Workshops - Taking Some and Teaching Some

A few weekends back I took an all day workshop at the LYS with Cookie A. The class was based on her fabulous new book Sock Innovation: Knitting Techniques & Patterns for One-of-a-Kind Socks and the focus was to design your own pair of socks, based on a stitch from a stitch dictionary and custom fit to your measurements. We did a lot of math and a lot of knitting. The result is a great new sock design in progress. I'm working with a simple lace pattern and a bamboo and silk yarn that has just the slightest sheen. I'll be finishing the pair, making changes if necessary, and perhaps publishing the pattern in the near future.

This week I started the first of three classes at The Stitch Lab here in Austin - Artistic Embroidery with Kat McTee of Artcloth. I've been hand stitching on my felted pieces for some time, but my technique has always been a bit rogue. Now I've learned the proper way to execute the stitches, but without the tyranny of "the embroidery police". The next sessions of this class we will be using various transfer techniques - photo transfer, ink jet printable fabric, and iron on - to give ourselves a custom pattern for stitching. I've selected images, and planned a project that involves maps and photos from New Mexico and Minneapolis. I'll be sharing my progress and some photos soon.

And finally I'll be teaching a few workshops. I've scheduled some dates in September for both my "Get Your Knit On!" class and my "Knit This and Felt It!" class. "Get Your Knit On!" is designed for the true beginner, I'll be teaching all the basics from casting on to binding off, the knit and the purl stitch, simple increases and decreases, and knitting in the round. Students will complete two projects, and leave the third class ready to start a third project of their choosing.

In "Knit This and Felt It!" participants will knit, felt and embellish with needle felting either my Althea Bag or the Notorious Tam. The choice is theirs.