2010 CLASS SCHEDULE AND INFORMATION

Andean Knitting CLOSED
(6 hours)

This class is repeated on Saturday

Andean Knitting is unique in that the purl side (inside of the fabric) faces the knitter. The yarn is tensioned by wrapping around the knitter’s neck. This class uses alpaca yarns and teaches how to knit Andean “puntas” or scalloped edges and other Andean techniques while you knit a colorful patterned miniature Andean hat.

Advanced beginners and up who are comfortable with double pointed needles, colorwork and trying some new techniques!

Materials fee $10

CLASS CONTINUES

NO CLASS

Columns of Color CLOSED
(3 hours)

This class is repeated on Saturday AM

Learn a completely new stitch pattern! In this introduction to the Knit-One-Below technique, you will knit two colors horizontally, and yet, you will end up with the vertical stripes on one side and an interesting, completely different pattern on the reverse side of the fabric. You will make several swatches with different selvedges for different purposes as well as novel bind-offs that match your cast-ons!

Intermediate Knitters

Materials Fee $3

Carol Lansinger

A Skirt For You: The Long and Short of Making your own Knitted Skirt
(6 hours)

Carol will teach the basic design elements of a skirt and how you can change them from waist to hem for a custom fit. Starting with an exploration of personal style and skirt types we’ll move to color and patterns, look at Carol’s collection of her own knitted skirts, consider what style is right for you and what yarns and stitch patterns knit up a fabric that drapes well and makes a fine skirt fabric. We will review swatches you have completed at home (optional) and look at sample skirts to understand design elements. You’ll learn how to make changes for your own measurements, yarn and stitch pattern. You will leave class with a “mini-skirt” swatch that illustrates knitting techniques found in the patterns and your own pattern template along with 4 patterns to begin your own knitted skirt.

Intermediate Knitters who know how to swatch, read patterns, and measure for gauge.

Materials fee $10 for your choice of patterns, templates and other handouts.

CLASS CONTINUES

Jill Laski

Color Blending on the Drum Carder
(6 hours)

Jill knows fibers inside and out and how to blend them. The class will start with the primary colors and with a drum carder you will work your way around the color wheel creating all the colors in between. You will then work with the color triangle and create 6 different multi-colored batts from three solid colors. Students learn to create specific colors and understand color relationships.

No experience needed. Need a drum carder or hand cards, spinning wheel or drop spindle.

Materials fee $15

CLASS CONTINUES

Anita Luvera Mayer

Play with Surface Design
(6 hours)

Here is your opportunity to play with Anita, the queen of creativity, to transform any fabric and surface. Experiment with resists, paint sticks, dyes, foiling, burned felt and much more. “Stations” of each technique will be available so you can try all the methods. Each student comes away with a small reference notebook. This is an introduction to your creativity along with an inspirational journal of ideas and instruction.

Everyone

Materials fee $35

CLASS CONTINUES

Popular Wheel Mechanics CLOSED
(3 hours)

This class will be repeated on Sunday PM

Understand your wheel and get it working in top shape. You will learn how to adapt your wheel to spin the diameter you want, not the diameter the wheel allows. Students learn 1) how to adjust the wheel to get the twist per inch we need by adjusting the wheel and not the spinner; 2) look at how wheels are designed and how to get them to work to their maximum; 3) about drive bands, lead cords, different whorls and when to use scotch tension or double drive; and 4) how to reward our wheels for good behavior with proper oil and good maintenance.

Able to spin a continuous thread. Spinning wheel needed.

Materials $5

Fat, Fun and Fulled: The Art of Big Yarns CLOSED
(3 hours)

Unable to make a yarn bigger than a lace weight and not sure how this happened? Come and learn how to create a yarn the diameter you want, not just the yarn your wheel will let you have. We’ll also look at what makes a bigger yarn both stable and useable. Students will learn what fibers make the best fat yarns and how to use finishing methods and wet spun techniques to create unusual and beautiful yarns for knitting and weaving. We’ll use a variety of different wool types and blends such as silk and wool and cashmere and wool.

Comfortable with your wheel and able to spin a continuous thread. Spinning wheel needed.

Materials $10

Syne Mitchell

Intro to Rigid-Heddle Weaving CLOSED
(6 hours)

Weaving curious? Come learn weaving on the easy and portable rigid-heddle loom! This introductory class is for folks with little to no prior weaving experience. Using beautiful hand-painted yarn, we will warp the looms using the super-easy direct peg method of warping. Rigid–heddle weaving is fast, so you should be able to warp and weave off your scarf in one day. We will also discuss finishing and fringe twisting.

No weaving experience necessary. Some looms for rent for $10 – Let Suzanne know.

