The Crochet Summit

Crochet has been teaching me lessons for the past 50 plus years.

50 plus years...I wonder at that sentence, and think of the freshman (as we were called back then) girl going to a commuter college who admired a crochet vest made by a fellow student she knew from high school.

S. was talented.  She had taken a denim jacket and embroidered the back into a work of art, complete with an overarching rainbow.  And she crocheted, something that my mother had done once.  She had never taught me before she died when I was in eighth grade, possibly because of her rheumatoid arthritis.

But now, S. was offering to teach me to crochet.  I took her up on her offer, and she taught me the chain stitch and the slip stitch. (No, you don't need to know what these are to enjoy this post, I promise you.)  I self taught myself some other stitches.  

Crochet was love at first chain, and I've been crocheting ever since.

I don't remember my first project, a scarf made with the chain stitch.  It was awful.  Of course it was, no one ever achieves perfection with their first project, or even their 5000th.  

I have to remember that now, because, for the first time ever, I clicked on a Facebook ad. 

I could say The Devil Made Me Do It.  Anyway, the ad was for a Crochet Summit.  And it was FREE.

Yes, I know.  Online nothing is ever free.  But I went ahead and signed up.  It's five days, April 5 through 9th.

This summit is five days of free classes in crochet, some for beginners, some not.  And yes, the summit is free.  But the catch is (drum roll):  each day's classes (which are prerecorded so they are all available the day of the class, starting at 9am Eastern time, are only available (along with any handouts) for 24 hours.

If you don't have time that day, you're out of luck.  Unless....

Unless you pay $59 for a VIP pass.  Then you have a year to watch and you can watch an unlimited number of times.  40 some odd classes (ranging from 30 to 60 minutes in length), plus 19 crochet patterns. That's a lot to absorb, especially if you work part time, which I do. I don't get vacation time, either.

Now, I'm not complaining.  There are a lot of people who have found ways to make things free by offering upgrades for an extra charge.  I have no problem with that. 

I have never taken advantage of You Tube crochet videos and so I don't know what my experience with the classes will be.  I now have the list of classes and patterns and it's not going to be like drinking from a fire hose - a number of the projects don't interest me. 

Right now, I'm not upgrading.  But we'll see.

More about my crocheting later this week. 

Have you ever participated in a hobby "summit"?