Crafts & Hobbies Lessons in Watertown, MA. It's your time.

I began knitting when I was twelve years old; I sat beside my neighbor, Mrs. Turner, and listened to her stories while I watched her wooden straight needles move expertly along, clacking-clacking in counterpoint to the crackling of the wood in the corner stove. Mrs. Turner had a laid back approach to teaching knitting. The point of knitting wasn't simply to produce a useful item: it was to enjoy the process. If you made a mistake, just unmake it and try again. The worst that could happen was you would end up with two sticks and some string.

When you're twelve, life is filled with drama. Knitting was not. It has always been a meditative, nurturing retreat. There have been times in my life when I've knitted more, times when I've knitted less. But the lessons I learned from knitting have served me well over the years: patience, perseverance, and keeping it all in perspective.

I'd love to share this craft with someone else. Come, learn to knit and see what else you might learn ...

Go at your own pace and have fun are my knitting mottos! I teach continental style knitting and have been teaching beginners to knit for over 5 years. Together we'll experience the excitement that comes when you cast on something new, learn a new stich, or finish a favorite project.

I'm can start with the basics (cast on, knit stitch, purl stitch) or jump straight into helping on a project you have planned (or started and got stuck on? don't worry - it happens to all of us!). There is no limit to the kind or number of projects we can do. I have plenty of project ideas and am always happy to help with your ideas, too.

Kelly has an MFA in Costume Design and Technology. She has been sewing for more than 20 years and takes a project based approach to teaching sewing. Classes are tailored (pun intended!) to your skill level and interests so you'll never get bored! Lessons are offered in your home or online so you can work on your own equipment and with your own tools.

My teaching style is progressive and tailored to the individual student. Each lesson builds on what was learned before. We go over games that the student has played, especially losses to higher rated players. For beginning players and juniors I teach the fundamentals and build from there. Suggested books are Comprehensive Chess Course, for beginners, and Chess The Easy Way by Reuben Fine, for more advanced players.

I will teach you how to make video games! I teach the following programs:

Scratch 2.0 - a great program to learn for beginners or children 8 and up! Put together code "blocks" like puzzle pieces to program your game!

Stencyl - For making games without typing code! Similar to Scratch where blocks of code are used, but much more powerful!

Unity - For making 2D and 3D games. We will use a little bit of C# language to code the games!

Game Art - Create game art and animation sprites for your games using Adobe Animate and Adobe Photoshop!

Children or Adults can take any of these programs. I recommend 8+ years for Scratch and 10+ years for Unity. 12+ years to really get into more actual c# coding.

Start your path to becoming a game maker today!

Wether you have never touched a chess piece in your life or you have already beat everyone who will play with you I would be thrilled to help you plan your next move. A typical first lesson would likely involve playing a game and analyzing it for mistakes, but if that isn’t your speed I will happily provide you with tactical puzzles or lessons on notation or work with you on a particular phase of the game you want to focus on. Let me help you take things to the next level while having fun along the way.