Materials fee $25 for the handpainted warp and weft

CLASS CONTINUES

Seaming without Sewing: 9 Ways to perfectly join your Knitting without sewing a single stitch CLOSED
(3 hours)

Love to knit but hate to seam? Knit beautiful garments, but hate the way they look when they’re finished? Finishing can make the difference between “professionally hand-crafted” and “home made”. If you have sweaters in pieces just waiting to be finished because you find sewing annoying, have trouble seeing to sew, difficulty holding a sewing needle, or just plain hate to sew this class is for you. Learn to use crochet, binding off, picking up, and knitting on to make perfect seams plus perfect afterthought pockets.

Homework

Advanced Beginner and up. Comfortable casting-on and binding-off, working knits and purls

No materials fee

Seaming without Sewing: 9 Ways to perfectly join your Knitting without sewing a single stitch CLOSED
(3 hours)

Homework

Advanced Beginner and up. Comfortable casting-on and binding-off, working knits and purls

No materials fee

Charlene Schurch

Lost in Translation: Why Color Theories Don’t Guarantee Beautiful Color Knitting CLOSED
(6 hours)

The color theory we all have been exposed to was developed for oil painters. Many other disciplines like web design or interior design professionals have adapted these principles. A lot of what is recommended does not work when one is designing a garment. We’ll look at why some of these “theories” don’t work and then look for clues and strategies to put together harmonious color combinations and translate the color chart to a pattern and a garment that you will be delighted to wear. We’ll talk and experiment with lots of colors!

Experience with Stranded Knitting

Materials Fee $20 for a set colored yarns for exercises.

CLASS CONTINUES

Simple Intarsia: An Introduction CLOSED
(3 hours)

An Introduction to Intarsia for students who have not done this technique before. You will learn the use of graphs, colors, joining yarns, securing your ends, interlocking color joins, tension and other techniques. Simple Intarsia can be knitted from a diagram and consists of blocks of color and vertical or diagonal stripes.

Advanced Beginners

Materials Fee $4

Stunning Intarsia
(3 hours)

This class is repeated on Friday AM

Expand into more intarsia techniques! You will follow graphs, prepare and place yarns for geometric patterning, compare intarsia and Fair Isle techniques and learn the whys and wherefores of using each in your garments. Working with a swatch, you will step through graphs, positioning and placing on the right side and wrong side diagonals, make choices of when to carry or place, and when to use and/or combine intarsia and Fair Isle for your designs. We'll cover common pitfalls and faults and how to judge the complexity of a design before purchasing either a pattern or yarns.

Students must have completed a beginning intarsia class and understand the basic techniques

Materials fee $4

Jean Wong

Tailored Knitting the Japanese Way CLOSED
(2 Day Workshop Thursday and Friday)

Join Jean Wong, a Nihon Vogue Certified Instructor, in thinking outside the pattern to adapt your choice of patterns and yarns to construct just the sweater you want. Jean will teach you how to draft patterns by calculating stitches and rows to your measurements. She will show you special techniques to make your own sweater with set-in sleeves. You will draw your own gauged graph based on the pattern, your own body measurements and calculations obtained from your swatch using a special gauge ruler. By learning these techniques you will be able to add your own personality to your knitting and be proud of the finished product.

Homework

Advanced Beginner and up. Materials $10

CLASS CONTINUES

THURSDAY EVENING

7:30 PM

A special evening Knit-In and celebration of the United Nations International Year of Natural Fibers!

FREE – donations of knitted items and dollars gladly accepted for our local kids charity!

An Evening in Celebration of Natural Fiber

This year we want to bring your attention to the United Nations International Year of Natural Fibres. We are delighted to participate and to welcome LINDA CORTRIGHT, publisher, editor and fiber adventurer extraordinaire from Wild Fibers Magazine as our special guest at Madrona. Linda will share her travels throughout the world in search of fiber at the Saturday evening banquet. And we join Linda on the global mission to ensure a sustainable natural fiber industry for the future. The awful truth is that synthetics have undermined the natural animal and plant fibers of the world and with it, the livelihood and food of many peoples worldwide. Go to www.keepthefleece.org to find out how you can help in partnership with Heifer International.

Thursday evening you will enjoy screenings of the fiber industry’s most fascinating documentaries. Linda will be joined by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot, and Stephanie Bryant, creator of “Handknit Heroes” as we again demonstrate the heart of our fiber community to reach out to others around the world. We’ll have more information on the evening on our website in January.

7:30 PM

FREE – donations of knitted items and dollars for our local “Caring for Kids” charity are gladly accepted!

