Another crochet demo today, this time in Redmond so it was a little closer to home. Hadn't volunteered for this one originally at the guild meeting, but Steve popped around to help Andy work on the Mustang for the afternoon ... that's my cue to do something else!

This one looked a little more 'commercial' - there were a few tents set up in the carpark outside the shop, with sample yarn and a few hooks donated by the store. We even had a few learners! The knitting side of the tent was much busier, but I think they had a few more instructors ... I think there was a mixup with the guild volunteer list, as we ended up with only three - myself, Lester and Heidi.

I managed to help out a couple of learners, even to the point where one was producing a basic granny square - but it made me realise, how do you really teach someone something you've been doing for 20-odd years?! (20 years? Has it really been that long?!) I think I'll need to do a proper crochet-teaching course if I want to do any more of these!

The controversy  for the afternoon came in the form of the 'fastest crocheter' competition. All the entrants were given a 'control' ball of yarn and a hook so everyone was on equal footing, and we had ten minutes to work up a small swatch in single crochet (or double crochet as I'm used to calling it!). My hands were shaking like a leaf and I kept dropping stitches all over the place, but when the timer called 'hooks down!' I'd won by about a row and a half! Yay for me. We got to keep our yarn and hook from the competition, and I also received a wrap for my hooks, a 'wild knitting woman' badge and a pair of 'yarn goddess' felt slippers. Well ... at least I got to keep the ball of yarn and a new hook .

Where did the controversy come in? Miss Second Place retired to the knitting side of the tent after the competition, and was heard accusing me of misreporting my rows ("thirteen rows, she must have been lying!!"). Not to my face, of course . Perhaps she was just upset at missing out on the cheapie 'yarn goddess' slippers? Crocheted mittens at twenty paces ... where's Andy to defend my honour when I need him??

Got home at about 4.30 and Andy was finishing up in the garage - Steve had retired home about an hour previously. They'd discovered some rust in the floorpans which was not spotted on the pre-purchase inspections, so there's some more fibreglassing to do now. Still, it's not in too bad shape for ~40 years old!