Saturday 8 May 2010

knitting and crochet classes in london and the south east




This is the latest list of knitting and crochet classes I shall be teaching in 2010:

Project Crochet; Chevron Pillow, an intermediate class run as my alter-ego, Make Do Mend, where we shall be supplying all materials needed to complete a pretty zig-zag patterned blanket as we hold your hand through the first steps of the advanced stitches. Each project we make throughout the series will increase in difficulty and be varied enough to hold your attention. Other planned projects include vintage style bags, flowers and simple first garments. 23rd May, Kingly Court, London.

Crochet; The Basics, a taster day at West Dean College, Sussex, 13th July

Hand Knitting; The Basics, a taster day at West Dean College, Sussex, 14th July

Crochet for Beginners at City Lit college, Covent Garden, weekday evenings, 28th-30th July

There are also quite a few interesting classes in the pipeline for fairs and festivals this summer and autumn, which I am excited about, so I will let you know when these are confirmed.

Tuesday 4 May 2010

spring into knitting


Another incredibly busy few weeks has seen me teaching knitting all over the place. This bank holiday weekend brought me to my favourite place of all; West Dean College in Sussex and it just so happened to be my favourite time of year to visit too; the lambs were gambolling all over the front fields, ducklings paddled in the pond and spring flowers bloomed everywhere. The food was divine as usual, using all the local spring produce and of course, as with any time of the year, the company was excellent.

I had a rather more art based collective of students than usual, which led to an interesting, fun and inspirational weekend, fuelled by very different creative personalities. We also had a Kiwi taking a stop gap travelling the world and an Oz based Brit, making us a very cosmopolitan group, which also added interest to the colours chosen, as the ladies who saw the sun a little more often were more daring in their palettes than those of us more used to wet, grey days!
Most of the experimental pieces made at the weekend looked like they should have been at the bottom of the sea, as part of some great, vibrantly coloured coral reef - perhaps it was the antipodean influence. Whatever it was, it made a typically grey bank holiday weekend much brighter and the oddly shaped jewels, beads, flowers and art pieces all served to inspire and intrigue.
This weekend, there were two other jewellery craft courses occuring at the same time as mine, a felt making workshop run by Heather Belcher and a polymer clay workshop with Carol Blackburn. Both looked like great fun and I always enjoy watching Heather's industrial carder at work. She also had fabulous colours on display in her unspun wool hanks, it seems that, just like me, she cannot resist a rainbow! I wish we had all realised beforehand we were all doing jewellery at the same time as our students could have bartered over each others colourful and unusual beads, creating a truly unique necklace out of it.
Next time at West Dean, after my taster days teaching beginners knitting and beginners crochet, I shall be doing a vintage fashion and knitting patterns inspired course. Keep an eye out for more details soon.