British Yarn

As you may well know, I'm the one who has far too many ideas for her own good and ends up organising knitting events! I'm so excited about it and more excited that you are going to get to hang out with and learn some wonderful stuff from some of my knitting heroines, who I'm sure are some of your knitting heroines too.

What you possibly won't know is that I learned to knit as a child, thankfully being taught by my left-handed grandmother, but unfortunately on big, heavy metal needles with nasty green acrylic yarn.  I knitted on and off as a child, then relatively seriously when I was a teenager.  It wasn't until I was pregnant with my daughter almost six years ago that I had an overwhelming desire to knit again.  It got me through nasty post natal depression, and I haven't stopped since.  I've since learned to dye, felt, weave and spin too, although crochet still feels pretty alien to me.

Something else you won't know about me, I'm fairly sure, is that my first degree is in French and I did a PGCE (teaching qualification) in Modern Foreign Languages, where I learned teaching teenagers French and German wasn't for me.  I live in a small village in Warwickshire, England, with my wonderful family, crazy pets, too much ironing and far too much yarn.  I also own a yarn shop, Yarn Gathering, in Coventry.

Oh, and you'll no doubt see this pair running around campus during the week too!

The Baby Surprise Jacket

Come and learn the wonders of the EZ classic wirh Jared.  Pattern will be provided with the class handout.

When: Wednesday, 9.30 - 12.30

Level: Advanced beginner plus

Class skills: Basic knit stitches, work a double decrease and increasing

Class length: 3 hours

Homework: None

Please bring with you: 3.5mm 60cm circular knitting needle, two stitch markers, notepad and pen.

Minimum number of students: 12 Maximum number of students: 20

Introduction to entrelac

Entrelac is such a fun technique and is seeing a revival in interest (look on Amazon and you'll see there are two new books coming out this Autumn on this very subject).  It looks complicated and is another one to wow non-knitters with!  In this class, we will be covering the seamless version of entrelac and looking at various swatches I have made to demonstrate different ways in which you can use the technique.  You'll soon see why I think this technique is best worked in yarns with long colourways, namely Noro (or perhaps some Crystal Palace yarns).  We will then start a very small sample together in class.

Yarn for this class is being provided by my LYS, Yarn Gathering.

When: Thursday, 9.30 am - 12.30pm

Level: Intermediate

Class skills: Must be able to knit, purl, pick up stitches, know how to increase and decrease

Please bring with you:  4.5mm (US 7) and 5mm (US 8) knitting needles. Notepad, pencils and eraser. You may also want to bring some coloured pencils too.

The Pi Shawl

It is no secret that I love Elizabeth Zimmermann (she was the one who inspired Knit Camp in the first place, being her 100th birthday and all).  I've knitted countless BSJs, but as Jared is doing a class on that, I thought I'd teach a class on one of my other EZ favourites, the Pi Shawl.

Like all EZ designs, this is seriously clever - but easily achieveable for most knitters.  This will be a great class if you've not knit a shawl before, or if you'd like to experiment working with laceweight yarns, or knitting in the round.  I will teach you the Emily Ocker cast on and the Magic Loop method for shawl knitting.

We'll then cover the principles of the shawl before starting our own.  For the adventurous, I will have the Knitting Treasuries on hand, should you wish to design your own shawl.  For the less adventurous, we will play with the traditional Shetland Feather and Fan pattern, which fits perfectly in with the Pi shawl.

Schoolhouse Press is kindly donating a free pattern for you for the class and Jamieson and Smith is donating the yarn.

When: Thursday, 2.00pm  5.00pm

Level: Advanced beginner

Class skills: Basic knitting skills and experience of knitting in the round is desirable (but not absolutely necessary)

Please bring with you:  4mm (US 6) LONG circular knitting needle (at least 40" / 100cm in length)