My first workshop

Well I did it!

On Saturday 3 lovely ladies arrived to get on with some crochet.  Two had never done any crochet before, one had, had a few lessons on basic stitches.

Sadly I do not have any photo's of the event as I was far to busy to even think about it!

There was much laughter, some lovely cookies freshly baked by my daughter and by the end, everyone had managed to make two items from my pattern, a single crochet twizzle and a flower! (photo's taken from my pattern).

I was a little disappointed that no-one managed to do more, however considering their experience I did say at the beginning that this was probably all we would get done, so hopefully they were not to disappointed.

So what have I learnt from the whole experience?

1. Printer ink is very expensive!  I had not anticipated how much I would get through just printing out three copies of the pattern.  One way I might be able to get around this without charging more would be to encourage people to download the pattern onto e-readers if they have them.
2. Three beginners in one session is enough!  If I had got anymore folks there needing the same amount of attention, I would not have been able to help them all as much as was needed.  I will therefore need to make sure I have checked with those coming just how much experience they have had.
3. For absolute beginners it may be better to have follow on sessions included in the package.  I know the three ladies well and hope they will all take up my offer of coming for a follow up session so that they can succeed in making the whole brooch.  Hopefully the pattern is detailed enough with it's photo tutorial to give them something to practise, however I think all may need the reassurance that they can come back to me with any areas they are stuck with.
4. I can just about cope with 3 hours of getting up and down from my seat!  I wasn't able to move for the rest of the day and it took another day to fully get over it - I am however not complaining at all as even this time last year I wouldn't have been able to do even this.
5. I really really enjoyed myself!!!!!!  I am still full of doubt as to whether I am actually able to teach crochet, however there was definitely progress made by them all, I shall have to get some more feedback from the ladies before I know for sure that they felt it was all worth it.

I shall now have a think about repeating the workshop as a few people have already asked if I can do it on another date. In the meantime, I have stock to get finished to take into a shop and a craft fair to prepare for - I'll tell you more next post.

Happy Crafting,   Jane x.