The first workshops of 2016 were today: we started in the morning with Beginner Crochet, learning how to make granny squares, and spent the afternoon making lampshades.

The trickiest part of the beginner crochet workshop is the beginning as the learners wrestle with making their chain ring and getting the square started. Once we'd overcome that challenge everyone made a fantastic granny square and took their hooks home to carry on practising.

The granny square beginner crochet workshop in action!

In the lampshade making workshop, we had two participants with fabric of completely opposite qualities: one person had brought a heavy-weight upholstery fabric and the other had brought a light-weight (and very beautiful) silk. Each fabric presented its own challenges but the finished lampshades looked really professional - see picture below.