Marianne Cosgrove puts up notices at the hospital where she works and sends out postcards for a Stitching group in Starbucks. We meet on the first Wednesday of every month, 7-9pm.
Michele Micarelli of New Haven, an art-wool dyer, hooks her glamourous self into the scene as a mermaid, hosts a weekly lunch in her glass-house fiber studio. They Shirret borders onto hooked rugs.
I Shirret outside Juliet's dance and pottery classes
and while Lovis is winter surfing nearby in Watch Hill Rhode Island.
How to Teach Shirret
The Art of ShiRRéT by Louise McCrady with Lady McCrady, 1997, is in lesson order.
Show some of your pieces and explain the various fabrics used,
the effects of plaids vs. prints, tightly woven vs. loosely woven thin, medium, and thick weaves.
Expose the hidden crochet stitches inside your ShiRRéT sample.
Then show a 3" square of chain stitch first row, double crochet stitches. "They are the same thing, but every time a crochet stitch is made of cord with the hook end of the needle, we pull a fold of fabric onto it.
A ShiRRéT stitch is one crochet stitch + one fold.
The ShiRRéT needle makes them both."
Take out fabric and steam iron and demonstrate how to fold, iron, mark with the ShiRRéT Easy Bias Cutting gauge, and cut (pages 22-25).
Reject the students' fabric that will be too difficult to ShiRRéT with for the first time.
Everyone irons and cuts their own fabric into 4 strips that are about 10" long with their own fabric in two colors, or they can trade among them to get 2-3 colors.
They also need a few very short strips. Snip off the ends.
Demonstrate how to fill the needle (page 35).
Have them fill 3 short strips first, then 2 or 3 strips of the same length (10" - 15") in different colors.
Demonstrate 1/2 fold, one fold, how to make continuous strips without sewing from two half folds, how to turn over the whole strip to get two half folds together (pages 36-37).
Put the needle in each of their hands (pages 30–32).
Using ShiRRéT™ cord only, and with the fabric to cushion the needle between the fingers, lead them in making a swatch of chain stitch row 1, double crochet stitches row 2+, square.
Don't forget to turn and go into the 2nd stitch with the double crochet stitch each row.
(If there is someone who said they could crochet and obviously cant, take out a J crochet hook and have them practice with yarn.)
Check left hand for perfect placement of the cord in the fingers.
Most of them will resist holding the ShiRRéT™ needle properly, and they will revert to bad habits with left hand tension! But holding both hands in textbook fashion will free the left hand middle finger and thumb and right hand thumb to move the folds onto the stitches. They can be rebellious later, and use the wildest colors they can think of! This is the only hard part of teaching––to get them to hold the needle and cord your way and not their way! They will tell you all kinds of reasons they have to do it their way, that they've always done it their way. ShiRRéT is not exactly crochet, and they need to approach it as if it is a new technique.
Take a break. Tell them to breathe, please. Stand up and stretch, walk around for 10 minutes, drink water. People always want to sit too long and they will hunch over and not get enough oxygen.
Demonstrate the ShiRRéT stitch, with individual attention (page 37).
Work in rows using a different color for each row so they can tell the difference between the base row and each row on top of it (pges 39–43, and 46–47).
For those who learn the stich fluently and have made 3 rows, they can make a border row 1 (pages 43–44).
In the last 45 minutes, start everyone on a round center (pages 50–53), unless they feel more comfortable staying on the rows project.
It can be helpful to read outloud from the book to acclimate them to reading instructions in the book and following them.
There are so many pictures in the book, and the text is written so plainly that even people who claim they never learn anything from written instructions or patterns are able to follow. This way they will be able to use the book at home when they are working independently or ShiRRéTing with friends.
Crochet Teachers:
Shirret is a great skill to add to your teaching.
Many people are motivated to learn to crochet when they see the beautiful things we can make in Shirret.
Louise McCrady Shirret™ method has been taught continuously in the US since 1968. Louise, previously a speach and English lit major, teacher and book reviewer, who also tailored all her fine clothing and ours, combined the words shirring - for pleating and gathering, with crochet to form a new, descriptive word for the technique she and her mother spent years writing patterns for and perfecting from a rag-rug technique into the carefully structured needlecraft it now is.
Shirret can be taught in 3 hours to crocheters, and 6 hours for non-crocheters.
Teach a weekend one -day workshop, or two evenings a week apart.
Most groups enjoy each other's company and want to meet for longer than 6 hours.
With extra hours, students feel more self assured in stitch-making, and have more fun.
