I’m gonna start referring to the girls by the first letter of their names. I don’t think it’s right for me to use their full names, so the first letter of their name will need to be enough. Will start with the girl that surprised me the most today.
That’s miss C. She’s been in my class since the beginning but had not been able to get past making the single crochet for a couple of rows. She kept on skipping stitches. Last week I was even worried she wanted to give up. So I gave her the link to my YouTube channel. It’s always easier to watch videos made by your own teacher because you’re already used to this way of teaching.
The past week I had been trying to figure out how I could get this girl past the point where she was at last week. I had everything planned for today. Then she came to me just before the lesson… was just about to tell her my plan when she said “no ma’am, it won’t be necessary”. She then showed me her little FINISHED coin purse. She had made the whole thing herself these past week!!!!!!! 😱😱😱😱😱 I was totally confused. Last week she was ready to give up and today she shows me a little coin purse. How???? Miss C proudly told me she had been watching my videos every day AFTER homework. She had tried and tried till she could do it. The whole thing was finished in less than 7 days!!! Wow!!!!
Then I gave her the news she had been hoping for = time to move on to making a little ball that will become an octopus. The girl was soooooooooo happy to hear that. I placed her next to Miss R who was already working on that. Both mastered the magic ring IMMEDIATELY. Nothing difficult about it they said to me. With my instructions and also my YouTube video it took them only minutes to learn to make the magic ring. Here’s the video I’m talking about:
As you just read, 2 girls are already working on a little ball that is to become an octopus. I gave them my pattern for it and told them to try at home. If they need more help, they can always contact me in Whatsapp or just simply ask me when they see me in school.
You can find that free pattern here.
When the girls have made theirs, I’ll take pictures of their work so you can see what they’ve made. Hope I remember to do that next week. My memory tends to fail me, even with 5 reminders in my phone 😬😬.
Most of the girls are at that stage where they can make single crochet stitches in a chain and also single crochet in a previous row of stitches. They just need more practice. They still skip stitches or make an increase. Or they use the wrong end of the yarn. So more practice is needed. I did tell them that this is totally normal. Especially when they don’t practice much. But even with a lot of practice, some people still need more time than others. That is totally normal and okay. It’s not a competition after all. So enjoy the process and keep going is what I always say.
Them seeing my little octopus did give them a little push. They so badly want to make that octopus too. Made them want to try even harder than before.
While I was busy showing some girls how to get on with things, the other advanced girls showed the less advanced what to do. That’s great teamwork isn’t it 😊 I even overhead one say “it’s okay if your stitches look terrible at first, mine looked even worse in the beginning”. That always puts the newer girls at ease. It makes them understand that’s normal to know be a professional from the very beginning. And they know very well that I won’t be angry or anything like that if they mess up. Mess up all you need if that’s what will make you better! You can only learn from your mistakes.
There was this one girl, miss A, who had her yarn wrapped around her finger like I had asked, but not once or twice. Nooooo, that yarn was wrapped around her finger at least 10times 😲😲😲😲😲 I was like “girl, if you want to keep that finger and not have it turn more purple than your yarn, you better stop wrapping your yarn around your finger that many times”. Apparently she did that to help with tension. But that isn’t necessary at all. If you hold part of the yarn between your ring finger and pinky, it will work just fine. Have a look at the 2 pictures below
In the first pictures you see what miss A had done. As you can see the tip of my finger immediately turned red.
In the second picture you see how I hold my yarn. Most of the tension is ‘regulated’ by my pinky finger and ring finger (tension regulator 1 is what I call that). Then it is wrapped around my index finger too (tension regulator 2 is what I call this).
For yarn that doesn’t slide well/ sweaty fingers/ hot weather: wrap around the index finger once.
For yarn that slides too well/ dry hands/ cold weather: wrap around the index finger twice.
The reason why I hold my yarn this way, with 2 ‘tension regulators’, is because most sewing machines also has 2 tensions regulators. It works really well this way. My tension is never off.
2 girls had a tangled mess in front of them. No idea how that happened. Their yarn looked just fine when we started. I spent a good 15 minutes detangling that yarn vomit while explaining things to them. Then for some reason I suddenly thought of those foam mess sleeves fruit is sold in.
These things. People tend to throw them out. But why not use them to wrap yarn. It’s great for storing yarn that tends to fall apart. And you can also use it while crocheting. Bet my students will be bring lots of these next week 😄 And why not. Better than throwing them all out. Can’t go wrong with some good old recycling.
Thank you for reading and see you next week.
Was born in Belgium but moved to Indonesia as a child. Have been living here ever since. I absolutely LOVE crochet and knitting. I made this blog to help others get to the same level as me. And to make sure people have a place to come to with questions. Even the very beginner questions. Go ahead and ask me!
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