I learned to crochet when I was a kid from my grandmother. While I was
in college I taught myself to knit using the English or Western method,
which means I was a thrower. I did both when the mood struck until
around '85 when I went back to grad school and something had to give. I
stayed with the sewing, but the fiber arts went by the wayside. During
the last three years, I've picked them back up again--first knitting,
and last fall crochet. It has truly amazed me how much everthing's
changed about the crafts, from the yarn to the needles and hooks to the
methods, and what hooked me on working with them again was the math that
is used to create things to actually fit. That said, I want to continue to grow in my knowledge of these particular fiber arts.
A week ago I attended the second Stitches Texas at the Irving Convention Center. Last year I took two days of knitting with Andrea Wong, and was hoping she would be teaching her knitting socks using the Portuguese knitting method, but when the classes were announced, she wasn't there. I looked through the offerings and decided to do a beading class with Judith Durant, two crochet classes with Shannon Mullett-Bowlsby and two classes with Gwen Bortner. I picked wisely--there wasn't a single class I didn't gain from!
Beading with Judith Durant: We explored five different methods for inserting beads into our knitting. Not all are equally pleasant to do, however! Spending close to an hour on threading beads probably won't ever be my idea of fun, but the results are pretty spectacular. As a result, I bought her book Knit One, Bead Too: Five Techniques for Knitting with Beads. We worked on all five, and there's an amazing scarf in the book that I hope to get done up for someone special's birthday soon.
Gwen Bortner: I took two classes from Gwen--one on working with non-wool fibers and the other on how to knit backwards. The non-wool class was the first one I had and the knitting backwards was the last. Gwen is extremely organized and has great notes. She had a lot of information to share about non-wools, both animal and plant based. I needed some information on linen as I have some waiting to become a shell, and she was most helpful with that. The knitting backwards class was taught in an amazing manner, because she didn't show us a thing, but had us learn to think about how we would hold our needles to do a stitch, then what the motions would be to accomplish that on the back side of the knitting. It's going to take practice, but I think I'm really going to like working with this for short rows of all kinds!
I already had several of Shannon Mullett-Bowslby's Craftsy classes, and really have enjoyed watching them, but honestly, haven't taken the time to practice. I took an amazing class in Foundation Crochet, and the things I learned there are going to revolutionize my work! I hate to chain stitch--yes, I know that's how you start. Maybe I should say how you USED to start! I can't even imagine doing that anymore, and to practice I'm working on a different scarf from the one mentioned above. The first row is 340 double crochets--yes, 340. That would mean 343 chains. I don't know about you, but my nightmare is not doing enough and not discovering until I was almost done. In foundation crochet, you actually create the chain and the accompanying stitch at the same time. Genius! I absolutely LOVED that class, and already have over 120 double crochets on my foundation chain for the scarf. I also took a class he entitled The Joy of Ribbing. He wasn't talking knit ribbing here--it can also be done with a hook. We learned several different ways to do it, and that, too, I'll have to practice. '
The company that sponsors these events is branching out next year and expanding the offerings at their events. They have one next spring, I think on the East Coast, that will include other crafts, like quilting and sewing and other things as well. I hope it goes well because it's an amazing idea! The only problem will be deciding just what to take. I do love to learn!
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