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2010

TEACHER

MORNING 9-12 NOON

AFTERNOON 1:30-4:30 PM

Kathryn Alexander

Using Fresh Twist Energy to Create New Knit Fabric CLOSED
(6 hours)

We will begin by spinning singles. These yarns will not be finished – rather we will knit with this yarn while it is still on our spinning wheel bobbins. The yarn will be full of visible energy which we will use to change the shape of knitting as we have known it with balanced yarns. When we understand the energy we introduce into a single yarn it becomes possible to direct the yarn’s energy along pre-determined paths. You will see how traditional knit and purl stitch combinations turn ribbing into tumbling blocks and garter stitch into a chain mail double fabric.

Must be able to spin a

Continuous yarn. Spinning wheel in good working order required.

Materials fee $15

CLASS CONTINUES

Jacey Boggs

Spinning Art Yarns: Thick ‘n Thin and Coils CLOSED
(3 hours)

There’s no other art yarn spinning technique more shocking or crowd-pleasing than Coils! You’ll master an extreme and extremely controlled thick and thin and then use that skill to spin a bobbin full of balanced coils. Spinning a defined, anchored coil takes lots of skill and control which will also increase your over-all fiber/spinning control. Special attention is paid to spinning balanced, workable, and stable yarns that are also exploding with texture.

Working relationship with your spinning wheel, basic spinning skills and a desire to experiment! Spinning wheel required.

No Materials fee

Spinning Art Yarns: Cocoons, Halos, Twists and Loops
(3 hours)

Dip a toe into the world of art yarn Spinning! These three techniques are fun and surprising! Not only will they give you fantastic yarns but will also increase your over-all fiber control. Flex your spinning fingers with cocoons, then with a little dexterity, spin sweet, round halos and anchored twists. Special attention is paid to spinning balanced, workable, and stable yarns that are also exploding with texture.

Working relationship with your spinning wheel, basic spinning skills and a desire to experiment! Spinning wheel required.

Materials fee $8

Andean Spindle Spinning CLOSED
(3 hours)

Using a traditional Andean drop spindle, this class offers instruction in spinning and plying as done in the Andean Mountains of Peru. You will be working with wool and Alpaca fibers.

Andean Spindle will be provided. No experience required.

Materials fee $5

NO CLASS

How Do your Socks get Striped? CLOSED
(6 hours)

Elise has sock techniques like you have never seen! Learn the new Knit-One-Below technique as you make socks with stripes that are vertical rather than horizontal. The stretchy fabric hugs the foot, and your sock will have an unusual heel and matching toe. All of these features add up to create a two-color sock that is totally different from conventional socks!

Experience knitting socks required

Materials fee $6

CLASS CONTINUES

Betsy Hershberg

Design and Knit your own Bead Knitted Jewelry CLOSED
(6 hours)

This class is repeated on Saturday

Betsy’s knitted jewelry are one-of –a-kind pieces to die for. Check out her website at www.studiobknits.com and know you are learning the elements of this exquisite work from an expert. Betsy introduces all the tools and techniques you need to design and complete your own bead knitted bracelet or necklace. We’ll explore color choices, bead placement, rules of bead stringing and chart reading. You’ll create your own design and knit it in class! Finishing techniques include a new kind of graft the results in a seamless join for bead-knitted fabric.

Intermediate Knitters

Materials fee $15: Betsy supplies all that you will need.

CLASS CONTINUES

Jill Laski

Nature’s Palette
(6 hours)

Using the inspiration from nature, we will blend colored fibers to create yarn that represents the colors in a photo. Students will develop an eye for color and composition. Each student will receive a photo and colored fibers. Yarns will be created using different color blending techniques.

Be able to spin a continuous yarn. Spinning wheel or spindle required. Hand cards if you have them.

Materials fee $15

CLASS CONTINUES

Catherine Lowe

Simple Couture CLOSED
(6 hours)

The focus of this workshop is on those couture knitting techniques that truly change the look of the finished garment with the aim of showing how they can be easily integrated into one’s regular knitting and into patterns not written for them. We’ll knit a one-sixth scale sweater to explore techniques of fabrication, construction, and finishing that include: a cast-on for an even edge that won’t lose its shape; marking stitches for construction and finishing; use of selvedges; improved stitch pick-up techniques; joinery; regauging for fit and shape; and optimal methods for swatching and blocking. If time allows, we’ll talk a bit about design and a few simple tricks to transform the fit of a garment.

Intermediate Knitters comfortable with traditional methods of garment construction and finishing.

