Day 235 - Class News Friday!

This morning's lesson was a lot of fun as the buttons came out!

PD is making bunting & bought some ribbon to thread her bunting through, so out cam the button jars, yes there is more than one, and we picked through all the colours available to add to the bunting .....

....we then got chatting about my Jumper & I was explaining that it was an oversized one, so being a good sport she tried it on for me!  Doesn't it look FAB?

And finally - looking for the next Crochet Project for PD to work on, we looked no further than my book, and got down to making a pair of Chunky Warming Socks!

If you would like this pattern to try, then it's available here

UK Version

or here

US Version

This afternoons' lesson with KPK was just as much Crochet Fun!

She's finished her Chunky Cowl with a mobius twist

Although she followed the pattern from the book Crochet Workshop by Erika Knight, I suggested a "join as you go" finish instead of joining with a seam & KPK wanted to edge it with a complimentary colour, so that is exactly what she did!!

See you don't have to follow a pattern to the letter!

We then went on to play with Hoopla Yarn & a 10mm hook which was so different to working with the norm of DK & a 4mm hook

And to finish off this busy day I have made this Fuchsia Square for Day 235 

GAD 143

My apologies if you popped here earlier and found a blank post

I will explain!

After not hearing any news about the house exchange yesterday, we did finally have so great news today!

Yes we have now exchanged contracts and we complete on the 7th June 2012

So 

www.gethookedoncrochet.co.uk

will be moving classes to Dorset 

Hooray!

I can hear the whole of Dorset cheering from here LOL

Despite all this excitement I still managed to concentrate for long enough to make GAD 143

As you can see it's one of my "join the scrap yarns" specials

I will need to use as many PROPER scraps as I can now as I will only end up taking them with me - well I will anyway if the are part of my GAD blanket but it's a better way to travel, don't you think?

So my Crochet Room is currently in the process of being boxed up, although I do have 4 more Crochet Lessons to take, possibly 5, before the big day in 15 days time.

Can you tell I am excited?

Dorset here I come!

Granny A Day 125, socks & New Pupils!

This is the start of my sock

And here it is getting a little more "sock" like

It's the first time I have crocheted a sock and I did have to undo the "ankle" bit as it felt a little tight the first time around, although I did chain the right amount of chains - they were too tight, so I made them a little looser than I normally work

Now for my New Pupils!!

It's always so exciting for me when I get new Crochet Pupils and today I had two in one go!

As you can see here TF is practicing double crochet.  She has crocheted before but always ended up increasing at the start and decreasing at the end, so I showed her how to correct this issue and get a nice straight edge, which she quickly got the hang of

FL was a total beginner - that was until the end of her lesson.  By the end she had mastered the art of a Foundation Chain, Double Crochet & Trebles too!

Here, you can see their Crochet Creations with the stitches we practiced together.

Until the next time I see them, they have homework to do which is Practice, Practice, Practice & I know they will as we all had a great 2 hours Crocheting together.

Granny A Day 125 is a total mish mash of colour combinations - it was literally a quick grab of yarns from my stash and putting this square together as I really wanted to get on with my sock, but I didn't want to make another plain square, like I did yesterday.

And now for my sock

Here it the finished sock

It's lovely to wear

And I am really pleased with how it's turned out.  The best thing is, is that it fits beautifully and feels lovely to wear as the yarn is 75% Bamboo and 25% Nylon so it has a lovely silky feel.

I am now going to start on sock 2 so that I have a matching pair.

Granny A Day 123 - WIP - Crochet Class & more!

 Granny A Day started of with a bit of a yarn scrap calculation error

So I had to start again 

I have better success 2nd time around

And managed to finish one off with yarn scraps but with any further calculation errors

GAD 123

After taking a very good Crochet Class this morning, which involved my "Crochet Cardigan Along" with C, which went really quickly as we sat crocheting and chatting away the whole time - it was really lovely & C even text me afterwards to say 

"Thank you for a lovely 2 hours"

How sweet is that?

