Upcoming Events: Needle Emporium, Shall We Knit

On the road again...

Back to Needle Emporium in Ancaster May 26th! (Julie bought a kettle just for me, she may as well get her money's worth out of it... ) Seriously, it's a great shop, and the "bay area" knitters are wonderful.  By popular request, I'm teaching my Finishing Class, and Continental Knitting.

Here's the thing with Finishing: it can be make or break with a project. It's often said that good finishing is the difference between a project looking home-made and hand-made - and I agree completely. I'm pretty passionate about finishing techniques... They are often given short shrift in the books and pattern instructions. You'll get something like "Sew up." or "Assemble." which isn't much help if you're not confident about how.  And many knitters avoid seamed projects entirely for this reason. But seaming is fun and easy and wonderful if you're doing it right. (See this blog post on one type of seam and how amazingly wonderful it is.)  And seams can add to the garment - they provide structure to stop it stretching, and can help you create a better fitting and better looking garment.

And if I may be so bold - you know me, I can be pretty bold - many knitters who think they know how to finish don't know everything they need. If you're seaming knits with the right sides help together like you do for fabric, I can tell you right now you're doing it wrong.

And even if your project doesn't need sewing up, there's things to learn. Weaving in ends.  Joining new yarn when working a project so that they're easy to weave in and hide. Casting off loosely and tidily. (Indeed, casting on well is important in finishing and we talk about that, too.) Oh, and that blocking thing? I explain that and make it easy-peasy! Even if you don't think you need this class, I promise you will learn something!

As for Continental: this class is a hoot! Skip your yoga class and come and stretch and exercise a little with me. It's pretty low impact (just your hands), but like yoga, it can be pretty life-changing. Expand your knitting repertoire a little, add some speed, pick up the skills you need to be a happy Fair Isle knitter. Learn to love seed stitch! And for knitters who are experiencing wrist pain or arthritis, learning to knit continental style helps you manage the strain and keep both your wrists limber and relaxed, without undue stress on them.

More details on both classes here.

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And I'll be in Waterloo June 9th and 10th. For World-Wide Knit in Public Day Saturday June 9th, ll be on the front porch of Shall We Knit, knitting. In public. Chances are I'll also be drinking coffee. (The coffee is very good there.) And maybe even some other fun stuff, too.  You never know what shenanigans the SWK girls can get up to... Come, hang out and knit with us, and enjoy the shenanigans.

On the 10th, I've got two classes - Continental (see above), and my Herringbone Shawl.

My Herringbone Lace Shawl is an ideal first lace project, it introduces you to safe, easy and fun lace knitting. I teach you about the magical top-down shawl works. And it's great way to use up those single skeins of sock yarn....