I will be teaching crochet (and knitting) at The Tea Rooms, in Stoke Newington on the 14th February, St Valentines day! So I thought for something a bit special we could make some crochet hearts, you can wear them as a brooch or give to someone you love! I will be there on the Tuesday morning from 10am to 12noon, and then Wednesday 15th from 7pm till 9pm. Please contact The Tea Rooms to book your place.

I will be teaching beginner’s crochet classes at Julies Handmade World, in Crystal Palace. Working from initial stitches, onto following a basic pattern of a traditional granny square, or to make your own hat! Please look through the other workshop pages to see the sort of things you could learn to make! Places are limited, so please contact me to book your place now!

Since September I have been attending Morley College, learning how to use a domestic knitting machine. This coming weekend, on Sunday 4th December, I will be showcasing and selling some of the items I have learnt to make, along side my course mates on a stall at the Winter Fair. I do hope you can come down and see what we have been up to. Below is a headscarf and scarf set I made the other week!

Over the last few months, I have taken on leading new knitting & crochet classes at The Tea Rooms, in Stoke Newington’s Church Street.
When I used to live very near by, I would go for their fantastic cream teas, and thought how nice it would be to hang out there more often. Now I get to have a lovely pot of tea whilst helping people learn new textile skills! The class is aimed at complete newbies and mixed ability in crochet and knitting, I have hooks, needles, yarns to get you started, and ideas for your projects!
Keep an eye on their facebook page for details of when I will be there.

I have been asked to design and make, in collaboration with my community groups, decorations to hang on the big tree, to go on display in Tottenham this week! I have been working against the clock to get the decorations made on time. Here they are so far...

Last year I started my journey into machine knitting, I didn’t get too far. I kept getting frustrated and stressed with casting on and off and panicking whenever I dropped stitches. It’s so very different from hand knitting. But I still want to learn how to use the domestic machine, not as a replacement and speedier technique to hand knit, but to explore it as a new way of working. I’ve taken it up again and to my delight, I can (on most occasions) cast on, knit and cast off with no problems. Now I need to work out what to do with it! Which yarns and fibres, what thicknesses and tension, what patterns and techniques of hand tooling? It really is a whole new visual/craft language and I am trying to find my voice from within it...

On the 13th & 15th August, I lead workshops at Hornsey Library and Bruce Castle Museum with the theme of Vintage Knitting. Inspiration was taken from the 1950’s to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 1951 Festival of Britain, which took place at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank of London, with activities also taking place in North London’s borough of Haringey. Although my part was to facilitate the workshops, to help and teach people how to knit and crochet, I found the importance through what individual participants brought with them, together as a group. Sharing knitting experiences, memories and stories from a time gone past. Alison brought some fantastic original patterns with her, and a lifetime’s wealth of British knitting knowledge. I’m only sorry that my photography is rather shaky and blurred from my mobile phone, time to invest in a new camera!

As term draws to a close for another summer, I thought I would show off some of the work achieved by the talented kids who have been coming along to my after school knitting group, Thursday’s 3.30pm - 5pm at Coombes Croft Library, on Tottenham High Road. Shown below are samples made by Jessica, Nathan, Marta and Premise.

Over this Summer’s month of August, you can find me 3 days a week at Knit With Attitude. I’ll be there to help you with your knitting needs, in between stroking the gorgeous stock of eco yarns! 228B Northwold Road, Stoke Newington, London N16 6XT.

Tuesdays 12noon - 5pm
Fridays 12 noon - 5pm
Saturdays 2pm - 6pm

Last weekend I was at the Stitch and Craft 2011 at Olympia, another show organised by Twisted Thread. After the success of my crochet workshop at Ally Pally, they invited me do some more at this show. I presented two workshops on making freeform crochet flowers. Here are some images of the pieces created, not the best photographs I know, but I was running around teaching too! Thank you to everyone who attended the workshops and to Twisted Thread for having me.

After the workshops, looking around the stalls I spotted this amazing hand knitted cardy!

It has been a while since I’ve posted anything on here. I will gradually catch up with what I have been doing, but for now I just want to say a huge Thank You to Art Teacher - Mrs. Joubert and her pupils at Waverley School, in Birmingham for taking part in my workshops and for being fantastic budding Textile Artists!

So as mentioned before, I was back at Ally Pally again this year, but this time to teach crochet workshops in the Learning Curve.
How to make a granny square...
Here’s how some of the participants got on...

Not posted anything on here for a while. It’s been a busy month, with lots of change and new beginnings. However, I should mention that next week I will be running a workshop at The Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. If you wanted to learn how to make a crochet granny square, I would have said, now is your chance, but apparently my workshop has already sold out! So in between packing boxes to move house and doing my homework for the Crafts Council maker development program I am now on, and learning to use a knitting machine at Morley College, I am putting together some crochet packs for my learners. Wish me luck! Come find me at Ally Pally on Thursday 7th Oct, around 3pm for a cuppa, I’ll need one after my workshop!

Last week I ran a workshop of Colourful Collage for TreeHouse’s Parent Participation Project. On a beaming hot day, we set up camp in the middle of Markfield Park, surrounded by flower beds with a backdrop of some stunning graffiti, a skate park and an adventure playground designed by the children who use the day centre at Markfield. Some awesome colours to inspire me too!

I run an adult knitting session in Tottenham. I have one very anxious regular, who comes along each week with no interest for knitting or crochet just as yet, but who wants my creative help to gain the confidence to make collages and 2d work. Having recently found out she’s really into gardens, this is what we are working on at the moment...

Jennifer is one of the girls who comes along to my after school knitting group. I think she’s about 8/9 years old ( I’ll have to check when I see her next week). Anyway today she told me that she is going to start up a business were she knits things and then people buy them. I said that this was a sweet idea, then she quickly pointed out to me that this wasn’t just an idea, that she had already made £5 selling the scarf she had only just learnt to knit a few weeks back!!

(This is the one Jennifer was working on today).

Over the summer I have a few extra sessions at Coombes Croft Library.
Here’s what we created today...

This is probably as close as I will get to being at the Royal College of Art! I went along for a day put on by the Crafts Council and ReachOutRCA, for Teachers / Craft Makers working with children,“Revival: Exploring Contemporary Ceramics, Jewellery and Textiles” It was so very inspiring to see the students work, and encouraged me again that this really is my area, and through looking around the studios, their standard of work is attainable for me , and yet at the same time, i don’t necessarily have to do an MA there and spend huge amounts of money to achieve my creativity, then again wouldn’t it be great...

OK, don’t laugh - I didn’t design the flyer OR come up with the name,
but i will be running two of these groups for the next six weeks!!
If you want to join in please contact to book a place.