Quit doom scrolling and start following LalaBeCrocheting. Hila Ellert, the Israeli crochet designer behind the account, will dazzle you with funny designs and videos built using her professional background in animation and graphic design. Though her online presence started with YouTube tutorials, Hila is now a crochet designer and influencer with a channel reaching nearly 100,000 subscribers! And, as her handle might indicate, Hila infuses her work with humor and irreverence calling herself “a plus size woman with a big mouth and strong opinions.” I call her a creative genius!
I first found LalaBeCrocheting just after October 7, 2023. Clearly those first devastating days after the attacks were no time for levity. Hila who crocheted for her own enjoyment worked to create something healing: the worry doll. Rooted in Guatemalan tradition, these tiny, colorful figures are meant to carry our fears as we drift off to sleep. One whispers her worries to the doll, tucks it beneath her pillow, and by morning wakes unburdened, or so the legend promises.
Hila posted a photo of her doll on Facebook and was surprised by the response. “So many people asked for the pattern or to buy a doll for their children who had trouble sleeping,” Hila says. The worry doll design became Hila’s very first published crochet pattern and she generously gifted Beautifully Jewish crafters free access to the pattern. Within weeks, our community mailed hundreds of worry dolls to Tablet’s offices, where Beautifully Jewish got its start before becoming independent.
In December 2023, just a couple of months after the war began, I met Hila at a Tel Aviv hospital and together we gifted dolls to hospitalized children brightening their days, and ours, with softness, color and the hope of freedom from worry.
Hila’s knack for meeting the moment did not stop there. When online haters spotted her 1980’s rapper-inspired crocheted Chai necklace, she was bombarded by comments insisting she call the war in Gaza a “genocide.” She refused and many people unfollowed her accounts. As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Hila says she “will never dishonor their memory and the horrors they’ve been through by comparing the war to genocide.” Still, though she always felt Israeli, Hila saw herself as secular and disconnected from Judaism. Her experiences since October 7th made her realize “no matter how much disagreement I have with other Jews–in Israel and beyond it–the Jewish people are my people.”
Her most popular project, The Up Yours Vest, telegraphs Hila’s sassy strength and design acuity. The interactive vest features crocheted curtains which, when drawn, reveal a hand flipping the viewer the middle finger! Hila shared the vest in a hilarious reel showing her pulling back the curtains to the sound of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The design went viral, reaching millions of viewers, due to in part to reposts by huge accounts like those of Olympian Tom Daly and 9gag, an account Hila has loved since she first made discovered social media. “I wish I could call my 14-year-old self and tell her that people see her work and say “Wow, I want to do that, too,” Hila says. Her message to the rest of us: “Be proud of who you are. Believe in your silly little dreams.”
What’s Hila dreaming of doing next? “The dream was always to do my own fashion show with all of my crochet designs on the runway,” Hila says. “Only lately have I let myself say it out loud so the universe can hear and help me get it!” I sure hope you do!
Until then, Hila is going to make our dreams come true with a 90-minute Zoom-based CHAI Crochet Necklace workshop, created just for Beautifully Jewish! The session will recorded and includes a link to download the pattern.
Sign up to join
12 noon Eastern
Monday, May 18, 2026
“The world is complex and harsh but the Jewish spirit can always rise above.”
- Hila Ellert, LalaBeCrocheting
Looking for more? Check out these links from Hila.
Ravelry: Designs by Lala Crochet Boutique
LalaBeCrocheting - YouTube
LalaBeCrocheting - Etsy
Looking forward to another great zoom and improving my crochet skills. Love the chai necklace!
So excited!