Beginner, intermediate, advanced

I’m getting to this a bit later than usual this morning, because I desperately wanted to finish off my latest Portuguese Whitework project for the book first. And I just finished it! I think it took less than two weeks, which is quite remarkable. I didn’t get much else done during that time though!

Anyway, on to the subject for the day, which follows on from yesterday’s discussion of class expertise levels. Class ratings: beginner, intermediate or advanced. A couple of you yesterday said things along the lines of “so what do they mean?” Great question, especially because they probably mean different things to me, to you, and to someone else.

So, this is what they mean to me.

Beginner
This encompasses people who have NEVER before worked any embroidery, right through to people who have worked some embroidery, but are new to the technique of the class. For example, you might be experienced at surface embroidery, but decide to take a Hardanger class, having never done any Hardanger before. This puts you as a beginner. Your experience with other embroidery will mean that you know your way around a needle and thread, but you may not necessarily have any experience with counted thread yet.

Intermediate
You have some experience with the style of embroidery and have mastered the basics.

In the case of my fast-paced class that I mentioned yesterday, the technique was new to all the students, but students needed to have experience with counted thread embroidery, and be comfortable with surface embroidery techniques. This was explained in detail to the organisers so that they could accept appropriate people into the class.

Advanced
You are an experienced stitcher. You have mastered the basics and have worked a number of things using the techniques. The class will include complicated techniques or stitchers that will require a good working knowledge of embroidery and the technique in particular.

These are my ratings only. Other teachers might mean different things.

Yesterday Rachel commented: Sometimes the class is marked as “Intermediate” and I think “What precisely does that mean? I’ve played with the technique on my own – will that be enough?” Rachel, it may mean that you could do the class. I know that you have an excellent grasp of many different types of embroidery, and probably have explored many of them by yourself. So quite possibly *you* would be able to handle an intermediate class in this mythical embroidery! But if you were a less experienced embroiderer, and not nearly so highly accomplished, then possibly it would be too much for you.

This is my main advice to everyone about class levels: if you are unsure, ask. That may sound like a bit of a cop out, but it is the best course of action.

I do like the idea of teachers stating exactly what the pre-requisite skills are (as Martha suggested yesterday), but sometimes a teacher is not given the opportunity to include this. Sometimes space requirements for a written class description do not allow for such detail. However, it IS a good idea, and if more of us teachers were to specifically state pre-requisite skills, then maybe it would become the accepted norm.

Thanks for the feedback on this topic yesterday. I’ve definitely found the discussion to be useful and worthwhile. I hope that you have too. 🙂