Last week, Bluprint announced that its parent company, NBCUniversal, will be closing down the crafty/foodie online learning platform beginning in late July. It's very difficult news for the nearly 140 people who will be losing their jobs, and for the many hundreds of instructors who created outstanding classes and were paid royalties for every class sold or minute streamed.
I have four crochet classes on the platform, and each one of them was a joy to create and film with folks who really knew their stuff and put students at the heart of every production. I'm proud of these classes, which I created with the company starting in 2014, when it was called Craftsy, before NBCUniversal acquired it.
I will not be given these classes when the platform folds, and that is fair. It's business. I own my own teaching approach, projects and skill, but I never owned the production of these classes. I'm disappointed to lose these incredible resources for students, but I am still able to teach and connect and help, and that is exactly what I'm doing.
Several weeks ago, I started to teach a crochet class on my own platform, in response to our collective experience and stress of spending far more time at home in these pandemic times. In answer to my own stress, I found I wanted to work on a project that is comforting, engaging and meaningful, and teaching crochet is all three. Making crochet is many of those things to crocheters, too.
Crochet for Challenging Times is starting out bare bones as far as class content goes, but over time it will grow into a compendium of all of my crochet knowledge. Every week or two I'm filming new lessons to add to the class. My home-based production isn't as slick as when I filmed my Craftsy/Bluprint classes in a dedicated studio with professional hair and makeup, production, videographers and editors, but crochet needn't be schmancy. I bring the same heart and approach to teaching when I film on my dining room table in fits and spurts around my son's remote schooling as I do when I'm in a big studio.
Students who enroll in my class are invited to join a private class forum, where I answer questions and they can get to know each other and show off their creations. And in coming weeks I will begin to hold occasional live office hours by video chat, so I can offer help in a way I never could for my Craftsy or Bluprint students.
Yup, this is on the honour system; I have no good way to check that students using the code are also students of mine on Bluprint, and that's okay. If folks who haven't taken my classes before sign up with the discount, I'll be just as happy to teach them and get to know them, so please do feel free to share this offer with friends and family, or on your own blog or social media.
Tech platforms come and go, but craft is forever. I hope to continue making things with you long into the future.
It's a new year coming up – heck, it'll be a new decade! – and there's no better way to start fresh than to do it by embracing the imperfection and occasional downright ugliness that comes along with doing creative things.
Join me from January 6 – February 7th, 2020, and together we'll work through my book Make It Mighty Ugly.
Through guided discussion, prompts and live chats, we'll fight our creative demons and kick the new year off with a focus on prioritizing the meaningful creative projects that make us happy so we can spend the rest of the year making and learning and not worrying about it all ending up perfect. Because perfect is boring and imperfect is fascinating.
If you're a supporting member at the $5-or-up level, be sure to enter your discount code.
Once you've registered, you'll gain immediate access to this group, and you're welcome to get to know your fellow adventurers before the workshop begins.
Be sure to grab a copy of the book before January 6th! (And please do feel free to request a copy from your local library. We love libraries!)
FLASH SALE! Get 20% off till Jan. 2nd (no code needed)
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Happy New Year! ‘Tis the time to get real about your creative habit – without stress or judgment. Right? Of course right.
Have you been desperately wanting to prioritize your creativity but feel like no matter what you try you just can't manage to follow through? Maybe you've tried a 100 Days challenge, or tried making a certain kind of thing every week, but then you miss a day and then another and, well…
Or maybe you used to have a rock-solid creative practice, but over time it's eroded and you'd really like to commit the time and effort to getting it back into shape?
The Daily Making Jumpstart LIVE is a two-week online workshop with daily prompts and exercises to get your creative habit up to speed – no stress involved.
The next session begins on January 8th, 2019, and includes 10 live video hang-outs (that will be recorded, because we're all busy and who can attend ten live video sessions anyway?).
I have never been excited about a new class like I’m excited about this one! Zigzag Crochet: A Beginner’s Guide to Ripples & Waves is all about my absolute favourite kind of project to crochet. (Uh, obviously, zigzags, ripples, waves, chevrons – whatever you call them.) Come learn how to bend stripes into cool shapes, from spiky chevrons to gentle waves. With texture or lace, and always with colour!
I designed the class around a baby-blanket pattern made in machine-washable yarn (as every baby blanket should be), and I walk you through the project from beginning to end.
There’s loads more in class, too! Learn how to use a zigzag pattern to make a project of any size, from a scarf to a king-size blanket. Explore how yarn weight and gauge affect the size of your projects, play with loads of colour, and learn how to handle all the pesky ends you have to deal with when you work in stripes. Discover how to make a wide variety of patterns, including the feather and fan pattern I’m using to make this epic scarf, and learn how to introduce variations into patterns so you can alter the way they look.
A couple of months ago, I got a Twitter mention from the Chattanooga Public Library in Tennessee, about a Mighty Ugly workshop they were going to host for Valentine's Day. And I nearly fell out of my chair. I mean, how perfect is that?! It's totally perfect. So of course I told the librarian how excited I was, and I sent her a signed book to give away, and I recorded a wee video intro for the event.
Here's the video (in which I explain why Mighty Ugly and Valentine's Day are a perfect match, natch) and some tweets from the event that made my heart sing. (If you're a librarian who thinks this idea is swell, or you're just an average person like me and you'd like to ask your friendly neighbourhood librarian to host a Mighty Ugly event, check out this link with loads of info to help!)
I'm still finding my way around Periscope, and one of the things I love most about it is that people can comment as you record, so you can respond to what they say or ask. I just love it. Anyway, as I've been experimenting with the platform, I find I've been chatting with people more and more about daily making and Year of Making, so I did a scope highlighting five reasons to do a Year of Making. The video of my five reasons is below, as is the link to get the free worksheet I promised in the scope!
Scope Notes
I mentioned my friend Meighan O'Toole (whose scopes are ace, btw), and this post she linked to from someone doing a Year of Making.
My online not-really-a-class: Daily Making Jumpstart. (That's what you'll find at the website I mention in the scope: camp.kimwerker.com. In a few weeks, I'll launch my next class on there; sign up for my weekly email to be the first to find out about it!)
Hi! I'm a writer and editor, and also like a camp counselor for grownups. I help people have way more fun making stuff. Learn more about how right here.
Hi! I'm a writer and editor, and also like a camp counselor for grownups. I help people have way more fun making stuff. Learn more about how 