In terms of my achievements, I am really glad that I managed to crochet a small Kirby keyring as well as a beanie (which both got sold at the crochet club winter stall!!) as these were my initial goals in crochet club. In fact, I feel as though I have probably exceeded my initial expectations as I have since been able to crochet many other small toys and figures like the panda, elephant and dinosaur toys that I crocheted.
I generally found the act of crocheting quite a simple task and although there were several hiccups along the way (particularly at the beginning when I was learning to crochet), I persevered and was able to reach a decent level of crochet skills. However, it did get stressful at times (particularly during exams) as finding the time to finish my multiple projects would get quite difficult. Additionally, some patterns that I started became quite complex and after continued efforts, I realised were probably not realistic for me and I eventually had to let them go.
Another challenge was the organisation of Crochet Club – as last year the bulk of the club was made up of Year 12 students however they naturally had to leave eventually. This left us with only 5 or 6 members which was in some ways a blessing (more flexibility with time) but ultimately a challenge as it was difficult for us to crochet enough items to sell at a stall. However, we overcame this through promoting crochet club in the year below and now we have quite a substantial amount of girls. This has allowed me to appreciate the benefits of working in a large group as it can often generate the biggest yield – a vital benefit when it comes to fundraising. This was particularly interesting as I’ve been crocheting while also knitting a blanket for service. Although I definitely enjoyed being able to claim ownership over the entire blanket that I knitted and doing so by myself was my original aim, there were definitely times when I wished that I could have the help from all of crochet club!
Finally, although this has been my creative component of CAS, it was also allowed me to engage with global issues as we had to decide which charities to support and this entailed research and careful consideration. Additionally, although we wanted to set up a stall and raise money for WaterAid, when the Nepal earthquake struck we collectively decided to focus on simply knitting beanies and other warm clothing to send. While it was difficult to prioritise and order causes of huge importance, it allowed us to reflect on the ultimate purpose of our crocheting and the impact we could make. Clearly, crocheting these past two years has not only been fun but also extremely valuable and although this is the end of my CAS crochet journey, it certainly won’t be the end of Crochet Club!