Next Steps Crochet: guest post by Sofia
Thanks to Sofia i've caught the crochet bug well and good - as have lots of our eager crochet learners. Whether you've learned the basics with us, or would like to add to your skills, the Next Steps class is the way to go. And it's this Saturday!
Take it away, Sofia!
There have been several very successful 'absolute beginners' crochet classes held at HRYC now and I've loved how enthused almost every one of the newbie crocheters have got about the craft. One recent comment was 'if I'd learnt to crochet before knitting I can see I might not have learnt to knit'. I doubt that's really true though. I can now knit too, I've not knitted a lot, but I can do it and I intend to do more of it in future even though crochet is my first love. Trouble with crochet is, you have to learn much of the more advanced stuff by yourself, there's not many crochet classes beyond the beginner level but there are loads of techniques that can move crochet beyond the granny square and several techniques that I wish I'd been able to learn from someone in person. So I'm sharing my new found knowledge in a 'next steps' class suitable for those that can already crochet a little.
One of the 'must know' techniques we'll cover is a more advanced method of chaining called the foundation single crochet, it's much stretchier and so it's ideal for clothing, plus it gets rid of that frustrating 'first row' experience. Reading charts is another technique many people have mentioned they'd like to learn. There are some gorgeous patterns which make a whole lot more sense when charted thats for sure! Best tip I can give you is this; read your chart anti-clockwise or from right to left as that's how we create our 'fabric'. We'll also cover a few different methods for joining squares and something called an invisible decrease so hopefully there's a little bit of something interesting in there for a few of you.
I must admit, I'm really looking forward to it, I'm hopeful I might pick up a tip or two from those that come along as well!
Take it away, Sofia!
There have been several very successful 'absolute beginners' crochet classes held at HRYC now and I've loved how enthused almost every one of the newbie crocheters have got about the craft. One recent comment was 'if I'd learnt to crochet before knitting I can see I might not have learnt to knit'. I doubt that's really true though. I can now knit too, I've not knitted a lot, but I can do it and I intend to do more of it in future even though crochet is my first love. Trouble with crochet is, you have to learn much of the more advanced stuff by yourself, there's not many crochet classes beyond the beginner level but there are loads of techniques that can move crochet beyond the granny square and several techniques that I wish I'd been able to learn from someone in person. So I'm sharing my new found knowledge in a 'next steps' class suitable for those that can already crochet a little.
One of the 'must know' techniques we'll cover is a more advanced method of chaining called the foundation single crochet, it's much stretchier and so it's ideal for clothing, plus it gets rid of that frustrating 'first row' experience. Reading charts is another technique many people have mentioned they'd like to learn. There are some gorgeous patterns which make a whole lot more sense when charted thats for sure! Best tip I can give you is this; read your chart anti-clockwise or from right to left as that's how we create our 'fabric'. We'll also cover a few different methods for joining squares and something called an invisible decrease so hopefully there's a little bit of something interesting in there for a few of you.
I must admit, I'm really looking forward to it, I'm hopeful I might pick up a tip or two from those that come along as well!
