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Posted by Mary on April 7, 2008, 9:59 am
Last week I taught my niece and her 6 year old daughter to crochet,
and it appears that they are going to enjoy it! My niece had been
told by a Colorado yarn shop that they had to sign up for classes and
purchase tools and yarn there, which was going to be about $200 for
them, not including lots of driving to and from Denver from their
ranch for classes every Saturday, so I told them to forget it and wait
until spring break when I could teach them at home. I made tote bags
for each and then rummaged through my embarassingly large collection
of tools and yarns, so each one got her own tote bag, little plastic
container for tools, 3 mid-size crochet hooks, scissors, and pair of
yarn needles, plus a couple of how-to books with good pictures and a
large sack of miscellaneous balls of worsted weight acrylic yarn in
various colors that I had tucked away from years of making afghans.
They caught on quickly, and made sample swatches for practice, and
then branched out into a double-sided potholder and hair scrunchies.
My niece wants to make an afghan, and her daughter wants to make one
for her doll's bed, so I think they are on their way!
I get really irritated when yarn shops, et al., tell people they can't
possibly learn something new without classes and spending lots of
money up front on equipment and materials! I have taught too many
people to knit, crochet, and quilt with little if any expense to
believe otherwise. I figure that if people enjoy doing it, they can
buy equipment and materials later on as they need it, and if they
don't enjoy it, they have saved a fair amount of money and can go find
something else that pleases them. Like many others, I have large
stashes of spare equipment and materials, and am pleased to sit down
with beginners. (The only thing a person HAS to own is a thimble to
learn quilting, since I never share thimbles or have spares to give
away.) The yarn shops and fabric shops probably hate people like me,
but that's OK.
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Posted by Bernadette on April 7, 2008, 10:32 am
On Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:59:43 -0700, Mary wrote:
> Last week I taught my niece and her 6 year old daughter to crochet, and it
> appears that they are going to enjoy it! My niece had been told by a
> Colorado yarn shop that they had to sign up for classes and purchase tools
> and yarn there, which was going to be about $200 for them, not including
> lots of driving to and from Denver from their ranch for classes every
> Saturday, so I told them to forget it and wait until spring break when I
> could teach them at home. I made tote bags for each and then rummaged
> through my embarassingly large collection of tools and yarns, so each one
> got her own tote bag, little plastic container for tools, 3 mid-size
> crochet hooks, scissors, and pair of yarn needles, plus a couple of how-to
> books with good pictures and a large sack of miscellaneous balls of
> worsted weight acrylic yarn in various colors that I had tucked away from
> years of making afghans. They caught on quickly, and made sample swatches
> for practice, and then branched out into a double-sided potholder and hair
> scrunchies. My niece wants to make an afghan, and her daughter wants to
> make one for her doll's bed, so I think they are on their way!
>
> I get really irritated when yarn shops, et al., tell people they can't
> possibly learn something new without classes and spending lots of money up
> front on equipment and materials! I have taught too many people to knit,
> crochet, and quilt with little if any expense to believe otherwise. I
> figure that if people enjoy doing it, they can buy equipment and materials
> later on as they need it, and if they don't enjoy it, they have saved a
> fair amount of money and can go find something else that pleases them.
> Like many others, I have large stashes of spare equipment and materials,
> and am pleased to sit down with beginners. (The only thing a person HAS
> to own is a thimble to learn quilting, since I never share thimbles or
> have spares to give away.) The yarn shops and fabric shops probably hate
> people like me, but that's OK.
Very well done Mary, I love hearing stories like this.
When my eldest was a baby we lived in a small village in England where we
had a local store and post office, a butcher's shop and a wool shop.
Wednesday afternoons when the shop was closed for business the owner made
over her back room so that other young mums could learn to crochet. I
taught them for free (the companionship was reward enough) and all they
needed was a hook and a ball of wool.
To draw diagrams they could refer to when working I purchased a pad of
flip chart paper and a large felt tip marker pen. Bless those girls, when
they found out the cost of those items they had a collection and
reimbursed the money to me (none of us were well off back then). We spent
many happy afternoons learning, laughing, sharing ideas, gaining
confidence and taking turns to look after the "creche" so the various Moms
could have time to concentrate on learning. It ended when my husband's
work meant a move away but one of the lasses opened her house (sitting
room) to keep it going.
