It’s amazing what I’ll do to try to win one of Jimbo’s beautiful handmade crochet hooks. Quite how I found myself trundling into work with a bag full of wool and an almighty hangover the other Friday is a mystery to me – but I’d made a promise to teach anyone in the office who wanted to learn how to crochet, and my word is my bond.

All this was in honour of World Crochet Day, something that I read about on Jimbo’s Front Porch, and which inspired me to have a crafty day in the office, much like they do over at Fruit Towers in the Innocent offices.

But while I was having these romantic thoughts of a bonding, crafting session with my staff, at the back of my mind was the knowledge that not all Shiny people are given to folksy crafting experiences, and – as expected – many of them scoffed at the very notion of spending a lunch break learning to crochet.

Luckily, I know how to win them round, and once I’d bribed them all with pizzas (bit of free advice: carrying 10 boxes of steaming pizzas is not easy), six of them stayed seated (presumably, the carb coma kept them grounded) in order to learn crochet skills.

Susi, Gemma, (who is already a wonder-knitter), Abi, Kelly, Lucy and Duncan all sat and listened patiently while I tried to talk through the hangover. Gemma proved (unsurprisingly) to be teacher’s pet, and was soon helping the others. Lucy and Kelly eventually got fed up after about half an hour of valiant persistence (they were just getting the hang of it as well!), Abi finally got the hang of it (she’s tried to learn before), Duncan was a natural, and Susi surprised me (and possibly herself) by not only having the patience to sit there and learn, but also by quite enjoying herself.

In the end, my initial promise to teach them to make Innocent Smoothie hats proved a bit ambitious, but the rows of trebles (US DC) they produced were still pretty impressive! In fact, there was enough enthusiasm for people to get Gemma promising to do a knitting session, so maybe this is the start of something beautiful at Shiny Towers.

You can read Abi’s piece about the day over on Crafty Crafty.