Crochet for beginners – full day – 19 March
Price: £60
About the beginners' crochet workshop
Join Debbie Tomkies on her fun, friendly beginner’s crochet workshop at her lovely creative space at A4 Studios and AIR Gallery in Altrincham. From holding the hook to making your first ‘granny square’ you’ll soon be hooking with confidence!
Debbie's groups are small to allow lots of individual attention and left-handed crocheters are very welcome!
What’s Included?
We provide all the yarns you will need and a crochet hook to take home. You will also receive comprehensive, fully illustrated handouts and patterns from Debbie's exclusive range of crochet designs so you can keep hooking once the class is complete! We also include tea, coffee and biscuits.
Price:
The price for this one day workshop is £60 including all materials.
What will I make?
During the day, Debbie will take you through:
- Different ways to hold your hook and how to crochet comfortably
- Making your foundation chain and first stitches
- Essential crochet stitches (double, half treble and treble)
- Shaping basics (increasing and decreasing)
- How to make a simple granny square
- Following a crochet pattern
- Neat finishing and joining
- Spotting mistakes and how to correct them!
- You can expect to take home several small projects, including your first granny square (or two!).
Course level:
This workshop is suitable for absolute beginners and is also great for crocheters in need of a refresher or just to have a little 'me time'! This is a course for over 18s. Where possible we welcome younger participants but please ask before booking.
This workshop also makes an excellent choice for a baby shower, leaving gift, wedding celebration, birthday party. Why not make a group baby shower blanket to wrap the new arrival in the love of friends and family? Private group bookings can also be arranged on request.
Where?
This is an in person workshop and will be hosted at Debbie's studio at A4 Studios and AIR Gallery in Altrincham, Cheshire.
When?
This Saturday workshop runs from 10am-4pm with a break for lunch (and tea/coffee breaks)!
About your tutor
Debbie loves to teach and has been a crocheter for over 30 years so you'll be able to pick her brains for tips, tricks and hacks! Debbie has designed for Inside Crochet, Crochet Now, Yarn Forward, Simply Crochet and other crochet magazines. She has been teaching textiles all over the UK and overseas for over 12 years. See some of the feedback from her courses below.
Our workshop sessions are designed to be fun and enjoyable and you'll can expect to take home a number of small projects. The pace is relaxed and the small group size means there's time for individual attention, questions and chat.
Keen to learn but can't attend in person?
We are planning to offer online classes live via zoom where you can enjoy the course from the comfort of your own home or studio. As the course will be live you'll be able to ask questions and Debbie will be demonstrating techniques on screen. Your patterns and handouts will be sent to you as downloadable pdfs to keep, view and print. If you are interested in zoom courses, please email and just put 'zoom classes' in the subject line and we'll let you know when we go live!
Debbie says... I love teaching workshops and courses – part of the pleasure of doing something I love for a living is in knowing that other people have shared my passion and enthusiasm, learned something new, had lots of fun and generally had a good time! Teaching is a learning process for the tutor as much as for the students so I like to keep a comments book for feedback. Here are some of my favourite excerpts…
What our students say....
Where to find us:
This workshop will be held at:
Studio 19
A4 Studios
30 Grosvenor Road
Altrincham
WA14 1LD
Public transport:
We are a short, level walk from Altrincham Metrolink station, Altrincham rail station and the Altrincham bus interchange.
By car:
There is limited free, on-street parking nearby and parking in the restricted spaces is free in the evenings (but do check the signs!).
There is a multistorey carpark in Altrincham centre, 8 minutes level walk from the studios
About A4 studios
A4 Studios is a not-for-profit organisation that has been founded by a group of disabled and able-bodied artists and entrepreneurs who recognised a need for good quality affordable studio spaces within the locality of Trafford.
- Debbie TomkiesOrganizer of Crochet for beginners - full day - 19 MarchDebbie is a knitting & crochet expert with over 30 years' teaching and designing experience. Debbie is on the in-house knitting expert team for Knit Now magazine and Craftworld and has been producing their how-to features and videos since the magazine started over 10 years ago, prior to which she wrote the technical features for Simply Knitting magazine. Debbie is the author of 5 internationally published books, Hand-Dyed Yarn Craft Projects, Complete Knitting Skills, 250 Knitting Stitches, Knitting.Learn it.Love it and How to Knit. Debbie has been a hand dyer for over 25 years, working with both synthetic and natural dyes, indigo & woad. She teaches dyeing with yarn & fabrics, printing, botanical (eco) printing, tie dye and more. In addition to teaching knitting, crochet, felting and dyeing throughout the UK, Debbie also teaches City & Guilds accredited programmes in design and handknitting at Making Futures CIC. Debbie has had over 100 designs published in major magazines over the last 10 years. When she's not crafting, you'll find Debbie in the garden, tending her dyeplants, enjoying a nice craft beer or hugging a big mug of builders' tea. And if you're out and about, she can often be found in the mosh pit at a gig or enjoying some folk music!