Last Saturday I was participating in a Learn to Crochet workshop at the Landa Library here in San Antonio.  Fellow Alamo Rows Crochet Guild member Shirley Morrison organized the event.

The student-teacher ratio was great -- at my table: three students, two instructors.

I wasn't sure how many crochet stitches and techniques absolute beginners could learn in a few hours. 

A lot, as it turned out.

We covered all the basic stitches -- and a few variations -- in back-and-forth and circular crochet.

As a kid, I taught myself to crochet from a book.  But since then, I've learned from other crocheters, YouTube videos, yarn company websites, crochet websites, books, magazines, patterns, Craftsy.com and Ravelry.com.

I think my favorite way to learn/teach crochet techniques, though, is with a person sitting by my side or across a table from me.

Here are a couple of upcoming opportunities in San Antonio if you've always wanted to learn to crochet:

* The Alamo Rows Crochet Guild meets the second Saturday of every month (except December) from 1-3 at the Hobby Lobby on West and Bitters.  There's always a lesson after the business meeting. 

* And the Central Library is presenting a Knit Out & Crochet, Too event from 9-2 on Saturday, Sept. 21.  All materials are provided.  

If anyone could wear a hat, it was my mom, Ruby.  I'm not talking fancy hats -- the kind you might wear to the Kentucky derby, or a royal wedding -- but rather the kind you wear because it's cold out, or because you want to keep the sun out of your eyes, or simply because you feel like wearing one (plus you know you look so darn cute in hats).

My mom especially loved the wool felt berets that my brother and sister-in-law sent for Christmas gifts.  She never wore them tilted to one side in the traditional French way.  Instead, she would perch the beret behind her ears, looking so chic that you wondered why they didn't wear them like that in Paris.  Or she would wear TWO berets at once, letting a sliver of one show beneath the other, for a surprise peek of extra color.

When I style my hats for my Etsy shop, I think of my mom -- what would Ruby do?  I do my best to be inventive in my styling and photos, but she's a tough act to follow.