I wanted to continue with the cardigan along this afternoon as we have agreed to get to a certain point before her next lesson but I fancied a change from Trebles, so it's always good to have a few projects on the go as you can chop and change around to suit your mood and I always find that if you crochet what YOU want to be working on then you work a lot happier!

So I chose to join a few more motifs on the Summer Top

I pencilled out all the motifs as I went along so I didn't loose my place

There does seem to be a gap in the middle to the left but that can soon be rectified if I make another little motif - but I may not have to do that yet - I will see what it's like when it's finished.

Now - to brighten my day further, one of my other pupils sent me a picture of a blanket that she' made for her sister's sister in law

Isn't it GREAT?

When she came to me for Crochet Lessons, her ambition was to learn how to crochet giant granny squares - that's exactly what I taught her and with 2 lots of 2 hour lessons she's done exactly what she dreamed of doing.

I think it's MARVELLOUS

Well done YOU - you know who you are!

GAD 122 - Crochet Class & a Beaded Bracelet & Baby Blanket

No this is not GAD 122 - this is LW's beaded coaster!  We started this together in class last week and there was a little bit of a cuffufle with how the beads sat, but she got it eventually!

Isn't it lovely?

She also made this great water bottle holder - it's all her own design really as we started the base and some of the upright together in last weeks class, but she just did the rest herself!

She also made this Granny Square - she's going to make some more and join them to make a bag

Now here IS GAD 122 - all made from scraps of yarn

And joined to GAD 121 which is now taking a better shape 

The baby blanket is taking shape - I try to add a row or two every day 

And after my Crochet Lesson today, I decided to make Turkish Loveknot Bracelet

Which was a little fiddly at first, as this was my very first attempt at making one, but I got the hang of it in the end and it's very colourful to wear

The only thing that I didn't get was the macrame fastening which you had to go to YouTube to follow - there was no audio with the video, apart from a very annoying TV noise in the background and some man saying "You're 1 minute 30 seconds in" 

i found it very hard to follow and even though I watched the video several times I couldn't get the hang of it and there was no information on how to finish it off (fasten off) so I gave up & had to find another video to follow.

In the end I frogged the mess that I made and made another macrame fastening which looks more professional & one that I am pleased with

Granny A Day 121 & Crochet Class News!

My "Saturday Lady" came for a Crochet Lesson today.  She has a weeks holiday, so no I haven't gone mad as I know it's Monday!!

She invested, very wisely, in the 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws & Afghans Book by Jan Eaton (click HERE if you want to get your copy) which is a book that I have myself and is an investment as you can use it over and over for all sorts of projects.

Anyway, she came in with a multitude of fantastically Crocheted squares

Here are just a few

And one of the things we covered in her lesson was joining with Double Crochet.

We also followed the square no. 22 "St Petersburg" which covers fptr & bptr

Front Post Treble & Back Post Trebles

This is my one, which I have made into GAD 121

OK, OK so I have cheated a little bit today, but 

I thought it would be a shame to frog it. I know that the sides look a little wonky at the moment but they will soon straighten out once other squares are joined.

We also covered Square 38 "Dahlia" which uses Popcorn Stitches

+

We also went over the "ripples" cushion in another favourite book of mine

Cute & Easy Crochet - Nikki Trench

As she was having problems following the pattern.  It was a little strange, as she's already made two, yes TWO of these cushion covers before.  It was just the way the pattern was written that was stumping her this time!!

I must agree that the way the pattern is written in Black & White is a little questionable and in my opinion and that of "Saturday Lady's" can be written in a more self explanatory way.

So we covered all the "want to's" on her list

Joining Squares

Popcorns

FPTR, BPTR

Ripples Cushion 

Blocking Squares

and we even went through

How to add a zip to a cover instead of closing the cushion inner inside

All over a nice cup of coffee too

Which was a great achievement in 2 hours!

I am really pleased with how the lesson went & I am sure that my pupil was too.

It's a real thrill for me when pupils who started as Crochet Beginners, slowly climb the Crochet Ladder and start to work on more advanced stitches and techniques.

