.
- Cindy will be dropping one critter per day Sept. 28 and 29 in Vancouver. Not pairs or groups of critters
- There are no specific hints on where her critters will be dropped, it’ll just be one per day and she’ll drop them whenever the time and place feels right.
