Tunisian crochet workshop

It was our first ever Tunisian crochet workshop on Saturday.  Tunisian crochet is almost a cross between knitting and crochet, is done using a very long hook that looks like a knitting needle, and gives a very dense finished fabric.  You can make some lovely effects using different colours, and there are a host of different stitches that give different textures to your work.  I really enjoyed it, so much so that I forgot to take a picture of the class, so I've had to post pictures of my crochet instead!

Intermediate crochet - reading patterns & charts, more advanced stitches

After a week's break, we were back today with a 4 hour crochet workshop that covered reading patterns & charts, and some more advanced stitches such as bobbles, popcorns and ribs.  We also looked at the different parts of the stitch to work into.
 

My magnificent crochet efforts!  Nothing that a bit of blocking won't sort out...

Zentangle

This weekend we had the Introduction to Zentangle workshop.   Images of the fabulous pieces of art produced by the ladies doing the workshop are below.

Willow trays

We ran two workshops to make a willow tray last weekend.  The tray is based on the traditional method for making a basket called the 'stake and strand' method.  In order to finish it in a day, we made trays (so low sides) rather than baskets, but the method for a basket would have been identical, it would just have been necessary to keep weaving higher sides!  There was a variety of types of willow available to use which resulted in different coloured stripes in the trays, which was very effective.  There's a few images from the two workshops below.

Beginner Crochet Granny Squares

New academic year, new resolution to post every workshop that runs!  Today's Beginner Crochet workshop was the first session after the summer holidays, and it was great to be back with four ladies, all of whom made their first ever granny square successfully.  They've all taken their yarn and hooks home with them so hopefully they'll carry on and have a lifetime of enjoyment from the lovely craft of crochet!

Today's beginner crochet workshop

Mosaics

So, after a long break, I'm going to try to post pictures of each workshop that runs at MakeCreateCraft, starting with Make a Mosaic which was on Saturday 18th March.  We had a group of 6 people making mosaics, and there were some new shapes to work with - the new pigeon/dove proved popular, with two people deciding to work with that.  Pictures of the results are below.  During the workshop we also discussed how much interest there would be in a new, longer, more advanced workshop where you'd get to design and make your own plaque to go outside - either a door number/name or a design to go outside in the garden.  There seemed to be a reasonable level of interest in this so we will look to run one of these in 2018 (sadly no Saturdays available before then!).

The workshop in action!

The six finished mosaics (before grouting).

Willow Chickens

Saturday 11th June saw the first Make Your Own Willow Chicken workshop.  This was a full day workshop to make a more-or-less life size model of a bird of your choice.  We had chickens, pheasants and a peahen made by the end of the session.

Willow chickens and a peahen (the peahen is called Pat and is on the left!)

Willow chickens and pheasants

The workshop in action early on during the day

Crochet, Knitting & Macrame

There's been a bit of a break since I last wrote a blog post (basically, the whole of April and May!) so there's been several workshops since then.  We started April with a Get to Know Your Sewing Machine workshop, then moved onto Beginner Knitting, Macrame and Beginner Crochet.  In between times I hosted an afternoon of craft demonstrations, which was a joint event with Surrey Jewellery School and attended by about 40 people.  I've posted a few pictures below to give you an idea of what went on at the workshops and the event.