Little Lessons

My favourite part of being a full-time crafter is sharing skills with lovely people. I know I've said it before, but I get so much from seeing people start their crochet adventure. 

I had a visit from Sharon on Wednesday, she came along to try out some new stitches, we had a go at crocheting rows, and varying with front and back loops, and we did a mitred square. 

Rita came popped up with her lovely daughter Jess, and we went over granny squares, then onto Sunburst squares. They are both naturals!

I was thrilled to hear that they'd spent the afternoon practising...

And on Saturday Tarloke visited for a beginner lesson, and made his very first square. 

 The days fly by when I have such lovely company. 

Crochet

One of my favourite things about knowing how to crochet is helping other people learn. I love seeing people go from the first tentative swoop-through-the-loop, the first saggy-looking chain, the first treble, to the first finished round, the next round, the quiet concentration as they slowly start doing it all by themselves, the moment where this odd jumble of knots begins to look like SOMETHING. I always begin with Granny Squares - my all-time favourite thing to make and, in my humble opinion, the best place to start. They are perfect for beginners for lots of reasons - they have the basic stitches, which you repeat over and over again so it stays put in the grey matter, and they grow ever so quickly so there is a tangible *thing* to take away at the end of the session. It's a proud moment when there is an exclamation of "it looks like a square" or "I did it!" or "I'm going to the wool shop RIGHT NOW to get more colours". I love the 'ping' on my phone when an email full of photos arrives, so much pride and hard work. It is a joy. This was a square from a session yesterday - when I left it was only three rounds, so it was pure happiness to see the forth!

I have so enjoyed starting people on their crochet adventure - this is my lovely friend with her very first bit of crochet... 

which looked like this less than a week later...

 So proud!
This is Gemma with her first square...

And lots of lovely folks with their squares at the Wonderful Wool day last November...

And lovely Louise at her first lesson.

I really hope that at least some of the people that I have taught will continue, and will remember me fondly as the person that got them started. I so worry that these amazing skills will be lost, and I hope my enthusiasm will be contagious and help in some small way to encourage people to give it a go! 

My Week... mostly a studio update...

This week has been totally focussed on my lovely new studio. I've made it pretty and I have tried to find snazzy ways to display my work, and in turn been inspired to make new jewellery to display. It's wonderful to feel so creative, I think I've been distracted for a little while now, but I think I'm back on track now. I read something somewhere about staying creative, how you never run out of creativity and how being creative leads to more creativity (that's a lot of "creative" in one sentence, my apologies) and it's something that has stayed with me, and I'm trying to live by that idea. 

My next job in the studio is one that I'm very excited about - I will be putting up my peg board above my desk. It's so exciting because I've never really been able to put all of my bits of paper, postcards, jewellery experiments, fabric samples, knitting swatches etc in one place before. It will be a place for all of my inspiration, and I'm so excited - when I was at uni, the Fine Art students all had their own allotted wall space, but over in Applied Art we were much more nomadic, we couldn't really leave things around the place, and these days I have my stall, but it's not really private enough for me to feel comfortable with customers coming and going, so this will be a first for me. 

My Week...

This week has passed by in a blur. I've been busy making my studio pretty, but also trying to balance that with the other things that need to be done, like preparing for the festive season - picking out supplies for upcoming makings, and starting work on stock. I've also been trying to keep the Big Knit makings under control, and spent an evening sewing pompoms onto pompomless hats that had arrived. My life as a full-time-crafter is one that I enjoy so much, but I must confess that the last week has left me feeling somewhat overwhelmed.

In My Tool Bag...

Every so often, in my many and varied wanderings around the internet, I come across blog posts and photos and facebook bits talking about "tools of the trade", or "have a look in my handbag" and I always rather enjoy them, so I thought I might take a moment to share what is in my essential carry-around crafty kit.

This is my little zippy bag, made some time ago in a "learning to put in zips" adventure. The fabric is from a Laura Ashley sample book, and it never fails to makes me smile.

On first look, it's rather a messy, bursting at the seams sort of affair. I must confess that I hadn't realised how much was crammed in until I emptied it out. 

I have a bit of a bad habit - hoarding crochet hooks. These are just my carry around ones, there are many many more at home... Anyway, my essentials are all here, and it would seem that four (!) 2.5mm hooks are essential. I might need to thin them out a bit...

I have a little selection of Bamboo and plastic hooks in there, although I'm not a regular user of either. I also have some of the tiniest hooks in existence, so small that they are hard to see, and I use them mostly for crocheting sewing cotton.

I have some knitting bits and bobs too, my most favourite being my Yummy stitch markers, they're supposed to be for zippers, but they're perfect for knitting.

These are my random carry-arounds - two pairs of scissors, tweezers, sewing needles, tape measure and pompom maker. I would be lost on a day to day basis without these things!

I have a little tiny zippy bag inside my main zippy bag, also made as part of the big zip adventure. I keep bodkin needles in there, and lots of stitch markers that I made with vintage buttons. 

So there we go, the contents of my crafty bag.