Many teachers host monthly groups after the class has ended.
New Shirreters can join the regulars after an intro class.Shirret Class Description
for Adult Education, art centers, coffee shop message board, Yarn store class brochure.
You can expect to be paid $10 - $30 an hour. Pre-order supplies at 40% off, 203.245.7935.
Add your skills and interests to the descriptions below.
Schedule: 10am–3pm Saturday and/or Sunday, or 6-9pm three evenings or more, or for a month.
Here's something new in Crochet. If you love to work with the color and texture of fabric, you can crochet soft, sturdy Shirret carpets with two easy stitches. Join a group and learn the basic and new stitches in the first class, and work on projects and share ideas in later classes. Recycle your children's outgrown clothes, old curtains, and sewing scraps into Shirret square and round rugs. This American crochet technique from the 1920's was developed by Louise McCrady. Use hand-dyed hooking and braiding wool for a Designer style.
Shirret is faster than hooking and easier than braiding. There is no sewing, stitches are hidden inside the fabric and the carpets are washable and reversible.
Bring crochet hooks, string and cord and yarn, fabric scraps in great colors, sharp scissors. Patterns, a special needle and wool squares are available to purchase $4-$14, or at www.shirret.com.
Prerequisite: fluent crochet chain & double-crochet stitches. (Teach a beginner crochet class too!)
Teacher Bio:
(Include your education, arts skills, exhibitions and prizes)
How to Teach Shirret
The Art of Shirret by Louise McCrady, 1997 is in lesson order.
Show some of your pieces and explain the various fabrics
used, the effects of plaids vs. prints, tightly woven vs.
loosely woven thin, medium, and thick weaves.
Expose the hidden crochet stitches inside your Shirret sample.
Then show a 3" square of chain stitch first row, double crochet stitches. "They are the same thing, but every time a crochet stitch is made of cord with the hook end of the needle, we pull a fold of fabric onto it.
A Shirret stitch is one crochet stitch + one fold.
The Shirret needle makes them both."
Take out fabric and steam iron and demonstrate how to fold, iron, mark with the Shirret Cutting gauge, and cut (pages 22-25).
Reject the students' fabric that will be too difficult to Shirret with for the first time.
Everyone irons and cuts their own fabric into 4 strips that are about 10" long with their own fabric in two colors, or they can trade among them to get 2-3 colors.
They also need a few very short strips. Snip off the ends.
Demonstrate how to fill the needle (page 35).
Have them fill 3 short strips first, then 2 or 3 strips of the same length (10" - 15") in different colors.
Demonstrate 1/2 fold, one fold, how to make continuous strips without sewing from two half folds, how to turn over the whole strip to get two half folds together (pages 36-37).
Put the needle in each of their hands (pages 30–32).
Using Shirret cord only, and with the fabric to cushion the needle between the fingers, lead them in making a swatch of chain stitch row 1, double crochet stitches row 2+, square.
Don't forget to turn and go into the 2nd stitch with the double crochet stitch each row.
(If there is someone who said they could crochet and obviously cant, take out a J crochet hook and have them practice with yarn.)
Check left hand for perfect placement of the cord in the fingers.
Most of them will resist holding the ShiRRéT™ needle properly, and they will revert to bad habits with left hand tension! But holding both hands in textbook fashion will free the left hand middle finger and thumb and right hand thumb to move the folds onto the stitches. They can be rebellious later, and use the wildest colors they can think of! This is the only hard part of teaching––to get them to hold the needle and cord your way and not their way! They will tell you all kinds of reasons they have to do it their way, that they've always done it their way. Shirret is not exactly crochet, and they need to approach it as if it is a new technique.
Take a break. Tell them to breathe, please. Stand up and stretch, walk around for 10 minutes, drink water. People always want to sit too long and they will hunch over and not get enough oxygen.
Demonstrate the Shirret stitch, with individual attention (page 37).
Work in rows using a different color for each row so they can tell the difference between the base row and each row on top of it (pges 39–43, and 46–47).
For those who learn the stich fluently and have made 3 rows, they can make a border row 1 (pages 43–44).
In the last 45 minutes, start everyone on a round center (pages 50–53), unless they feel more comfortable staying on the rows project.
It can be helpful to read outloud from the book to acclimate them to reading instructions in the book and following them.
There are so many pictures in the book, and the text is written so plainly that even people who claim they never learn anything from written instructions or patterns are able to follow. This way they will be able to use the book at home when they are working independently or Shirreting with friends.
