It's been all about teaching workshops over the last week and it continues this week. And my most popular workshop this spring is definitely Fair Isle Knitting & Steeking. I taught this workshop at Spin A Yarn last week and at Sitting Knitting last Sunday. Later this afternoon I'm leaving for Berkshire where I'm teaching at Artesano for 3 days and one of the classes is Fair Isle Knitting & Steeking (I'm also teaching Pro Finishing and Two Socks At A Time - all classes still have spaces).
12 keen knitters at Sitting Knitting on Sunday
I've been teaching Fair Isle Knitting and Steeking as separate classes for a while but since I combined them in to one class it's improved in popularity. For some reasons, many (or even most) knitters are terrified by steeking. For those not sure what steeking is, it's basically cutting your knitting to make a hole for sleeves and to turn a sweater in to a cardigan.
And yes it can be scary to cut into a fabric you've spent hours, weeks, months or even years knitting. What if it all goes wrong? That's why coming to a workshop is such a good idea. You get to learn and practice all the techniques under my supervision and with the encouragement of the other knitters. Even if it goes slightly wrong in the class, and sometimes it does, it's still good practice.
Rebecca, aka Poppybead, came to my class on Sunday and she took some gorgeous photos and the photos in the remainder of this post are hers and she's given me permission to share them here. If you want to see all her photos, they're available on Facebook or her blog.
In this class we spend the morning knitting a fair isle swatch and then in the afternoon we use two different crochet techniques to re-enforce the steek and then we get the scissors out and start cutting.
My favourite moment is when knitter do the first snip! It's scary but exciting! And I love that most knitters leave with the confidence to try this technique on a sweater or at least they'll go home and have the skills to do some more practicing before they try it for real.
I'll be teaching this class regularly this year. I'm also teaching 'Slip Stitch & Fair Isle Colour Work' at La Mercerie in Wales in early April. All my classes up to end of July are now on my website, as well as some autumn classes (with lots more to come for the autumn term).
I'll be back at Sitting Knitting in June for a day of Toe Up Socks. The perfect class if you've never knitted socks and wonder why so many people are addicted to sock knitting or if you're already a sock knitter but have never knitted them from the toe up. This class will also teach you how to knit two socks at a time if you're brave enough.
Thank you to Rebecca for allowing me to share her photos. I wish I could bring her to all my classes to take photos. Do check out her Facebook page and blog.
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