Hey there, nice to meet you.
I’m Akia.
Whenever I’m asked the tell-me-about-yourself question I never say the same thing twice. Today if you asked me, I’d say I’m a lover of Beyoncé, a foodie, a cartoon watcher, a succulent killer, and the designer behind Dr. Charlie Untangled. I think the best way to describe myself is to say that I am a woman on a journey. I’ve been a craft lover and maker at heart for as long as I can remember, thanks to the amazing women in my life who brought me up on the south side of Chicago in the 90s and taught me to love crafting. I discovered the wonderful world of designing while earning my PhD in Biomedical Engineering and needed a way to balance the use of the other half of my brain.
I started Dr. Charlie Untangled, first, as an homage to my grandparents who had been calling me Dr. Charlie since the day I applied for grad school. But DCU also serves as a form of expression of my love for myself, science, yarn crafts, black people, and my journey of untangling it all—my hair, grad school and the aftermath, family struggles, the woes of #adulting, and being a black woman in America. Alas, here I am, thrust into the real world trying to make the most of it!
I’m always drawn to the beautiful, simple, and practical elements of modern design. But life is messy. So you’ll find me here untangling the threads of life and working up a pattern along the way. Look around for some cool knit and crochet designs and blog posts that detail the inspiration behind them all!