Quite Busy

I can't say I'm not absolutely delighted with the way my crocheting activity has hotted up this year and it sure is keeping me on very happy toes!

I'm teaching beginners Tunisian to the U3A this coming Saturday, so in preparation for that I have created a Tunisian Sampler makeup bag. I bought the lining material first, it caught my eye in Little Woolie last Saturday afternoon, and I then bought the lovely cotton dk and 4ply colours to match. The sampler covers Tunisian Simple Stitch of course, and knit and purl stitches. After that it's mostly combinations of the above, with a little diversion into popcorns and 'claws'. The exercise piece also requires plenty of colour changing and finally a little bit of decreasing. I can see there could be interest in a follow up for more Tunisian techniques... I'll have to watch my Dora Ohrenstein CD again.

My head has also been diverted into preparation for the two night colour course as Denman College needed the programme for it to send to students currently booking. Once again the challenge was keeping the number of exercises DOWN to a realistic degree to fit it all in. I may have to fill in some gaps in my samples collection before the day. I'll enjoy that!

In July I'm teaching an entire couple of days on flowers and this weekend I asked my mum to show me how to wire them up to present in a vase as though they were real. I'm extra excited about this as it's a bit different and I've now set myself the task of creating at least three full flower arrangements. Yes, well, we'll see.....It's not till July but I'm also trying to get my act together for a book and that is a LOT of crocheting, designing, pattern writing and testing, blurb writing, photography and heaven knows what else and I've still got nowhere near an actual publishing contract. It's all been slotted in between my full time day job, my crochet teaching and my family life.

I don't help myself either, by going off at tangents on tangents after being inspired by other, non crochet related courses at Denman, such as the doll making which resulted in my attempting to build an amigurami doll of my own. Not looking particularly stylish at present. Watch this space.

Most exciting of all this month has been the publication in Inside Crochet magazine of my Tunisian Cabled Sweater. This affirmation of my identity as a crochet professional serves to spur me on to greater heights and increased professionalism. I am so loving it.