Stitching Her Way to Success

As class lets out in Mammel Hall, the home of UNO’s College of Business Administration is bustling with students rushing to their next class. Suzie Piitz ’24 is tucked in the corner of the Sommer Family Mezzanine, concentrating hard. She’s listening to an accounting class lecture in her earbuds, while her hands are busy creating. Her fingers move quickly, working her crochet hook and yarn into what will eventually become a cardigan. Suzie is one of a growing number of her generation who have taken up crocheting as a hobby, and in Suzie’s case—a business!

“My mom is very crafty, and when I was in 6^th grade she was crocheting a blanket and I told her that I wanted to learn how to do that, so she taught me, and I made a blanket. One of my younger sisters was really into cows, so I decided to make her a stuffed animal for her. My mom told me that I could probably sell them and make them for other people, and that’s how my business took off,” Piitz said.

And it has taken off. Piitz started her business three years ago, during her freshman year of college. She makes a variety of things from stuffed animals, cardigans, hats, and Christmas ornaments to a bouquet of flowers! Piitz’s three younger sisters even have gotten involved.

“I mostly do crochet, but there is some sewing involved. My sisters also do smaller crafts when I do pop-up shops. They make friendship bracelets and sew fabric scrunchies too,” she said. Her busy season runs from Thanksgiving through Christmas, but she says the education she has received in her accounting courses has helped her scale and grow her business. “I have learned how to calculate how much my time is worth, how much of a dispatch period I need to have when to cut my orders off during my busy season, things like that have all come from things I have learned in my accounting classes,” Piitz said.

But she doesn’t crochet to make money, Piitz says the repetitive motion helps her unwind. “I use it to relax before bed because accounting is mostly numbers and crocheting just kind of eases my mind at night, it helps me relax, but I always must be doing something with my hands. I have found that crocheting lowers my stress, especially during finals week or midterms,” she said.

The senior from Brainard, Nebraska will graduate in May and earn her bachelor's degree in only three years. She is very close to her family and said the decision to attend UNO was an easy one.

“I come from a farming background, and I knew that I wanted to do something that I could go back and be able to help my dad on the farm. I would help with his balance books and do seed comparisons and I started doing some cost accounting even before I came to college. I heard that UNO CBA had a great accounting program, and I was also recruited to play in the Jazz Band,” Piitz said.

After she graduates, she plans on returning to her hometown to help on the family farm. She’s also secured a job as a tax manager for an accounting firm in the farming community, but she’ll still be crocheting in her free time.

If you want to order something from Suzie, you can check out her website here: https://forms.gle/bB3Smuc2hzkZt8YWA