Classes 2020
Friday Skill Shot: 2:30pm – 3:00pm (30 minutes, $20)
Knitting Backwards
Teacher: James Herbison
Suitable for: Any knitter who can knit forward.
Impress all your mates by never turning your work, just start knitting backward when you end a row!
Cool-factor aside, knitting backwards is incredibly useful to speed up work on small items like edgings, bands, ties and entrelac. It can help prevent tangles when working with lots of yarns.
Friday Skill Shot: 3:30pm – 4:00pm (30 minutes, $20)
Icelandic Bind Off
Teacher: Vanessa Harper
Suitable for: Any knitter.
The Icelandic Bind Off creates a pretty, decorative edge to your work. It’s stretchy enough to use at your sleeve cuffs, but not so stretchy that it makes waves. You will learn how quick it is to create, especially for such a fancy finish. Are you ready for this little beauty to become your new favourite cast off?
Saturday 9am – noon (3 hours, $65)
Beyond the B Cup – Knitting to fit your unique shape.
Teacher: Morag McKenzie
Suitable for: Any garment knitter.
Did you know that most women’s knitting (and sewing) garment patterns are written for a B cup bust in mind? What if you are bigger than a B? Come and learn how to alter a garment to fit a fuller bust well. I’ll teach you all my personal tricks for achieving a great fit not only in the bust, but for the entire upper body.
Although this class is aimed at those with “non-standard” body types, it isn’t exclusively for those with fuller busts. If you want a great fit for your shoulders, your arms, your bust, your waist and your hips, I’ll tell you how to get it. Whatever your unique shape is, this class will give you the tools to alter a pattern to fit you.
Mosaic Knitting – Colourwork for Lazy Knitters
Teacher: Frances Stachl
Suitable for: Any knitter
This class provides a basic overview of Mosaic knitting, which I like to think of as being stranded knitting’s gentler cousin.
Mosaic knitting is a colourwork technique that differs from Fair Isle or stranded knitting in that it allows the knitter to work with only one strand of yarn at a time – making for a simpler less complicated knit. This class is perfect for the knitter who is not yet ready to try stranded knitting but who would like to begin experimenting with colourwork.
Talk: Saturday 12:30pm – 1:30pm (60 minutes, free)
Making for the Mind
Speaker: Metiria Turei
Suitable for: Everyone
There is a lot written about how important making is for your mind. This was absolutely true for me while I was a member of Parliament, using crochet, knitting and stitching as a means to focus and calm myself. This continues to be the case in these later years even as I have had the opportunity now to make as a consistent and major part of my day. In this presentation I will talk about my own process from crocheting baby hats in the Parliamentary chamber to textile art exhibition work and we will share together our different processes for making works. I have always worked best with others and in this conversation you are more than welcome to work as we talk.
Open to all delegates on a first-come, first-served basis. Seats are limited but we should be able to accommodate most people.
Saturday 2:00pm – 5:00pm (3 hours, $65)
Is it a Jersey? Geurnsey? or Gansey? – An introduction to the history and development of this classic knit style.
Teacher: James Herbison
Suitable for: for confident beginners and beyond (you need to be able to cast on, knit and purl, and read from a graph).
These traditional garments were originally worn by fishermen and their families so they had to be designed with practicality in mind. They were knitted densely to be warm and hardwearing in order to keep out the wind, rain and sea spray. Today the humble gansey remains just as popular but has evolved to appeal to an audience while still holding true to the tradition.
In this workshop we will start off with a short history lesson on the origins of the Gansey, including a fun quiz on the anatomy of a gansey, followed by an introduction to some of the most popular of the distinctive knit and purl stitch patterns traditionally featured on ganseys. Participants will then start to knit a sampler of their own featuring some of those stitch patterns. Be warned… your tutor may throw in a red herring or two!
Pattern Hacking 101
Teacher: Jodi Halleux
Suitable for: Intermediate knitters (you will preferably have completed at least one sweater type project).
You’ve found the perfect pattern, with just one problem…
Learn how to hack patterns by combining elements, adding or removing style details or just changing gauge to create the garment you always dreamed of.
This class will cover yarn substitutions, adding texture or colourwork elements, converting between garment types and changing elements such as necklines to personalise existing patterns.
Don’t be hampered by the exact yarn or gauge a pattern specifies. Don’t dismiss a pattern choice because one element isn’t what you are looking for. Learn the skills that will give you the confidence and ability to make something just the way you want it.
Sunday 9am – noon (3 hours, $65)
Continental Knitting
Teacher: Frances Stachl
Suitable for: Any knitter.
This incredibly popular class is back once again!
Continental style sees the working yarn held in your left hand – some knitters finds this faster, easier on their hands, and more intuitive.
In this class you will learn several variations of cast ons, and how to knit and purl in the Continental style. Norwegian purling and ribbing Continental will also be covered.
Cables with a Touch of Lace
Teacher: Stella Lange
Suitable for: Any confident knitter (you should be familiar with basic cable and lace stitches).
Magic happens when the open decorative structures of lace are worked into textured cables, what was dense become lighter.
Cables are usually worked on a reverse stocking stitch background, but what if they float on a sea of lace? And what happens when the eyelets become part of the cable twists?
Come and explore techniques for adapting cables to include elements of lace. In class we’ll work a learning sampler where traditional cables evolve into a hybrid lace-meets-cable design.
Sunday 12:30pm – 3:30pm (3 hours, $65)
Stop Fumbling And Start Tumbling – An introduction to intarsia.
Teacher: James Herbison
Suitable for: for confident beginners and beyond (you need to be able to cast on, knit and purl, read from a graph).
Intarsia is a clever method of knitting where you say goodbye to the constraints of stranded knitting and say hello to using fields of colour to create shapes and texture. Twisting your yarn at the back of your work instead of having to pull strands across allows you to use less yarn in projects and to achieve a smoother surface to your knitting.
In this class we will be working with a striking, geometric pattern called Tumbling Blocks. Participants will have the choice of testing the waters with a simple three colour interpretation or of pushing the boat out and opting for nine colours.
With either option you will learn:
- How to place your colours together for impact
- The art of twisting your yarn at the back
- How to work in your ends as you knit
- How to take the tumbling blocks pattern to the next level
Steeking
Teacher: Stella Lange
Suitable for: Any knitter.
Steeking – considered the knitter’s equivalent of running with scissors. Elizabeth Zimmerman wrote that some knitters needed a drink and wee lie down after their first steek. There will be scissors but there will not be running!
Steeking is a method by which knitting is prepared for cutting. Steeks are a colourwork knitters friend and incredibly valuable for anyone who loves to knit in the round. This workshop will introduce two common methods of steeking and look at what to do next.
Take the fear factor out of steeking and learn how easy it is to make the cut!
Sunday Skill Shot: 4pm – 4:30pm (30 minutes, $20)
German Twisted Cast On
Teacher: Vanessa Harper
Suitable for: Any knitter.
Do you have a go-to cast on that you use for almost every project? This one is mine. It’s stretchy enough for your ribbed edges and firm enough to keep your work in check. Find out how to create this flexible stitch, how much yarn to allow, and just how stretchy this clever little cast on method is.
Crochet Cast Off
Teacher: Jodi Halleux
Suitable for: Any knitter. Previous crochet skills are not required.
Do you dread binding off large projects? Create a neat and tidy bind off and speed up the whole process with using this handy technique.