catch up

An insanely busy few months has meant that recently I have been rather neglecting the blog I am afraid, so sorry! I have been trying to cater for all you lovely folk who want to learn how to knit and crochet, and so have been running round London teaching with my friend and co-crochet obsessive ChainCreative. Alone we are just two mad yarn freaks but together we are the dynamic duo Make Do Mend, so do let us know if there is anything you wish to learn!

All this means that I have forgotten to tell you about the interviews with li'l ol' me in a few craft mags around and about and a few patterns in Yarn Forward which have come out recently. So there you are, I was in Yarn Forward a couple of times and in a Baby Knits Craft special of Lets Get Crafting and with an exciting new collaboration with Yarn Forward coming in the next few issues, you may be fed up of me soon! More of that very soon.

Therefore, I shall keep it short and just let you know that I am off running round London Teaching improvers knitting classes this weekend, firstly at High Tea of Highgate on Saturday morning, then at City Lit college on Sunday, which is a three week course. Let's hope the weather stays nice as I love walking round Covent Garden on my lunchbreak - spending my wages as fast as I can earn them!

Oh, and I shall be in Bethnal Green on Monday teaching some crocheters to make granny square motifs, not just square onesbut also granny circle, triangles and rectangles! Pop by if you fancy making yourself one of these Paul Smith inspired cowls, which is one of my latest projects. Crochet seems to be overtaking the knitting recently, I am also working on a crocheted cushion, a bag and a hairpin lace top - everyone is going mad for crochet! If you don't yet know how to do it, now is the time to give it a try!

knitting classes

Below are some of my upcoming beginners knitting classes and craft workshops in London, the South East and the rest of the world!


Hand knitting for improvers April/May 2010
City Lit College

Textiles Jewellery - Innovative Knit and Yarn techniques, 30th April - 2nd May 2010
West Dean College, Sussex

Knitting classes in the South of France! Next class will be in May 2010 and will be designing your own knitting. Contact Les Soeurs Anglaises for details

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you wish to arrange your own bespoke knitting, crochet or craft classes in London.

If you want to book classes for groups, please check out my alter ego, Make.Do.Mend

city lit knit

I finished what I thought was a very successful class at the City Lit College in Covent Garden last week. It was an improvers knitting class, but most of my learners were more advanced than improvers, so we ended up progressing onto designing patterns, which was fun, if stressful! (I thought designing one pattern at a time was hard...try helping with six at once!)

The talented knitters on the class let their creativity fly really quickly and produced some very pretty samples - I wish I had taken some more pictures. I think the three lots of five hour sessions just allowed them to sit and only concentrate on knitting, which I know it is really hard to do at home in between work and when the ironing and housework are calling you. I can't wait to see the results of the very imaginative first designs, I have set up a ravelry group for this very reason and hope to see some finished products soon.

This slightly creepy but fab piece was knitted not in the class, but by one of the students who is also a sculptor and attends Camberwell college of art, I am hoping to get down to see her show later this month. This piece is a latex cast of her body which she has cut up and knitted - weirdly wonderful!

City Lit is offers a great variety of courses, academic and recreational, get over there and have a look, you may find something you really want to try. I am leading a course in Hairpin Lace in July, with more beginners, experimental and improver knitting classes in the next academic year. After that I shall be planning more different classes, so if you have any ideas of something you may want to come along to, let me know. I have already had requests for recycling and customising classes, as well as a pure designing patterns class, so keep them coming!