crochet

Leaf shows off the crochet purse she made in class. Her t-shirt reads "Perfect at Being Bad". I thought that this was a funny statement about Leaf's whole crochet experience. She definitely struggled to keep up her enthusiasm for crochet, and at times doubted her ability to get details right. But the thing is, Leaf is a super stylish girl, and at the end of the day she really liked her bag. All of the little missed stitches and frustrations seemed to fade away as she sauntered away from art club with the bag slung over her shoulder.

crochet

Last official day of crochet. We finished two granny squares and whip stitched them together to make a little bag with a single crochet handle. The bags could be lined if we had time and the inclination, but most of the class was just pleased to have finished a crochet project after three weeks of hard work.

Art Club with all their granny squares. We learned how to tie off all the little strings and join squares to make a finished bag.

Sylvia is modeling her crochet hat. Over the past week she has made three hats. She was selling the hats at art club for five dollars a pop, and several of the art club students have future hats on order. Sylvia plans on having an art booth at the neighborhood summer festival in August. I wonder how many hats she can crochet by then? Perhaps some granny square bags as well?

Henry and Isak were also very pleased with themselves. Neither of them have ordered a hat from Sylvia. They want to make their own.

Isaiah and Gillian model bright crochet hats made by Elizabeth (one of our crochet teachers). They both learned how to make single crochet hats in class today, and took thread and hooks home for summer fun.

on the news

Last week Teri Barr (News 3) and a camera crew came to art club and we got on the t.v.! The kids were thrilled, and a little publicity doesn't hurt my own aspirations to get more parents involved in the art club movement.

crochet teachers

Dea and Leaf put their heads together on the very first day of crochet.

Brigette analyzing a granny square with Linnea .

Above: Elizabeth working with Gillian on the double crochet stitch.

Below: Sarah helping both Henry and Olive with baby Liza on her lap. Amazing concentration.

At the beginning of the year I asked the kids what they wanted to learn in art club. I taught them to knit last year, and many of them wanted to keep learning finger skills. They asked about crochet. One problem -- I don't know how to crochet. People have tried to teach me over the years, but it's just not something I've ever really embraced. So, needless to say, I was overwhelmed with the idea of teaching ten nine year olds a craft I could not get my own head and fingers to embrace.

I needed to ask for help. First I asked every parent from the art club, and not a one knew how to crochet. Luckily, a new art club has started in the neighborhood run by two parents -- Dea and Brigette (both of whom are granny square masters). We decided to get the two art clubs together this spring and coordinate some crochet lessons taught by them and a few other crochet enthusiasts from the neighborhood. We tried to have one teacher for every two or three young students, so over the past few weeks these teachers have given a great deal of time and effort to the cause. Thank you.

When I talk about wanting new art clubs to start, I am thinking about the opportunities as a teacher to share skills and resources with other parents. I don't think anyone starting an art club has infinite art ideas about what they are going to teach, but the potential for a group of parents working together and sharing inspiration is super exciting. Next fall Dea, Brigette, and I plan on combining art clubs again for a sock monkey session or two (sock monkeys are one of my special skills). I look forward to it.

I keep hoping to hear from other parents who want to start art clubs and share ideas and fun. If you are interested, please email me and I will invite you to a Monday afternoon at the art club. One of our recent crochet teachers, Elizabeth, said that she liked art club so much she is starting one with a friend next year. Hooray.

crochet

I love to watch people do hand work. If you have a grandma who knits then you know what I mean. I have known people who grow instantly more beautiful and interesting with a crochet hook in hand. I love the needleworkers who get so good they can knit and carry on conversations at the same time. I love the way a person's brow will furrow when they miss a stitch or are counting an intricate pattern. Hands always look so potent. Some people stick their tongues out in concentration.

The four photos above were taken at the end of another day of crochet. They were taken in quick succession and I wanted to include them together because they say more than I can about how special it is to observe the art club learning a new finger craft. Watching the kids' faces today as they concentrated and began to flow with the granny stitch was really captivating. Their hands looked more potent and their faces more beautiful than I can remember.

To a one they all agreed that granny squares were easier to learn than the straight double crochet square. Maybe it's just another week of practice, but I feel like we turned a corner. Art Club will spend at least one more week on crochet and see how we feel after next session. We split the group in half today so that each teacher worked with two students at once for an hour and then we switched off. The alternate group was working on a drawing/collage project that was basic and playful in contrast to the brain strain of learning crochet. I think a two student to one teacher ratio is ideal for the initial learning stages of crochet.

crochet

We sat outside and the whole crochet lesson was super cozy. Teacher to student ratio for learning a hand craft should be about 3:1. More than that, and kids get frustrated waiting for their questions to be answered.

My true inspiration -- I want to learn how to crochet plastic bags into rag rugs! So nice.

crochet

We started our crochet lessons yesterday. Usually I try and stay one step ahead of the kids, but I don't know how to crochet and so I needed to ask in some guest teachers. Thank you Elizabeth and Dea! I had the opportunity of being one of the art club students, and I think the kids got a kick out of my questions and frustrations. I know how to knit and tat, but somehow crochet makes me feel clumsy and strange. I am always asking the art clubers to try new things, so it only seems fair that every once and a while they get to see me with ten thumbs.

I can't say much about how to teach crochet. We were just working on a ten by ten double crochet square to begin. I was interested in how some students picked it up really quickly and others needed to watch and start over again and again. Also, some kids needed certain language to really get it. For example, once one student heard about "keeping her holding hand in a triangle" she was quite dangerous and adept, whereas before she kept dropping her tension. Another student had to "point their index finger" on their holding hand. That's why it was great to have a couple of teachers because each one had a slightly different way of talking about what they were doing.

We were all very patient. The look of concentration on everyone's face is the true story of the day. Learning a new finger skill takes all your brain power and the art club certainly gave the lesson their best attention for over two hours. It was great to observe the "aha" moment when someone finally got the rhythm and started cruising. Henry was certain he wouldn't like crochet, but then he figured it out and seemed very pleased with himself. He is really satisfied when he problem solves things and crochet is no different than a hard math problem. Henry tied his crochet square around his belt loop and wore it for the rest of the afternoon.

Next week we will take on the granny square.