No materials fee

CLASS CONTINUES

Anita Luvera Mayer

Creative Clothing: Unique Free-form Creations
(2 Days Friday and Saturday)

This workshop is an exploration of how to create unique garments assembled from modules of free-form knitting/crochet. Here is another opportunity to learn creativity in design from Anita. She starts with color studies, yarn selections and flattering garment styles, methods of assemblage, edge treatment and beading. Each student will complete a scarf using their own creative modules along with a reference notebook of patterns and techniques. This workshop is “hands – on” with continuous instruction and guidance in developing individual creativity, color useage and knitting and crochet with no rules or patterns that will carry you into more projects.

Ability to cast on, bind off, knit, purl and single crochet. Materials Fee $50 for all materials, yarns and beads etc.

CLASS CONTINUES

Beautiful Sheep: The Pleasures of Spinning a Fleece – Luster Long Wools CLOSED
(6 hours)

Just as the name implies, luster long wools are famous for their smooth, silky fibers. These breeds come in coats of many colors – the beautiful blue grey of Gotlands, black border leisters, wonderful multi-colored romneys, creamy blue-faced leisters and the stunning white of teeswaters. These fleeces hold infinite possibilities and we will learn how to choose them, prepare them for spinning and how to handle these wools in the dye pot to obtain the beautiful, jewel-like colors they are famous for.

Able to spin a continuous thread. Spinning wheel needed.

Materials fee $15

CLASS CONTINUES

Syne Mitchell

Woven Shibori on the Rigid Heddle Loom (Weaving) CLOSED
(6 hours)

Shibori is a beautiful and organic tie-dye technique. Come learn how you can use a rigid-heddle loom, to easily insert “stitches” into the cloth as you weave. Once the scarves are woven, we will pull the threads to create a resist and then overdye the scarf to create richly textured designs.

Homework consists of prewarping your loom. A few looms already warped for class can be rented for $25. Let Suzanne know.

Intermediate Level - Students should be familiar with warping and weaving on a rigid-heddle loom.

Materials fee $5

CLASS CONTINUES

Wonderful Woven Stitches CLOSED
(3 hours)

This class is repeated Friday PM

Using your two knitting needles and basic knitting stitches, discover the astonishing fabrics and textures you can create with the technique known as weaving. Create knitting that masquerades as woven fabric, easily combine colors into incredible tweeds, checks and polka dots (using only one color at a time) and show off those hand painted yarns to best advantage. Amaze your knitting friends – some of these fabrics will stump the most experienced of them! These are some of the color techniques from Margaret’s new book “The Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques.”

A little homework

Basic knitting skills needed: cast on, knit, purl, increase, decrease, bind off

No Materials fee

Wonderful Woven Stitches CLOSED
(3 hours)

This class is repeated Friday AM

A little homework

Basic knitting skills needed: cast on, knit, purl, increase, decrease, bind off

No Materials fee

Charlene Schurch

NO CLASS SESSION

Lace 101 CLOSED
(3 hours)

Have you looked at those lovely shawl and scarf patterns and felt daunted? We will start at the beginning and discuss the best ways to cast on and bind off, how to knit basic increases and decreases needed for beautiful lace. We’ll cover selvedge treatments, reading from charts and much more. In no time you will be knitting lace.

Advanced Beginners

Materials fee $4

Stunning Intarsia
(3 hours)

This class is repeated on Thursday PM

Students must have completed a beginning intarsia class and understand the basic techniques

Materials fee $4

Mitre by Design CLOSED
(3 hours)

Achieve many colors, shapes and texture in garments – simply with mitres! Students will knit full, half, quarter and three quarter mitres in various swatches. Jane will then show you how to knit mitres for shoulder shaping and sleeve heads which are the complexities you will face in designing garments with mitres. She will cover fit and style using mitres as a design element.

Intermediate Knitters and up

Materials Fee $4

Gloria Tracy

How to Figure the Fit CLOSED
THIS CLASS REPEATED ON SUNDAY(6 hours)

Gloria is an expert on adapting patterns and designs to many different sizes and shapes. Last year students wished there was time for Gloria to expand on her fitting techniques. Here is a whole class focused on it! Tired of spending weeks on a project – and it doesn’t fit? Major disappointment! Learn basic design guidelines that will enable you to alter existing patterns. You’ll even make you own schematic so that every pattern from now on will be to YOUR measurements – no someone else’s. The handout is a table with step-by-step design ratios gathered over Gloria’s decades of pattern design.

Homework

All knitters

Materials fee $3

CLASS CONTINUES

Jean Wong

2^nd Day – Tailored Knitting The Japanese Way continues

CLASS CONTINUES

Friday Evening Teacher’s Gallery and Kaye Collins presentation

7:30 PM FREE

7:30 PM: Evening Gathering to view the Teacher’s Gallery and presentation by Kaye Collins, master knitter and spinner who has spent time knitting and spinning in small villages in the Andes. High in the Andes of Peru, men and women gather regularly to spin wool from their sheep and alpacas. The yarns they spin are knitted into warm hats or woven into beautiful sturdy cloths used to cover their shoulders and to carry their babies and other items. Their equipment is simple but their skills are well refined and their garments are works of art. Join Kaye while she takes us on a visit to several of the villages supported by the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco and gain insight on how the cooperative works and how they make their lovely garments.