Anything like this is such a worthwhile project and brings so much
happiness to all concerned. :-)
--
Blessed are the cracked for they let in the light
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Posted by Mary Fisher on April 7, 2008, 11:15 am
>
> I get really irritated when yarn shops, et al., tell people they can't
> possibly learn something new without classes and spending lots of
> money up front on equipment and materials!
I've never heard of that or seen any adverts for such classes! Don't mothers
teach their children how to sew, knit and crochet and more? I taught ours
and several of their children come to think of it so perhaps there ARE
changes ... :-(
Yesterday was very cold, I wore a triangular beret and our 21 yo grand
daughter, who temporarily lives with us, said she wanted one and would I
make it for her? I said no, she could do it herself, I hve lots of spare
yarn and every needle she'd need but she said that it would be too hard. So
guess what she's going to be doing when she's back from college in the
evenings! I shamed her into it by telling her that her 12 year old cousin
Edmund and his older brother had been taught to knit in our sitting room.
> I have taught too many
> people to knit, crochet, and quilt with little if any expense to
> believe otherwise. I figure that if people enjoy doing it, they can
> buy equipment and materials later on as they need it, and if they
> don't enjoy it, they have saved a fair amount of money and can go find
> something else that pleases them.
Yes, but they'll have made items which would be impossible to buy in a shop!
> Like many others, I have large
> stashes of spare equipment and materials, and am pleased to sit down
> with beginners. (The only thing a person HAS to own is a thimble to
> learn quilting, since I never share thimbles or have spares to give
> away.) The yarn shops and fabric shops probably hate people like me,
> but that's OK.
Thimbles must match the wearer, I don't share mine either even though I'm
not a quilter.
Keep on with your crusade!
Mary
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Posted by Mary on April 7, 2008, 12:08 pm
So many mothers don't do any sewing or needlework or yarnwork at all
anymore, at least here in the US, since they are contending with
husbands, children, housework, and fulltime jobs with travel
requirements. Thus, they don't teach their children, and the circle
is broken. Lots of the shops do offer classes for beginners, but with
so many of them that's more a sales ploy than anything else -- they
charge fees for the classes, and then insist that people purchase lots
more tools and stuff than they need, a book or two, and then enough
materials for an entire afghan or adult sized sweater or large
quilt! All one really needs to start with knitting or crochet is a
ball of yarn, a pair of needles or hook, scissors, and somebody to sit
down with! I start quilters with scrap fabric and scrap batting and
regular sewing kit stuff, which is plenty to see whether they enjoy
the process.
When I was working in my first office, a bunch of us used to play
bridge during lunch hours, and I always had my knitting with me. I
knit a whole lot of sweaters over bridge! When I changed offices
nobody there played bridge, but quite a few of the women brought their
needlework and yarnwork projects, so we could chat around the table in
the break room, share techniques and patterns and ideas, and teach the
beginners. We had a lot of fun, and particularly enjoyed the days
somebody would wear a newly-finished project to work -- hat, scarf,
mittens, sweater, etc -- or bring in the afghan or tapestry or pillow
or whatever to show everybody!
Since I retired I have enjoyed taking projects out to the front porch
during good weather -- a little needlework, a pitcher of iced tea, the
dog, fresh water and a toy for the dog -- and life is good! I live in
an old neighborhood in the historic district with lots of adult trees
for shade, well-preserved Victorian homes, traditional front porches
with wicker furniture, and neighbors who visit back and forth. I've
helped folks with their projects, and they bake cookies. Everybody
watches the kids playing, and almost everybody knows their neighbors.
It's probably a throw-back to an earlier time, but we like it a lot!
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Posted by on April 8, 2008, 11:51 pm
Sorry Mary , i think you forget there is a whole generation ,That
wasn`t taught to knit or make handcrafts, almost and i repeat A L M O
S T as a Feministic act. After almost a generation of seprate Gendral
craft teaching [ boys wood work and electricity=== gilrs sewing
knitting] , there was a sort of in built refusal to teach it ....
Now thise women can`t teach that to their daughthers [ or sons] ,,,
mirjam
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