(originally published 14th September 2013)
I'm pondering how long it's been since I had a traditional 2-day weekend (as I finish my breakfast coffee, Lucy urled up snoozing in my lap, Toby attacking the palm tree and Reuben obviously waiting for more grub) and I think it must be about 8 years now...
My week tends to run like this: Tuesdays City & Guilds teaching/prep, Wednesdays RSN Certificate & Diploma teaching, Thursdays admin, Fridays RSN teaching, Saturdays either RSN, One Stitch At A Time classes or private bookings, Sundays off, Mondays in the studio, then back to Tuesdays and City & Guilds again! Which is why my friends are long-suffering indeed, bless them...
But it's really important to run evening and weekend classes for the large number of people who can't make it to weekday sessions. I remember when I was working Monday - Friday, 9-5, that it was frustrating to hear about classes that were running nearby on a Wednesday or Thursday, and I was unable to get the time off to attend them, grr! :)
Until recently, my typical Thursday was RSN teaching all day, then my gorgeous After Work Embroidery gang from 6.30 - 9.30 in the evenings - and my hats off to them as they'd also worked all day and were willing to tackle learning a new project without so much as a full length teatime in between!
And then there are the stitchers-to-be who can't make it to class even on weekends or evenings, because they're too far away, or have commitments when I'm teaching, or perhaps aren't well enough to make a weekly commitment - I'm hoping to work with my new graphic designer and put together some distance learning material (written and video-based) over the coming months - I myself have learned loads from YouTube, including how to purl 2 stitches together through the back of the loop (p2togtbl to you knitters out there), and want to offer the same kind of helping hand in embroidery techniques.
Watch this space and do let me know if there's anything in particular that you'd like me to include in distance learning materials. I'm off to teach the old-fashioned way now! Have a great stitchy day...
:)xx
Comments