HRYC
Crochet Blanket Addicts (anonymous)
The badge says it all! Join our brand shiny new club!
Crochet Blanket Addicts (Anonymous) is a monthly meet up for those addicted to, struggling with, or desirous of creating a crochet blanket. An oftentimes tedious, yet rewarding task, this is an occupation that needs regular support.
Our resident crochet teacher Sofia will be present for technical, and the group is free to attend. We'll provide tea, coffee and sugary treats to keep your crochet-rate up.
The dates:
Saturday 23 February, 11am - 1pm
Saturday 23 March, 11am - 1pm
Saturday 13 April, 11am - 1pm
Saturday 18 May, 11am - pm
More dates to be confirmed soon.
To secure your spot, you can book in online (I find it's a great way to commit yourself to going. Like booking myself into 6am hot yoga class in advance, it removes the element of choice!), or just turn up on the day.
We'll set up a thread on the Holland Road Yarn Co group forum for cheerleading and moral support, with the odd giveaway and prize for effort, diligence and completed projects. Hooray!
If you can't yet crochet, we recommend you book in for our Beginner Crochet classes, and join the club after you're happily hooking.
Crochet Workshops: all lined up!
It's a real pleasure to have Sofia back to teach crochet! Here's our class line up for the first half of this year:
Amigurumi
Saturday 23 February 2013
1pm - 3.30pm
$30 - includes tea, coffee and treats
Learn the skills to make all the cute (and scary!) Amigurumi creatures you've seen online. You will need to know how to crochet at a beginner level for this class.
- a 3 or 3.5mm crochet hook
- and DK / 8ply yarn in two colours
Beginner Crochet
Saturday 6 and 13 April
1pm - 3.30pm
Learn the basics of crochet during the first session, moving onto tips for working in rounds and reading patterns – you’ll be hooking in no time.
- a 4 or 4.5mm crochet hook
- and DK / 8ply yarn in a light colour.
Next Steps Crochet
Saturday 18 May
1pm - 3.30pm
For those that know how to hold their hook and yarn but would like to move beyond simply edging their knitting. Covering reading patterns and charts, invisible decreases, foundation single crochet and joining squares.
Next Steps Crochet: guest post by Sofia
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!
Getting giddy over crochet
I've never been a lover of crochet. Perhaps because when I grew up there was the same problem with crochet as there was with knitting: epic ugliness.
Lately, though...i'm getting a little obsessed. That doesn't mean i've actually picked up a crochet hook yet, but it's really only a matter of time.
Before I get into sharing a whole load of crochet inspiration, I had better let you know about our crochet classes!
We're lucky to have Sofia back on board with another round of her beginner crochet class - hooray! The next set is Sunday 7 & 14 October from 12.30pm - 3pm. You can book online - just be sure to add the code crochetSHIP at the checkout to remove the shipping component.
For those who have a few crochet skills sorted, we've added a new class: Next Steps. Learn new tricks and techniques to take your crochet further - again, you can book online. Hooray!
Ready to drool over some crochet amazingness? Yeah, me too!
Flowers in the Snow blanket by Solveig Grimstad
Hexagon How-To by Lucy of Attic-24 - I am OBSESSED with this blanket!
Rainbow Ripple Baby Blanket by Celeste Young
African Flower Hexagon (image from Tangled Yarns) by Lounette Fourie and Anita Rossouw
Yep, definitely need to work on my crochet skills!
