New class, new format, so excited!!

I don’t usually blog about a class, but this one is so different.  Remi asked me to consider teaching The Great American Aran Afghan from XRX (Knitter’s Magazine.)  You just can’t tell Remi “no,” so I investigated.  I know one of the designers of a gorgeous square and he said he would try to do an online visit with the class.  Seemed like I was meant to teach this.

After lots of knitting and studying the book, I am so excited.  You don’t have to knit an afghan; these squares are so much more.  My older daughter wants to frame and hang the first one I knit.  I can see bags, pillows, the back of a cardigan, and . . . . .I have devised some very clever ways (if I so say so myself) to make chart reading a piece of cake no matter how your brain is wired.

Some of the squares are knit in a regular cast on, knit it, bind off manner.  Others are knit from the outside in or by knitting the border first.  This class is also a study of different ways to structure a piece of knitting.  And they are fun.

Even if you have never knit a cable, you can do this class.  One of the patterns doesn’t even have a cable.

Here’s how the class will work and why we can offer it so inexpensively.  We will meet six times and I will actively teach techniques during the first hour of each lesson.  I have structured the first three lessons with a choice of block to knit based on your experience and your taste.  After the first hour, we will all knit together in a helpful knitalong which takes me off the teacher clock and onto an “I’m knitting with you” position.

During the third class, you will tell me which of the other patterns speak to you most and I will design the last three classes around your choices.  By the time we finish, you will be able to knit all of the patterns on your own and apply these many techniques to your other knitting.

I am so grateful to Remi for this idea which I believe will be a super experience for us all.  Just the planning has me smiling.

The class will be offered on a weekday and on a weekend.  Choose one.  We will meet on Tuesdays, at 11:30 – 12:30 for instruction and from 12:30 until we get tired just to knit.  Saturday classes will meet from 1:00 – 2:00 for instruction and from 2 until whenever for knitting.

The cost of the class is only $65 plus the $13.00 book if you do not already have a copy.

The dates for the classes are:

Tuesdays, 11:30 am—Sept. 22, 29; Oct. 6, 20, 27; Nov. 10

Saturdays, 1:00 pm—Sept. 26; Oct. 3, 10, 24, 31; Nov. 14

Materials needed: Worsted weight wool yarn, size 6 needles, circs or straight.  Bring a size 5 and 7 needle if you have one.  Bring some light colored, smooth worsted weight for swatching and learning new techniques.  You will also need pencils and scissors and lots of stitch markers.

Homework for the first class is to cast on and knit the border for the first square you will attempt.  Look at your book and choose between p.  14, the Belanger square, or p. 44, the McIntire square.  Cast on the required stitches and knit 4 rows.  We will do the increase row together.  If in doubt, choose the Belanger.

Berlanger Square

McIntire Square