Retreat Mittens

Last weekend was another Retreat weekend. Yes, it's a hard life but someone (this time that would be me) has to do it. I was at the Eastern Ontario Needlers Retreat in Gananaque, ON teaching Gauge-Free mittens. Mittens you can knit to any size with any yarn. Here are some of the many results.

Thanks to Devon, Norma, Christine (who added stripes) and Nancy (who did 2 pairs). Great mittens. A lovely weekend with knitters.
-Deb

Mosaic boxes

It's the end of our Knitting Guild year. Yesterday we spent it at Linda's house learning to knit Mosaic boxes and V-neck Top Down knitting. It was a great day. Here we are, knitters hard at work, ha, ha.

Really we were learning how to read a mosaic chart. They are different from other charts.
Mosaic is colour knitting, working with only 1 colour across the row at a time. You knit the stitches you want to show in the particular colour you're working with and slip all the other sts. It's often found in your stitch dictionary in the Slip Stitch section.

Each row of the chart requires two passes (rows) of the same colour. With the Light Colour work the first row of the chart two times (Rows 1 & 2), once with the Right Side facing and back again on the Wrong Side. Now move to the second row of the chart and with the Dark Colour work it across on the Right Side and back again on the Wrong Side (Rows 3 & 4). Every row of the chart is worked twice with the same colour. Then the next row of the chart is worked twice with the next colour, alternating 2 rows Light and 2 rows Dark. It makes mosaic charts different from any other type of chart. Geometric designs result. The different colours make it look different.

These two below, have the colours reversed. The boxes are Light and the Background is Dark. To read the chart above and switch the light and dark is a real challenge and K & T did a terrific job.

Boo, hoo, that's it for Guild nights for a while. I'm going to miss my knitting buddies over the summer. Looking forward to seeing everyone in September.
Deb

Lace Chart Reading class

Do you use charts to work lace? I think they are far superior to written instructions. I'm running a Lace Chart Reading class on Saturday, April 9 at Eliza's Buttons and Yarns in Barrie, ON.

Charts give you a lot of information.

1.  They tell you exactly what to work across the row: knit, purl, yarn over, decrease.
2.  They also give you check points to watch for so you know you're on the right track. Check that those yarn overs line up with the ones two rows down. Yes, they do! Hooray.
3.  A repeating lace pattern with markers set up between the sets of repeats gives you a smaller portion of the lace to concentrate on, increasing your chances of success.
4.  The chart gives you a visual of the finished lace scarf which you will be able to see as you knit.

We're going to start the Crescent Scarf in DK weight yarn (Pattern included in class fee). We'll Cast On and begin the lace work right away. Each row is repeated many times across the row so you'll have the chart reading down in no time flat.

I love doing this class. I love to see knitters realize how easy it is to read charts. This opens up a whole new area of the knitting world where beautiful lace resides.

-Deb

Double knitting, double your pleasure.

It's been a hurry, hurry, busy, busy week after a totally awesome, relaxing weekend at a knitting retreat. The Sticks, String and Stewardship retreat in Sudbury, ON is one I am not involved in organizing. I set up a display of Cabin Fever books and yarn then commence to enjoy knitting and chatting. I leave a book on the table where people write down what they take away and we settle up on Sunday. So civilized. But these women are dedicated charity knitters so if you can't trust them, who can you trust?

I took two classes. One on Double Knitting in a way I haven't done before. You carry both colours of yarn with you from the front to the back as you knit and purl. It makes a really cushy fabric and is totally reversible. You could have seen that the other side is blue with yellow grid lines, if I had been bright enough to turn it over and photograph it. I'm blaming yarn fumes.

The second class was working a zigzag strip where you join-as-you-go. I love the joining part especially. You guessed it, no sewing up. Yay.

I like an ambling sort of tempo to my week. But this was the first week of a couple of classes which will run for the next 2 months so was not that sort of week. Beginning is always filled with anticipation because I really like to teach and anxiety because I don't know quite what I'm walking into. I've started a Top Down night at Eliza's Buttons and Yarns in Barrie, ON, where I work part-time. So far I have two knitters working on two totally different top down projects. I'm hoping for a couple more knitters then these nights will really keep me on my toes.

