HOW TO … A RESOLUTION ROUNDUP

Not to offend you readers out there pausing after every page to unravel a little more of your yarn ball, but there are some crafts you just can’t teach yourself. (I’ll never forget my first time using a hot glue gun … neither will my roommate’s cat.) Here’s where to go for a little help doing it yourself. Prices vary, so take the first step and make some calls.

There’s a small window after college where not knowing how to cook is still endearing. But at some point, that hapless, entry-level type has to cocoon in their galley kitchen and emerge a cast-iron-wielding, farmshare-participating adult. Accelerate that metamorphosis at Stir Boston, where, under the expert tutelage of James Beard-winning chef Barbara Lynch, you’ll learn the ins-and-outs of primal cuts, gluten-free pasta, coffee and braising (and those are just some of the winter classes). We know it’s hard, but the Easy Mac will understand. [102 Waltham St., Boston. 617.423.7847. stirboston.com]

Some days, we wake up just wanting to weld shit. After an unfortunate encounter with a lighter and a fish tank, we finally found the Artisan’s Asylum. With a fully equipped metal, wood and fabric shop, the Asylum offers classes in electronic assembly, jewelry making, leatherworking and kayak building, among others (like welding!). [561 Windsor St. and 13 Joy St., Somerville. 617.863.7634. artisansasylum.com]

You know what pickup line works without fail? “I can fly.” At Somerville’s Aircraft Aerial Arts, students learn to do suspension tricks with tufts of silk, hoops, “corde lisse” (that would be rope) and the static trapeze. Founder and teacher Jill Maio maintains small class sizes for minimal humiliation (also, one-on-one attention). Offered at four different levels, most people enroll again and again. Not convinced? Sign up for a $25 sample class. When the pickup line works and your new dish figures out you might have been embellishing, blind him/her with your newly defined abs. Game over. [12-14 Tyler St., Union Sq., Somerville. aircraftaerialarts.com]

At the end of a long day, the last thing you want to do is head to class. But you already paid for it, and you know should. When that class is at the Eliot School, and the first thing you see upon arriving is the schoolhouse’s wide-open doors, the warm light inside, and the dogs and babies playing on the lawn in front, the days tends to fall away. A beacon for both timid DIYers and burly MacGyver-types alike, the school, which opened in 1676 (!!), offers a class for any project you’ve ever wanted to tackle—from painting and sewing to woodworking, soap making and upholstery—and they’re offered at all experience levels. [24 Eliot St., Jamaica Plain. 617.524.3313. eliotschool.org]

If you’ve ever written an angry breakup email and received a response praising your syntax, you should already know about Grub Street. With classes on poetry, short fiction, novel writing, narrative nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting, teen and children’s literature, and publishing, the nonprofit collective is a hodgepodge of aspiring writers and published authors. For their annual Muse & the Marketplace event in April, they host workshops, manuscript conferences with agents and editors, and seminars by published authors. Look out, Francine Pascal—your return will be short-lived. [160 Boylston St., Boston. 617.695.0075. grubstreet.org]

Two of these are actual classes offered at Sprout & Co.: crow herding, board-game strategies and lock picking. Not sure, are you? Sprout is basically a collective of the smartest folks in the city (most instructors are local MIT grads). Current classes include creative mathematics, wind turbine construction, animation and event planning for the economically challenged. Not, however, crow herding. (They’re not monsters.) [339R Summer St., Somerville. 617.229.5036. thesprouts.org]