Evie the Kitten Amigurumi Pattern & The Story of Teaching My First Crochet Workshop

A few months ago I started attending life drawing sessions at a local art studio in downtown Halifax, Sparkles n’ Sawdust Art Centre. I noticed they listed ‘crochet classes’ on their window, and an idea formed in my head. I’ve always been naturally introverted and disliked public speaking, but I had uprooted my life and moved across the country two months prior and I was determined to challenge myself and be open to new opportunities.

I asked the owner about the classes, and it turned out that they were no longer running them and didn’t have an instructor anymore. Opportunity strikes! I took a deep breath and said that I would be interested in running a workshop. We scheduled a date, and suddenly I found myself doing lesson prep to teach an intro to amigurumi class!

The owner of the studio suggested making a cat to bring in the cat-lover crowd, so I set to work designing. The class was going to be for intermediate crocheters so I could focus on teaching them the foundations of making amigurumi instead of how to hold their hook and yarn, but I still wanted the project to be fairly simple. I made a couple of wrong turns in the design process (at one point it looked rather like a mouse), and discovered along the way that I’m horrible at drawing animals… I tried to sketch out what I wanted and couldn’t get it right, so I decided to practice drawing a real cat to learn the proper proportions. It did not go well.