Crochet for Beginners - Ages 13-18

Greetings! I'm Lydia Holloway, a professional graphic designer, illustrator, writer, and educator. You can call me "Miss Lydia" and my pronouns are she/her!

I've been crafting, drawing, crocheting, sewing, and basically learning as much as I can about as many things as I can for as long as I can remember. As passionate as I am about creative pursuits, I am even more excited to share what I have learned with others. I have been teaching on OutSchool since 2020, and  have taught enrichment activities to K-6th (USA) students since 2011. Prior to that, I was a private tutor, teaching arts and crafts out of my home.

I cover a wide range of subjects and have extremely diverse interests, but I have one simple, fundamental belief behind my myriad pursuits: I want to learn how to make, grow, and produce as many things for myself as I can. And I want to share that knowledge with others!

I was born and raised in Kansas, the daughter of two educators, one teaching junior high science and the other teaching art and elementary English. Although I initially pursued a career in graphic design, the call to teaching was too strong to resist. In 2011, I fell into what would end up being my dream job: assisting with the local after-school program. I remained with the program for a decade, teaching arts, crafts, science, and more to a diverse group of in-person learners.

I believe the greatest gift we can give the next generation is the ability to create, not just in the practical sense, but in the sense of overcoming mental and emotional hurdles that would otherwise stifle us. I teach my students to create freely, for the joy of it, as well as giving them the practical skills they need to accomplish their goals. We are empowered by knowing how to create things for ourselves, and we are enriched by the freedom to create without self-consciousness. Art is neither good nor bad: it simply is, and by creating it, we are allowed to "just be" as well.