The Craft Yarn Council of America (CYCA) is a non-profit organization “committed to developing greater consumer awareness and acceptance of handcraft yarn though education, advertising and other promotions regarding handcrafts.”

I first learned of the CYCA several years ago when I taught at the middle school level, and I was looking for guidance as to how to go about teaching crochet to my students. As I result of the time I spent at the CYCA website studying the available resources, I learned about the Craft Yarn Council of America’s Certified Instructors Program.

While the CYCA offers three different ways to complete the coursework portion of the program, when I finally decided to move forward, the correspondence offering was the only one that fit the demands of my life at that time.

So I sent in my application and my check, and in return, I got a binder detailing a variety of crochet techniques, a Teacher’s Handbook with some excellent ideas about how to teach, and a packet of ten lessons I needed to complete as part of the requirement to become a certified instructor.

Once I received my materials and a deadline of one year to complete the 10 lessons, I got started with the best of intentions. Those intentions soon got interrupted by other things that needed doing, and my materials languished in plastic bin with a pile of swatches that were intended for some of the various lessons I was supposed to finish.

By the time I was down to the last 12 weeks to complete the course work, I had about 16 weeks worth of work to do, so I pulled the materials out of the bin and began working on the assignments at every available opportunity. I bought binders, sheet protectors, plastic bags that zipped, and tags that I could use to correctly label and present the swatches. When I took a break from crocheting, I worked on answering the questions that accompanied each lesson.

I managed to finish the 10 lessons with one day to spare. It took me another year to fill out the sheet detailing my teaching activities and send it in. Today, the fruits of that particular labor arrived in the mail, and I now have a Certified Instructor pin:

I am still awaiting my Certified Teacher pin (I completed enough hours of teaching for both the instructor and Teacher levels) and need to put in another 20 hours of teaching to earn the Certified Professional designation.

It feels wonderful to have moved forward with this project.