7:30 PM - FREE

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2010

TEACHER

MORNING 9-12 NOON

AFTERNOON 1:30-4:30 PM

Kathryn Alexander

NO CLASS

Knit Fabric with Entrelac’s Shape CLOSED
(3 hours)

This class is repeated on Sunday Afternoon

Entrelac in its traditional form – rows of rectangles knit on opposing bias is a fun and engaging surface to knit. But why not make it impossible to put down by using endless amounts of color, re-arranging the rows of rectangles, squares and triangles, stack these shapes in new ways , make them three dimensional, change their size, the choices are never ending, intriguing and playful. This short session lets you learn the traditional surface as well as some of the more whimsical choices.

Advanced Beginners and up - need to be able to cast on, knit and purl and pick up stitches.

Materials fee $8

Jacey Boggs

Spinning Art Yarns: Corespinning, Beehives and Cocoons
(6 hours)

This exciting leap into art yarn spinning is brimming with techniques that will increase your over-all fiber control. Special attention is paid to spinning balanced, workable, and stable yarns that are also exploding with texture. In this class you will gain a good grasp of the following techniques: corespinning, autowrap, beehives, cocoons, halos, super coils and integrated foreign objects plus a little combination and freestyle spinning.

Working relationship with your spinning wheel, basic spinning skills and a desire to experiment! Spinning wheel required.

Materials fee $15

CLASS CONTINUES

Andean Knitting CLOSED
(6 hours)

This class is repeated on Thursday

Advanced beginners and up who are comfortable with double pointed needles, colorwork and trying some new techniques!

Materials fee $10

CLASS CONTINUES

Carson Demers

NO CLASS SESSION

Knitting Happily Ever After CLOSED
(3 hours)

This class is repeated on Sunday PM.

Ever know a knitter who hasn’t said, “Just one more row?” I’ll bet they’ve also complained of aches and pains while knitting. You’ll learn how knitting contributes to those aches and pains throughout the body and how to reduce them. A little knowledge and some simple changes can keep you knitting happily and safely ever after. Students who have taken this class have said that it should be “required learning for all knitters!”

For everyone

No materials fee

Columns of Color CLOSED
(3 hours)

This class is repeated on Thursday PM

Intermediate Knitters

Materials Fee $3

Columns of Cables CLOSED
(3 hours)

Break new ground with Cables! Learn to incorporate the Knit-One-Below stitch pattern into two-color cables that look like nothing you’ve ever seen before! And you won’t even need a purl background for your cables!

Must have experience working with cables

Materials Fee $3

Amelia Garripoli

Productive Spindling CLOSED
(3 hours)

Have you walked away from your spindles in frustration? Do you want to expand your repertoire from wheel to spindle so you can bring spinning on your travels? Are you sure there must be some way to make spindling more productive? Expand your spindle skill-set in this fun class: increase your spindle enjoyment and results. We'll match the right spindle for fiber and yarn, and play with a variety of top whorl tricks, bottom whorl tricks, and handy techniques to get more out of your spindling: true Andean plying, Peruvian wind-on, Kick-spinning, Navajo plying, Bottom whorl speed-plying, and more.

Basic experience Spindling or wheel spinning a continuous thread

Materials fee $8

Exotic Fiber Spindling
(3 hours)

Oooooh.... cashmere, camel, yak, alpaca. Luscious fibers. Enjoy these tactile sensations even more on your spindles. We’ll work on fine spindling, learning which spindles spin fine fibers, ways to control fiber and drafting for spinning the finest we can. Top whorl spindles, bottom whorl spindles and Akha spindles will be used in class.

Must be an experienced spindles spinner - able to spin and ply on spindles

Materials fee $10

Sivia Harding

Diamond Fantasy Lace CLOSED
(6 hours)

Hone your lace knitting skills while making this popular tip-to-top diamond lace triangle shawl with a knit-as-you-go edging. Sivia provides many lace knitting tips and tricks along with advice on incorporating beads into your lace. An attached I-cord edging finishes the shawl. Blocking is thoroughly discussed. Pattern will be provided.

Advanced beginners who are adventuresome

Materials fee $10

CLASS CONTINUES

Betsy Hershberg

Design and Knit your own Bead Knitted Jewelry CLOSED
(6 hours)

This class is repeated on Friday

Intermediate Knitters

Materials fee $15: Betsy supplies all that you will need.

