Day 70, Crochet Workshops, The BBC & more!

After my rant yesterday, I had the following responses on Twitter....

@CrochetAli well said,I have a USA/UK conversion table under my bookmarks as always need it, will dismissed a pattern if in USA sometimes!

@CrochetAli well done for sticking to your guns!!

@CrochetAli completely agree with your rant! Love that you promote UK terminology. Hope you had a good day :)

@CrochetAli I always strongly advise anyone i teach to crochet to avoid american books at least untill they are fully aware of english terms

   And then whilst watching "Call the Midwife" on BBC1 they were talking about KNITTING squares for a blanket, however the blanket miraculously turned into a very nice CROCHET blanket in the end and at one point the blond nurse was knitting squares whilst balancing crochet squares on her knee!  I have tweeted the BBC:

 Dear @BBC1 in #callthemidwifethey were knitting blanket squares that turned into a #crochet blanket. How is that possible? #mystery

  

but as yet there is no response, despite several re tweets from fellow eagle eyed TV viewers & crocheters/knitters alike.

I took a Crochet Workshop today. It was the last of the extra 3 weeks after a 4 week workshop & it was very sad to see the ladies go.  Before they went I took lots of pictures of what they have made.......

 These squares were made by "P" who had trouble understanding a Granny Square in her 3rd lesson

And now she's making FAB rectangular Granny's

For Baby's Pram Blankets!

"R" made these Granny Squares

Double Crocheted them together

And lined the Project bag after attaching Curtain Ring Handles

She also made this sock (1 of 2) for her Grand Daughter after a little help with following a pattern!

And here they both are enjoying their last workshop

Practicing things in their "wishlist"

They have both said that they will come again, possibly for another  workshop or maybe just for a few One 2 One classes or even to my Crochet Clinic which I intend to hold over the Summer Holi

days.

Do you like my Crochet Clinic Logo??

A very talented lady on Twitter "swapped" getting this design together for me in exchange for a free Course 1 of my eLearning Crochet Course 

A great swap as I couldn't have made that fantastic artwork myself!!  Not only that but she is now learning to Crochet!

And finally - After all the excitement I have had today, including try to keep up with a Crochet Submission Deadline, this is the square for day 70

 

Day 69 - Mothering Sunday

In the last few weeks, I have turned down several offers of seemingly "easy money" for me personally, just by becoming an affiliate to promote Crochet, by simply mentioning these Crochet Companies or Bloggers on my blog & being paid a commission to do so.

This may come as a surprise to you.  Why is she, Ali, turning down money to promote Crochet?

Yes it's strange indeed, but there is a very good reason.

This reason is that the Companies & Bloggers in question only have Crochet Patterns in US Crochet terminology.

As you may have gathered in recent posts, I am trying my hardest to PROMOTE the fact that here in the UK we have 

OUR OWN CROCHET TERMINOLOGY

and it would be wrong for me to direct you to a blog or a company page that has patterns written in US Crochet Terminology,

wouldn't it??

YES!!!!

I am going to STICK with Crochet written in UK Crochet Terminology & that is that!

That's one of the reasons that I buy Inside Crochet Magazine.  It's PRINTED in the UK, PUBLISHED in the UK, they use UK Crochet Designers, however, even the US crochet designers they use e.g. Rohn Strong that they use have to write their patterns in UK Crochet Terminology (see pg. 70 of Inside Crochet Magazine Issue 39 - March 2013 for Rohn's fab cushion cover pattern)

RANT OVER 

Happy Mothers Day to all you Crochet Mums out there and NON Crochet Mums too!

I have made this Square for the Twitter Blanket today

 It looks Grey in the photo but it's a very soft beige

I am keeping up with twitter crochet items and I am pleased to tell you that there's a lot of crochet going on out there!

Oh and finally.....

If you want a snippet of my "Learn to Crochet in UK Crochet Terminology" then click here
http://youtu.be/71F4AZLrPWM
 

If you want the full version then go to the Video Tab above and follow the link!!

Day 52 + UK Crochet

 I came across this beautifully written Guest Blog  on Miss Beartrix Blog by @claireabellemakes on twitter, who very kindly mentions my You Tube videos.

http://miss-beatrix.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/guest-post-by-claireabellemakes-getting.html

As you are probably aware by now, I am trying as hard as I can to promote UK Crochet and UK Crochet patterns written by UK pattern writers & designers in UK Crochet terms.

I keep on stumbling across UK crocheters who crochet in US terms and whilst there is nothing wrong with that I have to ask WHY?

WHY?  Because we have a perfectly good and easy to understand UK Crochet system to embrace and share with one another.

My You Tube videos are all in UK Crochet Terms and I have been told that it's "refreshing" and "a nice change" to hear a "British Voice" explaining the stitches in UK Crochet, rather than having to sit, watch, try out the stitches AND translate from US to UK & my eLearning Crochet Course in UK terminology https://www.coursecraft.net/courses/z9NcS, are all in UK Crochet terms, so you don't have to translate & it's one less job for you to do.

For example - there are loads of "crafting" magazines out there - you pick them up because they look pretty and appealing on the newsagents shelf, and  you see CROCHET PATTERN emblazoned on the front, so you simply must have it, go to the till, fork out £5 & take it home.  Once home, you sit there smuggly after making a nice hot drink, go to open mag, find the page the crochet pattern is on and it's like this great big cloud has just hovered over your head and is about to burst lots of rain onto your newly washed & styled hair - yes, you've guessed it - the pattern is written in US crochet terms.  This has happened to me - has it happened to you?  Well actually it USED to happen to me because I stopped buying magazines that I didn't know & started to buy (a few years ago now) Inside Crochet magazine which is not only packed with fantastic inspiration and tantalizingly colourful crochet works of art for you to either drool over or make, but it's written totally in UK Crochet Terms! YARNTASTIC.

All I am trying to say here is that we have UK Crochet so USE it!!

That's another reason for my eLearning course.  With all this confusion being shared with me, I had to try to do something about it, hence the eLearning course, which is getting more and more popular, day by day.

And in other news.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21441298.

Thanks to Michael who chats with me on Twitter & Google+ I have this to share with you....

Did you know there is a crochet connection to narrow boats? Traditionally they had crocheted doilies to act as curtains on the circular portholes

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43498458@N02/sets/72157623571526582/ 

I have a new Crochet Pupil today - she told me that she was taught to crochet over 30 years ago & it was a pleasure to teach her - it's like riding a bike you see, once you learn you NEVER forget.  She just needed reminding of a few things!! We covered the basics, foundation chain, dc, htr, tr's and then went on to making Granny Squares (following a pattern) and colour changes & even join as you go! She did fantastically well and it was great for me to teach someone so keen!

 ASAD 52

 Need I say more?