I'm also teaching a beginner series of classes at the Ramara Community Centre, this year we're knitting mittens, then a Mosaic hat. I'm thinking of suggesting a cabled scarf for after Christmas just to round out their winter projects. I have a brand new knitter in this class. It's so wonderful to see someone pick up needles for the first time and actually knit some fabric, on double pointed needles no less, talk about jumping in at the deep end. She did wonderfully well.

Now back to regularly scheduled testknitting. I'll have some more done by next week.
-Deb

YarnOverSleepOver Retreat

It's retreat time. This is the Yarn Over Sleep Over retreat that 9 needlework professionals, including Lyn and I, run together and teach at. We are being pro-active. Why wait to be chosen to teach when we could run a retreat of our own? This is our third year and the organization over the year leading up to this weekend is interesting, as all group work is, and very rewarding. Nine strong-minded entrepreneurial minds coming together, well you can imagine the sparks fly sometimes, all to the good. We have a wonderful weekend planned for our 43 attendees.

I've got all my samples for my two classes, a fashion show and for the Speed Dating Knitting.

What may you ask is Speed Knitting? Our first activity at the retreat is based on Speed Dating where one set of people, for example Women, sit in chairs along a wall and across from them sit those that came to date. Each person spends 2 minutes with the person in front of them and then moves to the next table. In our case, we're not looking for dates but for knitting know-how. A group of knitter sits at one table and tries a technique for 10 minutes then moves to the next table. It's quick, it's fun and hopefully educational. Our 4 tables this year are: Nupps, Garter Stitch Cast Off, Stretchy Cast On and Machine Knitting. As we all know, knowledge is power, power to the knitter.
Hope you have a great weekend, I am going to,
-Deb

Mosaic Sample

I've working up my first sample for a Steek workshop I'm running in Northern Ontario. It's a weekend at Lake Lauzon Resort in Algoma Mills, ON on April 25 & 26. Yikes, it's coming up soon.

Steeks work really well for 2-colour knitting because it's so much easier to do colourwork in the round. For this workshop we're going to make a hat or headband with 2 colours with a steek which will be cut and a buttonband put in it's place. Although the usual method for colourwork is to work a fairisle pattern, I decided to tackle Mosaic knitting.

I think I am in love. Have you tried this? There are lots of advantages, especially when worked in the round.
1.  Work with only 1 colour on a round at a time, perfect. No need to carry a second colour.
2.  The charts are easy to read once you know the trick. The trick is that each row of the chart must be worked twice with the same colour of wool.
3. The charts are easy to work with. Working with the dark colour, knit the dark stitches on the chart, slip the light stitches.
2.  The second round in the same colour is a snap. Phew. Always nice to have a comfortable, easy round. Work the stitches that are in the colour you're working with and slip the other stitches. You can have fun with the stitches on this round. By knitting the stitches you produce stockinette stitch or by purling them, garter stitch.

I see possibilities here. I worked the green (light colour) in stockinette stitch and the blue (dark colour) in garter stitch. What if I did it the other way around and made the green in garter stitch and the blue in stockinette stitch? How different would it look? What if I made the background the light colour and the shape in the dark colour? What if I did it all in garter stitch?

As you can see I have some more mosaic knitting in my near future. I can't wait to see what will happen.
-Deb

Stepped Stitch Pattern

This is a little baby vest I just finished knitting for a workshop I'm giving this weekend at the Eastern Needlers Retreat in Gananoque, ON. We'll be experimenting with adding stitch patterns to top down garments. This little vest is based on the Basic pattern from the Need A Baby Cardigan book. Working cap sleeves makes it a really quick knit. I added the waffle stitch on the Fronts and Back.

Patterns are a little more of a challenge to introduce from the top down. This pattern is stepped. The stitch pattern is 4 stitches wide. Increases are worked at the Raglan line and when 4 more increases are worked there are 4 more stitches available on the Front to work another repeat of the pattern.  I'm going to write this one up next week so you can try it yourself.

Deb

I've fallen off the Writer's Challenge wagon. But for a very good reason, teaching.

It's amazing to watch knitters finish their very first sweater. It's an experience never to be repeated so that first one is special. The knitters at the Ramara Community Centre finished not one but several little sweaters over our 5 weeks of classes.

On the road last weekend, where Bea of The Match Factory in New Liskeard, ON hosted me to teach many kinds of Short Rows. It even snowed for half and hour twice during the day. We were glad to be inside knitting.