CLASS CONTINUES

Mary Scott Huff

"Mad Hatters" CLOSED
(3 hours)

Design a colorwork hat, running as mad as you wish with your favorite yarn and colors! Creating your own designs can be daunting with all the choices there are to make. In this fun and creative approach, we will establish simple rules to follow which will help you to make those choices. As a "Mad Hatter" you will produce your own hat pattern incorporating a stranded colorwork chart you create in class. This simple project will open your mind to the many possibilities of charted colorwork!

A little Homework

Intermediate Knitters

No materials fee

NO CLASS SESSION

Anita Luvera Mayer

2^ndDay: Creative Clothing: Unique Free-form Creations continues

CLASS CONTINUES

Beautiful Sheep: The Pleasures of Spinning a Fleece – The Down Breeds CLOSED
(6 hours)

Often considered the “poor cousins” of the wool world, down breeds form the foundations of many beautiful traditional textiles. Want to make a perfect gansey yarn? Try a five-ply North Country Cheviot. Want to extend that little bag of cashmere without losing its amazing crimp and elasticity? Blend it with a bit of fine, white Dorset. Long wearing, hard working, mostly felt proof, down breeds are the perfect choice for boot socks and beach walks. They can make a wide variety of yarns from the thinnest lace to singles as big as your little finger. We’ll learn how to choose a fleece, prepare it for spinning, dye, and look at several projects that make good use of this beautiful fleece.

Able to spin a continuous thread. Spinning wheel needed.

Materials fee $15

CLASS CONTINUES

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Knitting for Speed and Efficiency: So Many Knits So Little Time! CLOSED
(3 hours)

This class is repeated on Saturday PM.

Here’s your chance to learn Stephanie’s perspective and secrets on knitting with speed. Want to knit faster? How about smarter or more efficiently? This class examines the various techniques, attitudes and history of the most productive knitters, and is designed not necessarily to change how you knit (unless you want to) but to help you become the most efficient knitter you can be on your own terms.

Knitters at all levels are welcome

No materials fee

Knitting for Speed and Efficiency: So Many Knits So Little Time! CLOSED
(3 hours)

This class is repeated on Saturday AM.

Knitters at all levels are welcome

No materials fee

Knitting with Luxury Yarns CLOSED
(3 hours)

Novelty yarns, cotton, silk, mohair, alpaca, and the newer knitting fibers like bamboo, hemp and tencel all present a challenge to knitters, especially if used in a pattern designed for that all forgiving fiber, wool. Learn proven techniques for insuring success when knitting garments in these “alternative” yarns. Class will cover ways to prevent sagging and biasing, sizing pattern stitches and seaming techniques to stabilize the fabric. The role of yarn architecture and garment fit will also be covered in detail. You will leave with a better grasp of the pitfalls of working with these fibers and a small arsenal of techniques for dealing with them.

Homework

Intermediate knitters and up

No materials fee

Bring out the Best in Your Variegated Yarn CLOSED
(3 hours )

Love that variegated yarn? Hate the way it looks when you knit it? Whip handpainted and variegated yarn into submission! Avoid stripes, highlight desired colors, and emphasize texture. Review a variety of yarns and learn their properties while knitting swatches to experiment with textured pattern stitches, multiple strands and varying stitch counts.

Homework

Advanced Beginner who knows how to knit, purl, cast on, bind off, increase and decrease.

No Materials fee

Charlene Schurch

Fancy Heel Flaps for your Socks CLOSED
(3 hours)

Many sock heel flaps are knit identically with the ubiquitous heel stitch. Why leave all the patterning for the leg and instep? We will work with variations of heel stitch, adding color and garter or seed stitch to the sides for interest. Let’s jazz up those plain socks with fancy heels!

Experienced sock knitter

Materials fee $4

NO CLASS SESSION

Advanced Intarsia
(3 hours)

Ready to design your own? Jane will guide students in how to incorporate their own intarsia patterns in their knitted garments. Class will cover theory, graphs, tracing and placement, color balance and proportion. You'll work with examples from Jane's own work such as the falling leaves, colored cables, texture and traveling stitches.

Intermediate knitters and up who have some experience with basic intarsia techniques.

Materials fee $4

Mitre Knitting in the Round: Socks! CLOSED
(3 hours)

Learn mitre squares knitting techniques in the round while knitting a small Mitre Sock. It is knitted in the round but not using circular needles. You’ll have a unique sock and come away with new techniques for creating knitted fabric that you can apply to other garments and accessories.

Advanced beginners

Materials fee $4

Jean Wong

Fine Finishing Techniques the Japanese Way CLOSED
(6 hours )

Learn the unique Japanese finishing techniques that will give your knitted garments a truly professional look. Jean covers seaming, invisible cast off, seamless short row and shoulder joins, joining yarns invisibly and more.