*I am smiling*

Day #42 + Crochet Class + 2 new projects + Bunting

Wow I have lots to tell you today!

First of all - Day #42 of Granny A Day

I made this before my class today and although it looks small, it will be ok once there are more squares surrounding it

Then I had time to make a decision

Horizontal 

or Vertical

??????

I went for Horizontal and finally finished off my heart bunting

It's now hanging in my hallway

And looks lovely

I simply made a long chain and slip stitched the hearts in 

As I went along!

 Now for my excitement of the day!!

Look at this FAB blanket

This is made by one of my Pupils "JC"

She was inspired by a pattern from Attic 24 which I helped her to read back in December

Click HERE

to read all about how it started

All "JC" has to do now is work the edge - she already has all the wool - she just had to decided on the actual finish - Straight or Fancy?  She's gone for Straight with I totally agree with as you don't want to distract from the beauty of the blanket and all the hard work and many hours of crocheting that has gone into it.

Believe it or not "JC" is standing behind that blanket holding it up for me to photograph!!

Next

The photo to the top is the start of a Glasses Case and the one underneath that is the start of a Bag.

Both patterns were brought in by "JC" as she was stumped on the translation and needed my help to get both projects going.

Glasses Case 

This is how the pattern read:

Working in remaining loops of original chain

 If it had read "Work the next set of stitches into the back of the stitches of the foundation chain, then "JC" would have worked it out for herself!

Bag

A similar thing happened with the Bag pattern

on the back loop of the ch

Again if it had said Foundation chain then it might have clicked for "JC" 

"JC" did very very well today - it's a change from making her Granny Blanket and working in a chunky wool too - I can't wait to see the finished projects next week!

I am going to continue to work both patterns now that I have started them.  I could do with a new Glasses Case anyway and the bag will work up very quickly as it's worked with a Chunky Wool.

Day #40 and TWO Crochet Classes later....

I was in a bit of a rush this morning, knowing that I have 2 crochet classes of 2 hours each to take today, to get my Granny Square made for Day 40, but I had half an hour, so I got started in shades of blue....

It was only after I had fastened it off, that I realised, in my haste, that I had joined it back to front...

 

So I had to "frog" the last row and join it the right way round - but all was done in the nick of time.

My pupil #1 arrived and showed me her homework, which was the start of a Teddy Bear which we started together in her last lesson.  The head was complete with eyes, and she had made a start on the body, so she hasn't got long to finish it off.  I asked her what she wanted to do next and to my delight, she said 

"Granny Squares"

We did make Granny Squares in her first few lessons, but none since then.  All her crochet work has been mainly in DC, so Granny's are the perfect way to perfect trebles and make a blanket at the same time.

So we started on a Granny Square and even perfected colour changes

And after colour changes I let her practice on my Granny A Day Blanket using the Join A You Go method.  She picked this up really quickly and I was very pleased with her ability to learn this so quickly, as others haven't!

Pupil #2 arrived this afternoon and she'd travelled for 2 hours to get to me!  She said that she had looked at other teachers, closer to home, but she liked my website and the fact that I would teach a pupil what they wanted to learn e.g. a scarf etc. and not a set programme, so that's why she came to me!

She was thrilled once she had mastered the art of a Foundation Chain.

She had been trying to teach herself from You Tube, but that wasn't working and she was getting a combo of large chains and tighter small ones, so this was a great achievement.

After practising a few SC's just so that she knew how to do them and what they are used for, we went on to DC's and 

She made this!  

Her homework is a bookmark and she has promised to practice before coming back to the lesson that she has booked in for next week.  

I am really looking forward to teaching her HTR's and TR's as she will need to learn TR's for a scarf pattern that she brought in.  I am sure that she will have made a start on that during next weeks' lesson.

Needless to say that after 2, 2 hour lessons, I am knackered but exhilarated at the same time!

I have taught one person the basics of Crochet and the other has progressed to a new project and one that she wants to work on!

CROCHET is FAB