A great group of knitters there.

 

Then on Sunday I was at Stix and Stones in North Bay. . .

where many knitters came out for tea and a talk about our Cabin Fever books. They're all ready for Halloween there.

Boo.

Deb

While you're knitting up your spring projects (we're being optimistic here that spring is really coming along some time soon), you might consider some knitting classes over the summer. A bit of a knitting holiday.

I'll be teaching two different courses at the Haliburton School of the Arts in Haliburton, ON. The first one is Saturday, July 19 and is called Make It Fit Workshop .
We'll be taking measurements and talking about the adjustments to Raglans and Set-in Sleeve styles for each person's figure. The knitters will go home with a sweater map (a guide to work from) so that they can knit sweaters they are proud to wear. Does that sound like fun? OK, except for the measuring part!
-Deb

Last week teaching at the Stitches West show

the most exciting thing, besides teaching classes which is always exciting, is seeing knitters everywhere: at tables, in the lobby, in the bar, walking around. I spent each morning knitting in the lobby at 6am with the other knitters from the east side of the country.

My roomie was the wonderful Lily Chin.

Dressed here as the Gingerbread Man at the Student Banquet.

Spent time in the Market where I was totally impressed with the number of books for sale.

Obviously so impressed I couldn't hold my camera steady.

-Deb

It's been a busy month. I've taught 4 weekends in a row, it's been wonderful. Three of the weekends were at retreats, every event different. It's really interesting to see how events are run. Each of these weekends began with a different focus and all were successful with happy knitters doing what they love to do.

At the beginning of the month I went to Wisconsin for the MidWest Masters Retreat run by the Yarns by Design store in Neenah, WI. It's been running for 10 years. Students at this event pick their classes and pay by the class. You can stay at the Holiday Inn if you wish or come in for your class. I met lots of wonderful knitters and spent time in the hospitality suite knitting between classes.

The second retreat was the YarnOver SleepOver Retreat which was an all inclusive weekend stay at the Fern Resort with your choice of 4 different 2 hour classes included. As one of the 10 organizers of this event, I have to say that this was a terrific weekend and teaching my classes was really fun. We'll be doing it again next April, same weekend, it's booked.

The last retreat was one I set up myself in Algoma Mills (half way between Sudbury, ON and Sault Ste.Marie, ON) on the north shore of Lake Huron. Two days of classes to knit a top down baby sweater. Two participants stayed at the Lake Lauzon Resort B&B. The local knitters came for the day. We've decided on next years dates, April 26 &27 at Lake Lauzon Resort where we'll be knitting socks in all their various forms.

And yesterday I taught at the Knitter's Frolic, a market day with classes, run by the Downtown Knit Collective, a knitting guild in Toronto, ON. Fun and all those yarn fumes, phew!

There is such a variety of events for knitters, it's endless.
-Deb

November is a busy month. I'll be on the road teaching and speaking around my area of the country. Here's the schedule:
November 1: Port Hope, ON. I'm doing a talk about adding stitch patterns to your top down at the  Northumberland Hooks and Needles Guild .

November 16 to 18:  At the Cabin Fever Retreat we're going to concentrate on learning to adjust the necklines of top down garments. I'm writing up small projects so you can try this out. You can knit a neck cozy or capelet over the weekend. You can, of course, start a full sweater to take home and finish up. It's coming up soon, can't wait.

November 24 & 25: I'll be teaching Top Down classes at the Downtown Knit Collective Winter Workshops in Toronto. They include a Plus-Size class, a V-Neck class and a favourite of mine, the Scatter class, where we throw out the rules for the top down raglan and play with the increase placement to see what could happen. It's fun and opens up lots of discussion of ideas for top down yoke construction.

November 28: I'm giving a talk at the Meaford Library, Adult programing with ideas for making your top down sweaters your own creation. What can you add in and what can you change to make them special. Bring your ideas.

It all begins in a couple of days. I'm ready to go.
Deb

It looks like I came home from Ottawa and then disappeared off the face of the blog. I did but I was teaching in Midhurst last weekend so it's been a busy teaching couple of weeks.

Last weekend I taught a beginner lace class over 2 days for the Simco County Arts and Crafts Assoc..

They made this crescent scarf in DK weight yarn. It was a quiet class with much counting of stitches under the breath. But they all did very, very well.