Homework

Advanced Beginner and up.

Materials $10

CLASS CONTINUES

Saturday Evening Banquet (sit down – no buffet) with presentation by Linda Cortright

6:30 PM

Registration required. Please see registration page. Dinner is $45

6:30 PM – Sitdown Dinner (no buffet) Baked Salmon with green salad and veggies, dessert and beverages – vegetarian alternative available on request. Registration Required $45.

Our speaker at dinner is Linda Cortright, publisher, editor and fiber adventurer extraordinaire from Wild Fibers Magazine. Linda will share her travels throughout the world learning about the “nature” of the fiber industry. Enjoy hearing tales about life in India’s high Himalayas with the nomads who have tended cashmere goat herds for centuries. Discover what is happening to millions of sheep living Down Under as synthetics increasingly cannibalize the demand for natural fibers. And learn what steps are being taken to ensure a sustainable fiber industry for the future. You won’t want to miss Linda’s compelling, insightful and first hand accounts as she shares with us her knowledge, current concerns and experiences.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2010

TEACHER

MORNING 9-12 NOON

AFTERNOON 1:30-4:30 PM

Kathryn Alexander

Doo Dads and Finishing in Knitting
(3 hours )

This class is repeated Thursday PM

Able to cast on, knit and purl efficiently.

Materials fee $8

Knit Fabric with Entrelac’s Shape
(3 hours)

This class is repeated on Saturday PM

Advanced Beginners and up - need to be able to cast on, knit and purl and pick up stitches.

Materials fee $8

Anne Berk

Argyle Sock Knitting Technique CLOSED
(6 hours)

Argyle socks are like no other, unique in their design and techniques and so much to learn from intarsia, adding strands, weaving in ends, following a chart and Oh, that heel and gusset joining. And since this is Valentine’s day, Anne may have a special heart shaped argyle pattern for you to try! Anne says there is a lot to cover so an ability to multi-task and a sense of humor are helpful.

Homework

Advanced beginners and up who have previous experience with colorwork and knitting from charts

Materials fee $3

CLASS CONTINUES

Spinning Fabulous Alpaca CLOSED
(6 hours)

Alpacas produce one of the most exotic and unique spinning fibers in the world. Alpaca fiber is soft, fine, smooth, silky, shiny and has a long staple length. Alpaca fleece comes in many rich natural colors. Students will prepare and spin alpaca into woolen, worsted and semi-worsted yarns. A focus is placed on spinning a light, lofty yarn well suited for knitting and weaving.

Must be able to spin a continuous yarn. Spinning wheel or spindle needed.

Materials fee $10

CLASS CONTINUES

Carson Demers

NO CLASS

Knitting Happily Ever After CLOSED
(3 hours)

This class is repeated on Saturday PM.

For everyone

No materials fee

From the Crown Down: Knit One Below in the Round
(6 hours)

Learn to work the Knit-One-Below in the round to make a tam or a cap in two contrasting colors. You will complete a miniature version of this versatile cap. Thanks to double increases, your cap will grow from the center outward even though you are knitting in a circle! You’ll be amazed to see that your two yarns will form vertical columns of color!

Advanced Beginners and up. Experience with knitting in the round on double pointed needles required.

Materials fee $6

CLASS CONTINUES

Linda Gettmann

NO CLASS SESSION

Kumihimo Beaded Braids and Necklace CLOSED
(3 hours)

Learn the art of making Kumihimo woven fiber braids and the endless possibilities for beautiful jewelry creations. You will make an 8 strand braid on the kumihimo disk and then use that braid to make a beaded necklace. Students will learn how to make round, flat, oval and spiral braids in class.

Everyone - No experience required

Materials fee $20 includes kit with the kumihimo disk, instruction booklet, 8 bobbins, sample yarn threads. Gold and silver jewelry findings, glue and thread will be provided.

Ilisha Helfman

Jazzknitting: Following the Colors
(6 hours)

Ilisha has developed a new way to use the inherent qualities of hand-dyed yarn in knitting. She will show you how to follow the placement of color on hand painted skeins to form the shapes of our knitting. We will see how the same skein can produce completely different shapes when different colors are isolated and featured. We will also embrace characteristics natural to these knitted yarns (striping, pooling and curling) to make beautiful natural forms. Ilisha will show you her forms and collages which have been shown in galleries on the East and West coast and talk about the flow of ideas and experiments that led her from one shape to another. Unlike freeform knitting this is a considered and structured approach, though a liberating one as there are no patterns, no stitches to count and no mistakes to correct!

