Skip to main content

Who am I?




Five years ago (or so) I picked up a crochet hook for the very first time - with some trepidation, I might add. I had been knitting for a while and was OK at that. Crochet just appealed to me somehow. It seemed easier, more compact and prettier. Those cute little flowers and amigurumi animals got me all excited and I had to have a go.

That very first YouTube video was for an amiguruni ball - nothing more than single crochet and few increases and decreases. But within minutes, the crochet hook was settled in my hands and to my amazement, something resembling a ball was emerging. Turned out I could do it and I didn't need anyone to teach me. Except that lovely YouTube lady...

Five years on, the knitting needles are in the bottom of the wicker basket and the crochet hooks are having pride of place right at the top. Not only is my home adorned with blankets, cushions, coasters and trivets - it is over run with cotton galore - in so many gorgeous shades.

Five years on and I am teaching crochet to unsuspecting students who at some time in their lives have thought to themselves "If only I could crochet". Well, you know what, you can!

I specialise in teaching beginners and in the last two years, I have come across only a handful of people who have struggled with crochet to the extent that they gave up. Usually, the desire to succeed is enough. With time, anything can become second nature.

I teach sporadically (this isn't my career) so the rest of the time, I am sat in my front room banging out web copy on my computer. I am that person who ghost writes other people's blogs, encourages you to buy products you probably don't want and who makes websites sound pretty much awesome. I am a copywriter and run my own freelance business. I have a couple of lovely ladies who write for me and I have the pleasure of working from home and setting my own hours. More time for crochet...

You will notice that I am pretty much as far from the chintzy crochet brigade as you can get. My crochet is bold and exciting, my baking skills are dismal and I can work in a pigsty and never really notice. I am married and I have kids, but I am far from the perfect wife. But I love to create lovely things for my friends and family and always have time for picking up a crochet hook.

This blog is how I will be advertising my crochet classes here in Basingstoke, Hampshire and showing off my creations. I can even make something for you, if you like.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Love Heart pattern and magic circle tutorial

So - we all know it is Valentines day coming up and coincidently, I am teaching a crochet class this week. In that lovely harmonious way, I can marry up my class with my love of all things cute and help my beginners to make some pretty little crocheted love hearts. I have created a tutorial for them, with some photos included which I will post up here for all to see. The main focus of this is to teach the magic circle (the way I do it, anyway) - but it is also a great way to practise some basic stitches and create something really cute. The class is actually a freebee for a group of friends and is a great way for me to get back into teaching crochet as I haven't done any for a good six months (events conspired and all that...). There will be six ladies attending and I expect that more cups of tea will be drunk than love hearts made! Take a look at the tutorial and pattern here: Tiny Valentines Hearts (using a magic circle) Make a magic circle: Wrap the wool arou...

Sixties Ripple Blanket

Just a sneak preview of the ripple blanket I am working on right now. In fact the few rows you can see are what I achieved over the last weekend - now there is even more. It uses the basic ripple pattern from Attic24 and the yarn is the Stylecraft Special DK I bought last week . I have limited myself to just using the green, orange and brown as wider stripes, and each of these is separated by a cream stripe. This colour combo gives it a lovely sixties vibe. I used 227 stitches on my chain which included the +3 for the turning chain. My hook is a 3.5mm and is giving me a slightly firmer stitch which in this case is a good thing. My tension can be a bit loose sometimes. My hope is that this will fit nicely on our double bed or be the perfect cuddle on the sofa blanket. In any case, this is a long term project, because I suspect it will take me months!! Also poking out from my somewhat over-burdened yarn basket is my completed granny square cushion co...

Have Sunday mornings ever looked so nice?

Woke up on Sunday morning, nice and early, to bright sunshine. Not a regular occurrence in the UK, so worth making the most of. Made myself a lovely cup of tea, served in my 750ml floral cup and got out my latest project: a cushion cover of odds and ends made into solid granny squares. I spent 2 hours soaking up the sun, making a huge number of little squares that will be joined together using the join-as-you-go method with red wool. As you can see from my "into the sun" shot - it was warm - beautifully warm. Blissful in fact. The whole family stayed in bed, while I appreciated our newly cleaned garden. So the blissful bit might have come from being alone. Sometimes you just need it...alone with nothing but your thoughts and a crochet hook. I thought I deserved a break after spending 4 hours on Saturday making the garden look like this. Oh my aching back!