You begin this scarf with the lace work. That entails many, many stitch markers, one for every repeat of the pattern. This Oatmeal one is in Cotton Tweed.

And then I knit this bright one in fingering (sock) weight yarn but it's a little short.

So the blue one I'm working on now has 4 more repeats of the pattern on it.

I'm still enjoying knitting scarf no.4.

-Deb

I had a wonderful weekend in Ottawa teaching all sorts of Top Down classes.

The first one was an exploration of what you could do with a basic pattern.

And all the students showed me that you can do a lot. How about a fancy cable down the back with a lovely fancy cable bottom border to match. Laurie is going to pick up around the neck and make a matching collar. It looks terrific with her choice of yarn (makes me think of watermelons).

By Monday night at the Ottawa Knitting Guild meeting quite a few little sweaters were more than half done. Even those students who had to go home and give their project a rethink to get their pattern placed exactly how they wanted it to be had the finish line in sight.

Back in the classroom we tackled V-neck shaping on a teddy bear sized sweater.

Lynn brought her very well-dressed teddy to the guild meeting. Adorable. We finished the classes with some solutions to 'fit' issues which I hope will enhance their future adult-sized projects. A great time. Thanks Ottawa knitters.

I also got the chance to have lunch with Liz who happened to be spending the day in Ottawa. Note to self: It's good to get out of the house sometimes. It gives me a chance to see people I usually email. She has a brand new pattern out Perth Cardi available on Ravelry. It looks terrific.

And more news from the Ottawa area. The Eastern Ontario Needler's Retreat sign up is opening soon. If you're in the eastern Ontario area it's a great time. I'm checking my dates because I would love to go again.
-Deb

I’m on the road again and it’s coming up soon. If you’re in the Ottawa, ON area the Ottawa Knitting Guild is hosting me for a weekend of workshops on April 9 & 10. Ottawa Knitting Guild

On Saturday I’m going to be teaching “Designing for the Faint of Heart” which is based on our upcoming baby book. This should be fun with lots of creative juices flowing. On Sunday we’re going to throw all the rules of the raglan yoke shaping out the window and see what we can come up with. Always a favourite class for me because I love to play 'what would happen if '. And then we’re doing a 'Top Down that Fits' class. I have lots of ideas for that and some adult sized samples with some of my experiments.

After sewing on about 25 buttons I have a stack of samples to take and only one puncture wound to my finger. That's pretty good for me.

I think I'm done for tonight.
Deb

Still fussing with numbers and charts and decisions. . . decreases for the sleeves, buttonhole placement, 3 buttons or all the way down the buttonband (?), you know, the regular decisions for a sweater. But we're close, really close to having the first baby top down sweater write-up done. Yay.

Otherwise I've been working on a Lace workshop project. I've decided on a crescent scarf.

It starts at the bottom with the lace section, perfect for a workshop. To finish it off some simple short rows are worked. It's done in DK weight yarn for a quick project but can be adjusted for finer yarn. I think this will fill the bill. This is a local event. The class will be run through Simcoe County Arts and Crafts Association in April. You can come and see demonstrations of the various classes and other heritage crafts at the Celebration of Arts and Crafts on March 6 at the Simcoe County Museum in Midhurst, ON. I'm looking forward to it. I'll have another try at spinning that day too, yay.
-Deb

I had a blast in Gananaque this weekend at the Eastern Ontario Needlers' Retreat. I taught a class on Top Downs That Fit and Pat finished her little sample sweater later that evening.

And since I was teaching and never thought to get my camera out I have only one more photo from the weekend.

Debbie Wilson in the centre runs the Needlers' Retreat from http://sheepsahoy.com/ . It's a fun weekend and if you're free next year at this time come on down. I'm on the left with two other teachers: Nancy Knot, Style Your Knit to Suit You and Patte Fullwiler, Two-ended Knitting with Colour. A good variety of classes offerred. And the Show and Tell was, well, it was just terrific. So thanks Debbie for a very well run retreat and thanks to all the participants for making me feel very welcome.

-Deb

I'm getting ready to go to the Gananoque area for the weekend. The Eastern Ontario Needlers' Retreat is this weekend and they are going to learn about, what else?, top down knitting.

My notes are being printed out.

I have one more demonstration sample to knit up tonight. That will keep me busy.

And my car is packed with not much room left. I think I'm ready to get going.

-Deb