YarnCraft Episode 70 :: Tips & Tricks on Teaching Beginner & Advanced Knitting & Crochet Skills

6 Jul

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Sharing your knitting, crochet, and yarncrafting skills with others is a wonderful experience. Whether you’re teaching a total beginner OR sharing more advanced or specialized skills (from entrelac to colorwork to machine knitting or weaving) with friends from your yarncrafting group (listen to the last episode for ideas on forming your own!), we have tips and tricks that will help you to make the experience smoother for both you and your students!

Our guest is Patty, Studio Director of the Lion Brand Yarn Studio, where they offer over 70 classes & workshops. She joins us to share tips on teaching someone knitting or crocheting for the first time.

We also hear from YOU, our listeners, and answer your questions and share your comments on your teaching experiences!

On today’s Stash This: Ideas for Your Crafting Life, we share ideas for beginner projects BEYOND the scarf — whether you live in a warm climate or just want a smaller, faster project than a scarf to teach, we have lots of patterns that you can check out.

Patterns discussed include:

Join us in two weeks when we talk about teaching others knitting & crochet skills, whether that’s sharing a new technique with your guild or yarncrafting group OR teaching kids at a local enrichment program. Do you have tips on teaching others? Share your thoughts with us! Post a message on the blog or email us at yarncraft [at] lionbrand [dot] com! You can also call in at 774-452-YARN–that’s 774-452-9276. We may include you in the next episode!

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Theme music is “Boy with a Coin” by Iron and Wine, from the PodSafe Music Network.

Show Notes:
00:11 Intro & welcome
01:18 What’s on Liz & Zontee’s Hooks & Needles
05:06 Your Questions & Comments
12:27 Tips on Teaching Beginners with Patty of Lion Brand Yarn Studio
18:58 Tips on Teaching Advanced Skills to Groups
28:20 Stash This: Ideas for Your Crafting Life
35:12 Thanks to our listeners and guests

  • Betsy

    For some reason, the last comment I left had my name as “Bet” I guess I got spacey and forgot to type the “sy”. (Anyway, I’m still crocheting away at the washcloths/dishcloths to have on hand for gifts. thanks for the great idea)

    I’ve recently had two friends whose children had sustained a traumatic brain injury (one, a 7 year old boy in a car accident and the other, a 17 year old girl who was hit on her bicycle). As they begin to heal, their doctors and therapists are telling them to “exercise their brain” with new activities or to re-establish old activities such as playing music. I talked to a therapist who told me that crocheting/knitting would also be helpful to help their brain “re-develop” (not sure if that is the correct word). How great would it be to volunteer at a rehabilitation center for brain injured people (young and old) and teach (or re-teach) them to yarn craft!

    Just an idea.

    I am so addicted to your podcasts, I am going back into the archives to listen…I love to listen while I knit or crochet. I have downloaded many a free pattern off of the LB site and have ordered two kits and some more yarn to make washcloths. You both are really good “ambassadors” for LB yarn. Any chance there is a yarncrafting event in Denver coming up soon that you could attend? I’d love to meet you both…..

    YarnCraft says: Hi Betsy, thanks for sharing that suggestion about volunteering! It’s definitely worth calling your local hospital or rehab center and seeing if they’d be interested in a teaching program.

    Unfortunately, we don’t seem to have any Denver-area events on the calendar, but if you see anything you’d like to suggest to Lion Brand to be involved in, drop a line to support@lionbrand.com and share your suggestion.

  • http://bibleapologetic.blogspot.com Lucy Young

    Thank you Zonte & Liz for another great and timely show as I’m soon going to be teaching knitting and crocheting at my new church!!!! This episode gave me lots of good tips for that.

    Living in the South it’s hard to knit a sweater in the sweltering heat, and you guys touched on my new obsession, market bags! Since your next show is on eco-friendly projects I thought I’d mention that I created the Market Bags group on Ravelry and we’re having tons of summer knitting and crochet fun, having both a KAL/CAL and and upcoming swap. I started the group after finishing the Lion Brand Al Fresco crochet tote and was surprised there wasn’t already one. The market bags are quick and fun to make (especially in the summer) and eco-friendly and stylish at the store ;o) We’re also getting ready for Christmas by thinking ahead.

    BTW, my Ravelry user name is Arielluria

  • Janelle

    You talked about eco-friendly projects. I am on a kick recently where I’ve raided my stack of old tshirts and cut them up into strips to use as yarn. I’m in the process of making myself a knitting bag from this “yarn”. I have also recently lost weight and with it, had to say goodbye to some old favorite sweaters. I reclaimed the yarn from these sweaters and have added it to my stash to use in a future project.

  • Austin

    a lot of people have asked me to teach them or say and i quote “OMG, that is so cool you have to teach me” but i never seem to get to it, but i am a teenager so i use that as my excuse

    what is really fun is crocheting with plastic bags, it sounds weird but it isnt, what you do is you cut off the handles and bottom, then fold the bag hot dog style a bunch of times, and cut it into strips about an inch apart(i didnt measure them when i did it, so it was pretty uneven) then you loop them together adn you get a long strand, of course this yarn is going to be thick so use a large hook, i used an m size, but i crochet tightly, so you would probably use something smalller, but it works, and it is very tough and recylcing

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