Classes this autumn at Social Fabric, Totnes

Social Fabric is a great craft shop in Totnes, Devon. Totnes is a lovely town with some great independent and slightly quirky shops. Social Fabric is a knitting and craft shop and they do a large workshop programme. In fact I'm taking a class there next week. I'm rubbish at sewing. I did learn to sew at school and tried again by taking an evening class when I was pregnant with Vanessa. But I'm giving it another go and I'm taking the 'Sew a beach bag' class next Tuesday. I'm off to buy my fabric this afternoon. I love bags so perhaps somehow magically my sewing has improved enough for me to make a halfdecent beach bag.

I'm teaching at Social Fabric this autumn too. In fact Social Fabric kicks off my autumn class schedule with Professional Finishing Techniques on 3 September. Do you hate sewing up your hand-knit sweaters? Do you finish knitting all the pieces then leave them in your knitting basket for months? Then this class is for you. I'll teach you the professional way to sew up a garment. In addition you'll learn how to shape your sweater to make sewing up easier, how to convert stair step should shaping to short row shoulder shaping, how to set in sleeve caps and how to pick up stitches for collars and button bands and how to work a one row button hole. This class is packed full of info and if you only take one knitting workshop, make this the one! This is suitable for knitters at any level as long as you can cast on and off and knit and purl.

My current toe up socks in progress.

On 18th October I'm teaching Toe Up Socks. What's the advantage of toe up socks? Because you start at the toe and knit the foot first, you don't have to worry about running out of yarn for the foot of the second socks which can happen when you knit socks top down. You can also avoid having little annoying balls of yarn left over. Divide your yarn in two halves and knit till you run out. If you're scared of double pointed needles, then this class is for you as we use circular needles and the magic loop method and for the brave knitters, you'll get a chance at the end to try two socks at a time. This is a great class for experienced top down sock knitters and brand new sock knitters. But I warn you, socks are addictive! I can think of worse addictions though.

Do you love colour in your knitting? On 15 November I'm teaching Slip Stitch and Fair Isle colourwork. In this class you'll learn how to knit slip stitch colourwork and how to read slip stitch charts. Slip stitch colourwork is the easy way to create complicated looking colourful patterns but they are very, very easy. 

My Winter Violets sweater now available from the Making Spot.

We'll then move on to fair isle. You'll learn how to hold and work with two yarn at a time, how to strand the unused yarn and how to read fair isle charts. Because I only recommend knitting fair isle in the round, you'll also learn how to knit in the round using a circular needle.

Social Fabric is a bright, modern, colourful shop. They stock a great selection of good quality affordable yarn, plus other craft supplies. Do check out their workshop programme. They do a large selection of not just knitting and crochet classes including beginners classes but also lots of sewing classes and kids craft classes.