Crochet! Wonderful Crochet!

Over the past 3 Sundays I was lucky to be part of a fabulous beginners crochet class at Loop.

I did other classes at Loop, improvers knitting, experimental knitting and hand felting, which were all great, mainly because I wasn't a complete novice, and I knew what I was doing. This time it was a beginners course and that made me feel a bit apprehensive - will I be able to "get it"? will I be able to keep up? Well, I shouldn't have feared at all.

First thing to say is that our little group got on very well and I think the biggest praise goes to the wonderful teacher Bee Clinch, who has a great personality and the style of teaching everyone who gets a chance should experience. Oozing crochet enthusiasm, putting us all at ease and making it all look like a piece of cake. Speaking of cakes... we had delicious, most unusual red velvet cupcakes, made for us by Bee's former crochet student.

We started from scratch, all very serious, very focused and very stiff. A cup of EarlGrey and a couple of buscuits later we relaxed and I stopped getting a cramp in my right hand. Although an absolute beginner myself I was really chuffed to be able to produce a few things at the end of the course. We did lovely corsages at our last class and as soon as they are good enough for public viewing I will put a couple up for everyone to see.

Of course I wouldn't be myself if I didn't think I could run before I could walk, so I decided, after the FIRST class, to indulge my love of mohair and combine it with my newly discovered love of a "double treble". I should have known better! I do know better! Mohair is a "one way ticket". Once you've started there's no way you'll be able to frog it, so I just carried on. By the end of second class and a bit of rough practice I knew how to keep my work straight and I managed to rescue my not so straight scarf. A bit of sweet edging all round and voila... one very original scarf....

I felt a bit sad that the classes were coming to an end, but I have to say that thanks to Bee I am hooked on the "hook" and I will carry on in hope that my next crochet creation won't have to be born out of a bit of a "cock-up".

It wasn't a sad good-bye.

You can see us here (Bee first on the left) at the end of our last class all smiles and confidence that now the basics have been tamed things will just keep getting better and better and better...

I'm hoping to stay in touch with the girls, so if you're one of our bunch and you're reading this let me know what you think. Maybe we'll meet again at the improvers class in October.