Teaching knitting and crochet at The Makery

It’s about a year since I began teaching at The Makery in Bath.

A lot has changed in a year.

I started there as a tutor for fun sewing classes, mostly for hen parties.

I never graduated to leading the nipple tassel class (secretly relieved about that one..), but after many a Saturday afternoon keeping a watchful eye on ladies enjoying some Bucks Fizz and operating sewing machines (never simultaneously, I promise!) I can make a saucy garter in about 5 minutes.

Should the need arise.

In my time at The Makery I’ve also taught a lot of jewellery classes, and sent lots of hens on their way with divine fascinators to wear on the bride’s big day.

These days, though, I mostly teach knitting and crochet. I do love sewing. But it’s sticks and string that I feel the most comfortable with.

My classes cover the basics of knitting and crochet, and these are the most popular. But I also run knitting finishing techniques classes, which are great fun, and really collaborative.

If you’d like to find out more about all the amazing classes on offer from all the other delightful tutors at The Makery, do check out the full Makery workshop calendar here.

Toothpaste tee shirt necklace tutorial

I’ve wanted to make a tee shirt necklace for ages, but I just couldn’t find the right tee shirt. I wanted something patterned, but most tee shirts are printed lightly, rather than having intergral colour. So the pattern doesn’t show on the back, which ends up being the ‘right side’ when you cut and stretch jersey, because the edges roll.
Then, yesterday, I stumbled across this new M&S nautical job in our local charity shop for £2.95. Now that’s my kind of price.

So I…

Cut the bottom hem off and made that into a wristband and…

Cut the rest of the top up into loops.

Got into a bit of a tangle here…

Untangled that.

Stretched each loop as much as possible and lined them up in order of size, leaving one spare, which I cut at one end to form a single length of fabric.

 

Held the two ends of the loops together and tied the spare length around them in them in a figure 8. (slightly dodgy pic – wasn’t really concentrating!)

Chopped the cap sleeves of the top, and some of the green binding, and used these to cover over the join.

Hey presto!

It sort of looks like a tube of toothpaste, gone mad. But I quite like that.

Ric rac flower number 3

OK, they were just too lovely. It’s all very well making cute stuff for your toddler, but I wanted a ric rac flower too…

This one took  very little time, as I’ve got the ric rac flower technique down now. I’m going to make one to go on my Joan dress too. Yay!

Teaching at Wool Bath

Tomorrow I’m teaching a learning to knit workshop at Wool Bath. I popped in today to see the lovely owner, Laura, and the room was looking great. We had a good chat about the ideal biccies for the group – let’s hope we got it right!

I’ve been teaching at The Makery for some time now and also have a series of workshops lined up for Get Knitted, but this is my first time working at this new venture, right in the heart of oh-so-pretty Bath.

So here’s what we’ll be making!

Beginners knitting workshop at Wool Bath

(c) Wool Bath

This Saturday I’ll be teaching my first workshop at Wool Bath.

I’m very excited to be involved in this new venture. The owner Laura is absolutely lovely and the shop is DIVINE – full of gorgeous yarns and beautifully laid out.

I’ll be working with a group of absolute beginners who’ve never knitted before. This is one of my favourite types of class, as it gives me a chance to really inspire people and help them realise they can do something perhaps they didn’t feel very confident about.

My design for the class is a necklace of knitted beads. It sounds quirky, but it’s a great project for teaching as it means multiple casting on and off, which is the bit people always forget how to do.

I can’t wait! Pictures very soon.