All knitters who are familiar with the long tail cast-on and knit and purl stitches.

No Materials fee

CLASS CONTINUES

Betsy Hershberg

Bead Knitting Sampler CLOSED
(3 hours)

Betsy’s incredible beadwork is a testimonial to the beauty of combining beads and knitting. She will guide you through an introduction to all that you need to begin adding beads to your projects and her enthusiasm will be contagious. You’ll learn beading techniques while completing a sampler from a pattern Betsy supplies. With your sampler and written materials, you will have a reference for future work.

Advanced Beginner and up

Materials fee $2

Mosaic Knitting with Beads for Dessert
(3 hours)

Mosaic knitting is a fabulous way to achieve amazing colorwork that looks complex while knitting with only one color per row. No bobbins, no stranding, no hassles. And as a bonus, mosaic knitting lends itself to the judicious placement of beads. After reviewing the basic “rules” of mosaic knitting, including reading mosaic charts, we’ll knit several swatches, learn a few simple techniques for adding beads and explore how to evaluate a mosaic pattern for bead placement.

Advanced beginners and up. No prior mosaic or bead knitting experience needed.

No materials fee

Mary Scott Huff

Eek! Steeks as Design Elements CLOSED
(6 hours)

An exclusive stranded colorwork design from Mary will have you seeing how steeks allow knitters to work in three dimensions, creating garments that fit. Scared to slice into your knitting? Steeks are meant to be cut – gasp! And Mary will have you relishing the steek in your life. Students will knit a beautiful neck warmer, knitting in the round that needs a steek to make it work. An exclusive design only for Madrona students, you will create a versatile winter accessory that can be worn as a neck warmer, shawlette or even a hat. For more info about what you'll be doing, Mary has posted colors and info on the web that you can see by clicking here.”

Homework

Intermediate Knitters who can read charts and work in the round

Materials Fee $60 for the “Wisteria” pattern and exclusive kit with hand-dyed yarns specifically for this project in purples and greens. Everything you need for the project is here.

CLASS CONTINUES

Spinning a Rare Breed: Icelandic CLOSED
(3 hours)

This beautiful sheep has an ancient history and, like many rare breeds, it became the foundation for an interesting textile culture that continues to flourish today. Icelandic sheep have been a “sheep for all reasons” – used for everything from underwear to the sails of early Scandinavian sea-going raiders. This five coated fleece comes in an amazing range of colors and textures. It can be fine like cashmere and coarse and hardwearing. We will learn how to choose a fleece, how to wash it and prepare and dehair it. Icelandic can be spun for many projects including fine lace shawls and wonderful lightweight Lopi sweaters.

Able to spin a continuous thread. Spinning wheel needed.

Materials fee $10

Popular Wheel Mechanics CLOSED
(3 hours)

This class is repeated on Thursday AM

Able to spin a continuous thread. Spinning wheel needed.

Materials $5

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Stump Steph: Knitting Unscripted
(3 hours)

Secrets of Hats? Socks? Gauge? Life? Mysteries and insights that only The Yarn Harlot can unravel with such humor and honesty! A session with Stephanie means discovering insights about life while grappling with real knitting problems and laughing at ourselves as we experience the perspective of an accomplished knitter who is clearly obsessed! Go ahead and ask, and see if you can Stump Steph.

Everyone welcome

No Materials Fee

NO CLASS SESSION

Helix Knitting: Color Spirals CLOSED
(3 hours)

Circular cascading stripes with absolutely no jogs. No one will ever find your beginning and end. Use as few as two colors or as many as you like. This technique produces perfect interlocking spirals of each color. Class will cover casting on, shaping, and more. Margaret is the wizard of color techniques!

Intermediate knitter comfortable working in the round.

No Materials fee

Embellishing with Color
(3 hours)

An exploration of the many ways to add color to the surface and edges of your knitting from the wizard who wrote the book on color techniques. You’ll learn about applied I-cord, ruffles, cords and straps, edgings and borders, bind offs and cast ons.

Homework

Advanced Beginners and up who are comfortable with casting on, binding off, knits and purls.

No Materials Fees

Charlene Schurch

The Magic of Komi Knitting Patterns
(6 hours)

The Komi, an ethnic minority of Russia, knit in isolation until the early 20^th century. Their patterns are beautiful, simple and of a tradition that many of the Baltic knitting cultures built some of their patterns on. We will learn about the underlying structure of the patterns that make them so knittable as well as cast on and start to knit a striking cap using a series of the patterns. Charlene’s previous book “Mostly Mittens: Ethnic Knitting Designs from Russia” has just been reissued in a new edition.

Intermediate Knitters with some stranded knitting experience.

Materials fee $6

CLASS CONTINUES