Getting a little crochet action!

Well, since my last blog things have hotted up considerably!

Small bag made from string and plastic
carrier bags cut into strips. Handle still
to come.

I have been contacted by the Environmental Division of the Lewisham Borough Council and invited to carry out a series of workshops for children during the summer holidays. They want me to show them how to make bags out of recycled plastic carrier bags. So I’ve been working it out and making my own, planning the workshops and generally thinking about how best to approach the challenge. Interesting. The bags are looking good too, after a couple of false starts. Haven’t quite finished anything but am beginning to feel reasonably confident that we can make something satisfactory out of the idea. I’ve also been down to the House of Curtains in Sydenham and bought out their entire supply of 6mm hooks and some other sizes besides!

These hooks came in very handy, as it turned out, for my free Flower in an Hour session at the Sydenham Arts Festival this July. We weren’t expecting many, maybe 4 or 5 if we were lucky and I got myself positioned on the night, in the back room at Alhambra Homes and Gardens, where I normally teach my beginners sessions, and before Alhambra’s owner, Rebecca Leathlean and I knew where we were,  numbers had grown completely out of hand!

I, completely daunted and gobsmacked, began the lesson with people LINING the room, sitting on the tables, barely able to see me, while Rebecca turned more away at the door of the shop! . Well, we managed, somehow, to make half a flower in the hour and some didn’t really get that done. I  came away feeling not so good, as though I had let them down somehow. I’d only got one pair of scissors and I couldn’t help everyone as much as they needed. It was  a shame.

Flower in an hour workshop TAKE 2! July 2012

Anyway, Rebecca organised an overflow session and the following week, four of those turned away the first time turned up again. This time I had slightly re-thought, AND we’d given them potentially a bit more than an hour, AND I plunged in like an express train, racing through each learning point with barely a breath in between. But you know what? In about an hour and a quarter, they each learned how to slip knot, slip stitch, chain, double crochet, half treble crochet and treble, as well as how to change colour and fasten off, and - miracle of miracles - EVERYONE had made a passable flower And what’s more, they had all also learned how to read a pattern!!!!! I can’t tell you the satisfaction I derived from that unexpected and unscheduled session. And I’m pretty sure my students were pleased with their achievements too!

These new formats for classes haven’t been the only crochet-based activity using my energies of late. Weeks ago I submitted an article to a crochet magazine with only the weeniest hope that they’d be interested and for a very long time I heard nothing back whatsoever, but then, pretty much out of the blue it seemed, they came back showing interest! They want more though. More substance, more quotations, more genuine content. I’m delighted, if daunted. I’ve got my work cut out to do it, but do it I intend. I’ve so far officially interviewed one  of my fascinating ex-students, who is, as it turns out the mother of a child at my son Gabriel’s school, (also called Gabriel!) . She had come to me as an experienced embroiderer wantingto add to her craftskill base and found herself quite out of her comfort zone. In fact she's a multi-talented individual, an actress of some repute, with a great interest in the calming and focussing effects of crocheting and creating that have directly helped her in her work and life. We walked round Dulwich Park one morning after school drop off and talked nineteen to the dozen. My notes from the encounter are still burning a hole in my notebook. I desperately want to get on and start further research and writing but I do find that in the evenings I’m pretty shattered and my head’s buzzing. I need to switch off from it all. Well, I’m hoping for some quality time with my laptop tomorrow before the events of the last week of term and then the school holidays begin in earnest, because after that it’s pretty much a roller coaster calendar until September.

But I never stop crocheting in all the gaps of course - I'm making two bags simultaneously at present, one super chunky, the other super fine. Both looking good - I'll keep you posted!