Three Months, One Hook: What Saanvi Made

Earlier this month we wrote about the Teacher's Day card Saanvi made us, with a small pink crochet heart tied to the corner. Since then we have been meaning to show you the rest of her work, because the heart was only the beginning.

Saanvi is one of our youngest students, and she has been coming to classes for about three months. We asked her to bring in everything she has made so far and lay it all out. It took up the whole table.

Where everyone starts: the swatch

Every one of our students begins the same way, with small flat pieces that exist only to practise a stitch. Most people make a few and move on. Saanvi made a collection.

Look along the rows and you can see the lessons one by one:

• The classic granny square, in more than one colourway. Clusters of three stitches in each corner and along each side, round after round. It teaches you to count, to find the corner spaces, and to keep a square square.
• A circle worked in rings. Flat circles are harder than they look. Too few increases and the edges cup up into a bowl. Too many and they ripple. This one lies flat, with each ring of colour sitting neatly on the last.
• Sunburst and flower centres. A round of taller stitches in the middle of a square, framed in a contrast colour, so the centre looks like it is blooming.
• Roses sewn onto swatches. The first time a student makes something that sticks up off the fabric, rather than lying flat, is always a good day.

None of these were meant to be anything. They are practice. But put nine of them together and they tell you exactly how much ground was covered.

Then things started to curl

This is the part where we could tell she was hooked.

A crochet spiral starts as a long chain. Then you work several stitches into every single chain along it, far more than the chain has room for. There is nowhere for the extra fabric to go, so it twists round on itself, and by the end of the row you are holding a corkscrew.

What we love about these is that no two of them are the same idea:

• Pink and yellow, with a contrast edge so the curl shows up clearly, finished with a round pink ball at the end.
• Red and black, where the spiral has become a string of ruffled flowers, with small crochet flowers and a yellow-and-red tassel hanging from the bottom.
• Blue on blue, fading from pale to dark, with a darker edge on every ruffle and a pompom in all the same shades.
• A slim pink braid, the quiet one, finished with a plaited cord and a tassel.

The technique is the same in all four. Everything else, the colours, the edges, what goes on the end, she decided for herself.

And then, things to use

The last photo is the one that made us sit back.

This is no longer practice. These are things you can wear, carry, or give away:

• A blue pouch with a loop to hang it from and a pink flower on the front, worked in neat rows with straight edges, which is the hardest thing to get right on a flat piece.
• Bobble scrunchies in blue and green, where every bump is a cluster of stitches pushed out through the fabric. Bobbles are slow and fiddly, and there are a lot of them here.
• Roses on a long stem, one white and one red, with leaves along the way.
• A cream headband with knotted ends, and a pink bow on a hair clip.
• Two little pumpkins, one yellow and one orange, each with a curly green stem.
• Ruffled bands in lilac and blue, a shell fan in rainbow colours, and a star in bright pink with a rose at its centre.

Three months ago, Saanvi was learning to hold a hook and make a slip knot. Now she has a pile of things she made, and there is a lot more colour in it than there was in any lesson we planned for her.

What she has taught us

We say this often, and Saanvi proves it: children are fearless with colour. Adults tend to ask us which colours go together. Children just try it, and more often than not it works. Red and black ruffles with a yellow tassel is not a combination we would ever have suggested. It is brilliant.

The other thing is how much finishing she does. Tassels, pompoms, balls, leaves, flowers sewn on, a loop on the pouch. Plenty of adult students stop the moment the main piece is done. Saanvi keeps going until it looks finished, and that habit will serve her far longer than any single stitch.

Well done, Saanvi. We cannot wait to see the next three months. 🌈

Know a young person who would love this? Tell us here — our classes welcome children as well as grown-ups.