Edit: Marie is our winner! She had some great thoughts:
I’d like to learn to not be scared & wait for my ideal shape (that probably won’t happen) & to go for it. To learn to knit for me now, to enjoy it and be proud of my attempt/creation!
As my book deadline approaches, the sweaters are piling up …
But I was able to take a few breaks this week to give away copies of my new Craftsy class! I’d like to share a few of my favorite things I heard from students this week.
On Tuesday, we gave away a copy of the class on our Instagram. The topic of the day was Fabric. One of the lessons in the class discusses fabric: how to make a good fabric, what yarns make great fabric for sweaters, how to tell if your fabric will perform the way you expect. Here’s a link to all the lovely photos knitters shared with us on Instagram – there are some great swatches there!
Our winner was @langwidere, who showed off a beautiful tray of swatches overseen by her (not-very-interested) pooch. I loved seeing the many different types and colors of fabric lined up — I save all my swatches, too!
Next, we headed over to Ravelry for a discussion on ease. One of the lessons in my new class focuses on ease: what it is, where you need it, how much to assign where. We asked Ravelers to share stories about ease with us, and the results were amazing! Check out the full thread here. Our winner, reapergirl, shared this with us:
I’ve knitted several sweaters for myself, but I still seem to get into trouble sometimes. Or as Stephanie Pearl-McPhee says experienced knitters just make bigger mistakes, faster.
I wanted a lightweight, loose cardigan that I could wear to ward off office air conditioning. I picked a pattern that was a top-down, increase as you go affair. … Rather than the flowy cardigan that I envisioned, I wound up with a shrug as the fabric stretched width-wise to fit over my chest (part of that was my fault, over compensating for a short torso). It simultaneously had too much positive ease in the back and too much negative ease in the front. I think I’ve worn it twice, once to take a picture for my projects page, and once to figure out that the combination of problems mentioned above means that I wind up adjusting it every 5 seconds.
We’ve all been there! Finally, yesterday we talked about setting in sleeves on Facebook. Jane L. had some great thoughts to share:
Set in sleeves still make me nervous, I admit, for many reasons: because they are crucial to fit and look, and because I don’t feel like I have developed good strategies to fall back on when I run into problems. Glad you are offering a class on this.
I hope the lesson on set-in sleeves and seams can help Jane with some strategies in case she runs into problems … or even better, prevent the problems in the first place!
To win today, tell us what you hope to learn from my new Craftsy class! Leave a comment here, and we’ll pick a winner on Tuesday – meet you back here then. Have a great weekend, and work hard on your Fall Festival sweaters … Rhinebeck approaches!
(If you just can’t wait, or missed your chance to win – again, here’s the link for 50% off the class. Thank you all so much! You’re the best knitters I know.)
Amy Herzog Designs