I'm Addicted to Teaching You to Knit and Crochet!

I actually never thought I'd be writing anything like this but man, do I love teaching. I didn't learn to crochet until about 6 years ago, which is recent compared to how long I've been knitting [Mum claims I managed a square at age 4 but I am completely dubious about that fact].

So not all of you reading this will know me... I'm very proud to say that I've worked in the fibre industry for about 10 years with Rowan Yarns, as a freelancer and now at Woman's Weekly Magazine. I don't shout about it very often, but I have a couple of books under my belt as well, i.e. these..

Writing books and patterns is a big part of my life and I enjoy it, but my passion now lies in sharing the craft with others - It's teaching I enjoy. Helping people when they're stuck, starting them off from scratch... It's so rewarding.

Workshops, in particular are just THE BEST. When I first joined Rowan Yarns as a shy, 19-year-old 'knitting lady', I never thought I'd be physically able to stand up in front of a group of anxious knitter-eyes staring back at me, brave and authoritative enough to instruct others, and confident enough to know that they'll 9 times out of 10, leave satisfied.

I don't think it's easy, either - for someone younger (it was worse when I was still a skinny teenager) as some people just can't help but be ageist. At the start of a workshop, I could almost feel the assumption in the air, that I was a lesser tutor to others. It may be that perhaps I was more conscious of my age than they were, but I don't think that's the case. Regardless, the more Workshops I ended up leading, the more that cloud hanging over me would just vanish - it's gone now.

A few weeks back, I was lucky enough to host an incredible crochet workshop at Woman's Weekly Magazine HQ [where I work] for 30 lovely ladies, who had never touched a crochet hook. How, you ask? Well that's easy! ..With the much-needed help of cloaked superheroes, AKA professional crochet tutors Jane Crowfoot, Natalie Warner, DMC's Cara Ackerman and Diana Bensted.

They're all awesome and totally excellent teachers - we all had such a great time. I think I speak for all of us when I say that. Now, I get to hang out with awesome teachers in a buzzing, excited room filled with knowledge zapping out of their caped-heads and into the heads of others. It's so cool.

Workshops are exhausting but they're so much fun. They seem to have a strange effect on me which I've noticed a few times now.

Whatever I end up teaching [How to Knit Socks, Intarsia, Fair-isle or in this case, Learn to Crochet].. I end up DESPERATE to do the second the last workshop participant has walked out of the door. With this in mind, I've started to crochet a blanket (I know, I know - should have gone for something smaller). My fiance and I are nearly financially ready to move in together - so I'm justifying a need for blankets!

...it's a special blanket though. I'll show you when I've done a few more squares. If you want to see what I've done so far, I'm putting a few progress pics up on Instagram.

In the meantime, I just wanted to show you another way I've been trying to spread the joy of fibre craft - I've only gone and had a go at making some vids! So far we've finished two of them, How To Knit Fair-Isle (which I can't bear to watch because I look completely nervous) and this one where I'm [more comfortably] talking about How to Knit Cables.

I really hope you like it - and I just want to say a quick thanks for reading. Enjoy xx

See the full video here (don't panic, it's totally free!).