Quarterly Crafternoons: INTERNATIONAL CROCHET DAY 2014.......DONE!

THANK YOU to everyone who came to participate and those behind the scenes who supported this years' International Crochet Day Gathering at the Upper Yarra Arts Centre in Warburton. This was our third annual celebration and the 12th September will forever more be set aside to share this craft with our community and anyone who would like to join us.
An enormous thank you goes out to the Yarra Ranges Council who provide this beautiful venue free of charge and to the ever supportive Upper Yarra Community Enterprise who sponsors our gatherings through their Community Sponsorship Program. Shortly before this gathering I was made aware we had been successful in our application for a second round of sponsorship which clearly indicates the community value skills sharing and networking have in this area. Yay us!

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It was a truly amazing day with in excess of 65 lovely crafty people attending and lots of onlookers.
It took quite a few hours over quite a few days to wind 60 x 100g balls of Stylecraft Special DK into over 360 sweet, little yarn cakes. Whenever I look at all this gorgeous, yarny goodness I just see an array of colourful cupcakes with beautiful swirls of buttercream icing!

The first thing to see upon arrival was the stunning display of poppies created for the 5000 Poppies Project. This is just a very small portion of the 35,000+ handcrafted poppies Lynn has received for the project. Knitted, crocheted, felted, burnished sateen, hyperbolic shaped, embroidered beautiful poppies all making their way to Federation Square, Melbourne for the ANZAC Day Centenary in 2015.

The red is so difficult to photograph and the lighting in here wasn't great for photography. It's glary through the windows and the brightness of the overheads creates lots of shadows. It's a shame you can't see all the beautiful detail in those closeups. The texture on these panels is gorgeous.

Lynn was all too happy to provide guidance along the way and she did confess to dreaming about poppies quite often! Lynn left with 64 of our crocheted poppies that will be included in the display. I will be holding a few more poppy making sessions in the coming months to add to our contribution.

TUNISIAN CROCHET WORKSHOP

The INTRODUCTION TO TUNISIAN CROCHET was a huge hit and Shara handled a MORE then full table really well. We were hoping to run 2 sessions however our 4 hr time slot wasn't enough. I'm really sorry if you missed out however it is really tricky to merge new arrivals when the tuition has already started. We have discovered through experience that the learning is much more beneficial when everyone arrives at the starting time and our tutors can guide you through all together.

As you can see, it looks rather a bit like knitting and works in return and forward rows never turning the work as in crochet. Casting on the stitches and then casting them off again leaving just one stitch on and working in the vertical stitches the forwarding and returning creates. Making a dense, close fabric is the benefit of Tunisian Crochet so it's awesome for gloves and jumpers and the sweet little pouches everyone made on the day.

Here's Shara Lambeth guiding everyone along. She is an amazing crafter and a very good teacher. We were so fortunate to have her along. Thanks Shara.

And here's the ta-dah moment. Sweet little lavender pouches that could easily become little coin purses or Christmas decorations.

If you did miss out or you want a refresher, here's a link to a really good tutorial you could try at home. Try hooking up with Purl Bee Tunisian Crochet Basics to get you started. Good Luck

CROCHET MANDALA WORKSHOP

Jenny had a huge following with our CROCHET MANDALA MAKING! Jenny too, was swept off her feet with a full table and a constant wave of coming and going all day.

Jenny is a very thorough teacher. She is clear, concise, patient and knowledgeable and managed a fine jig about this table going from one participant to the next with gentle guidance and expertise. These manadalas were a tonne of fun to make. With endless colour combinations, each one is truly unique to it's maker.


Kylie made a beautiful pastel mandala in Stylecraft Classique Cotton.

Contrasting colours were a hit

This crocheting duo have attended almost every one of our gatherings and always have a great time.

Multiples of Mandalas left the Upper Yarra Arts Centre on this day

BEGINNERS CROCHET WORKSHOP

I think I love this workshop the best. I love that we are still able to fill this table to overflowing with lovely people who so desperately want to join in the crochet fun. Whether they are 'refreshing their memories' or 'starting from scratch', this table gives me such joy when those light bulb moments happen.


One lovely lady who after many, many attempts over the years finally 'gets it' after one on one expert tuition from Kaye Adolphson. Kaye is a professional crochet designer from the Yarra Valley and clearly enjoys her work.


From learning to how to hold the hook and yarn to completed granny squares, this table was full of joyful giggles and success reigned.

A big THANK YOU to Kaye for coming out to us after teaching a workshop in Olinda the same morning.

An example of Kaye's creative crochet work.

Quarterly Crafternoons is not just for the adults either. Children are a very big part of our community and making provision for the little ones to enjoy some hands on crafting time is a big part of these gatherings.