Crochet Jewellery Workshop 2009

About to begin.

The first of the workshops for 2009 kicked off on Saturday. The students that came were the bravest of guinea pigs for this new class and they certainly had quite a work schedule to face. Whether to sit in the garden room or out in the rose-filled garden!! Whether to keep the sunglasses on or if the sweater was redundant!

Where's that stitch? Preparing the motif prior to starching.

Then it was down to the real deal of the start of the journey of enlightenment with some good old crochet. A simple motif in crochet thread and fine hook. Alot of crochet students are unfamiliar with this more rarified medium so it's an exercise in itself to get your eyes focused on the tiny stitches. How did people cope before the days of chunky and aran crochet!?
Is it time for lunch yet?!!

Motifs completed, we starched and left them to dry before breaking for lunch. I'm a pretty hard task-master and hate to see people enjoying themselves so after about, ooo, well, an hour we turned our attention to bead crochet. The temperature began to rise and that wasn't because we were sitting in the garden. This did test the skills and needs to have the patience to do and then re-do those opening rows. The results are there for all those who persevere and then you're off! I used patterns from Need for Beads with the Bead Crochet Primer produced by Leopold McKenzie. Lots of super design ideas sprang from this part and I hope to post the outcome later.

Keep your yarn from twisting! Beading tips for you!

The last part of the puzzle (and I use that word with a reason!!) was the wire crochet project courtesy of Yael Falk of Yoola Designs. We used her patterns for the Glamorous Bracelet and the Sunflower Earrings. The method is more like knitting with a crochet hook so did give my crochet gals something to think about.

A break for cupcakes courtesy of Me Ling. They were YUMMY!

The day was drawing to a close and there was some tired folk who scrambled onto the train. But these people are crochet heroes and the hooks continued to work after the sun set and results of their work continue to flow in.

Wire crochet tube from Me Ling

I hope they would agree with me that it was very successful launch of our year of workshops.

I think this testimonial from Kate might sum it up:

"I always love coming to the crochet days, it's such an oasis of calm and so nice to be with other obsessive crocheters/knitters. "