Classes

Are you a would-be Sweater Knitter? Do you have fears of putting time and effort into sweaters that don’t fit? In this class we’ll look at ways to improve your sweater knitting before you start your pattern. Learn how to create perfect sweater fabric and how to take the most important measurements for sweater fit, and apply that information to how to choose the best size for you, and how to build a “hybrid size” when your measurements span more than one size. Finally we’ll look at what you need to know about sweater knitting, ease and design details to knit better sweaters for your body and personal style.

Every designer and instructor you’ve ever met has told you NOT to take your own measurements. But what are we to do when social distancing and isolation are the norm?

REBEL! And learn how to take measurements on our own, accurately. 

You’ll walk away knowing how to put together a “solo measuring” toolkit, learn how to take your own body measurements, suitable for knitting garments, and understand which measurements are key to great garment fit.

Learn life changing techniques for those of us with larger chests. Sweaters look best when they fit us in our shoulders and properly accommodate our chest. Bring your yarn, your needles and learn how to choose a size and to construct 2 types of bust darts for your chest, giving you endless choice for modifying any sweater pattern.

Come back to Boob Camp, and learn how to adjust any neckline to your favourite shape! Learn how to adjust neckline width and depth for comfort and style. Learn the best necklines for your bust size, neck length and shoulder shape, and why they work. We’ll also look at colour and how colour blocking and pattern placement can create the illusion of different shapes.

Using your measurements and worksheets, we’ll look at how to master the fit of sweater patterns to YOUR body, and what those modifications look like in a simplified form. 

Learn:

• How to choose a size to start with. 
• How to compare your measurements to sweater schematics to learn how a “hybrid size” can be a solution when your measurements span more than one size.
• What to do when your weight is carried more in front or back
• What to do when your gauge and the pattern gauge don’t agree.

If the shoulders fit, the sleeves don’t. If the sleeves fit, the bust doesn’t. These are common fit issues in our sweaters. Let’s fix them!

With a focus on Set-in Sleeves, you will learn:

• How to measure for armhole depth and sleeve fit
• How to draft a new sleeve cap and armhole/armscye for your sweaters
• How to change the length of a sleeve that ensures a good fit from cuff to shoulder
• Best ways to seam a set-in sleeve

When I’m making a sweater for myself, I make myself a visual “map” to show me what to do and when. Body shaping, sleeve shaping, bust darts and more are all on this 1 page image that acts as a guide for making my sweater. In this class, I’ll show you how to make your own!

By the end of this class, you will have:

• a body map of yourself
• An understanding of ease and what your ease preferences are
• A simplified sweater map for a basic, set-in sleeve sweater designed for your body
• A plan for using the sweater map alongside other patterns to create sweaters that fit you well.

When I’m making a sweater for myself, I make myself a visual “map” to show me what to do and when. Body shaping, sleeve shaping, bust darts and more are all on this 1 page image that acts as a guide for making my sweater. In this class, I’ll show you how to make your own!

By the end of this class, you will have:

• a body map of yourself
• An understanding of ease and what your ease preferences are
• A simplified sweater map for a basic, drop shoulder sweater designed for your body
• A plan for using the sweater map alongside other patterns to create sweaters that fit you well.

Everything you’ve ever heard about stripes is a lie. Horizontal stripes won’t make you look fat; vertical stripes won’t make you look thin–when you know how to work the stripe system!

Stripes are an effective way of using colour and contrast to change what your body looks like in your handmade clothing. Learn how to use colour and stripe patterns to:

• create the illusion of curves and a waist, whether you have them or not
• shape the look of your body to highlight your best features, and minimize parts you wish to minimize
• mix stripe patterns to create different effects
• balance top heavy and bottom heavy body shapes
• create the illusion of curves
• knit bust darts that don’t affect your stripe patterns

You’ll leave class with plans for many striped garments!

If you love clothing with simple, contemporary shapes and off-balance details, this is the class for you. When we think about asymmetry in clothing, what should we be thinking about? What details work? Which one leave parts of you out in the cold? We’ll look at designs that use asymmetry as design details and talk about how to build balanced asymmetry into your own handwork.

Why don’t more sweaters have pockets? All our clothing should have pockets! Big pockets. Useful pockets. Pockets you can put actual stuff in! 

Whether for holding your phone, collecting rocks on the beach, or having a pocket designed to hold a medical device, we all need pockets in our clothing. Sweaters are no exception.

JOIN THE POCKET REVOLUTION, as we explore several different pocket shapes and types, how to work them into a new pattern, and how to add them to your favourite finished sweaters.

What if you had an idea of whether a new garment pattern is right for you, before you cast on? In this workshop, you’ll do just that! We’ll start with a mini version of you, and “try on” garments by sketching every important detail.

Walk away knowing:

• How your proportions compare with those in the original pattern
• How to determine the best hemline, sleeve lengths and necklines for your body and style
• Which fit modifications and adjustments you will need to make
• An understanding of ease and what your ease preferences are
• How to put pieces of your own wardrobe together with your sweaters to build a style that suits you and your life

Note: this class will focus primarily on drawing on a tablet, with ideas for using a paper sketchbook and creating tools for it.

Contemporary shawls build on tradition, yet defy it openly. Shawls are for all genders and all sizes and are limited only by your imagination. Take what you know about traditional shapes and learn to bend, twist and break those shawl recipes. Learn how to manipulate shape for depth, for length and for colour and stitch play to start creating unique shawls just for you.

gives us rules for working with colour and helps us choose them. We’ll learn how to develop our instincts, when to trust our own colour sense and learn tools to help confirm what effects the colours we’ve chosen will have. Learn multiple techniques of yarn management for multicoloured shawls: How to determine how much of each colour you will need for your gauge as well as how to manage switching colours and weaving in ends as you go. And finally, strategies for building a collection of “leftovers” that helps your shawl knitting.

REBEL! And learn how to take measurements on our own, accurately. 

You’ll walk away knowing how to put together a “solo measuring” toolkit, learn how to take your own body measurements, suitable for knitting garments, and understand which measurements are key to great garment fit.

Your shawls should fit your body, the way you want them to. This can mean adapting a shawl shape to be shallower, deeper, longer or shorter to suit your height and body type.

In this class we will look at common shawl shapes and learn how to tweak the shape and size to work better for ourselves. We will also look at YOUR favourite shawl patterns and look at ways to modify them for your needs and desires.

You made it!

Now how do you wear it?!

Learn ways to wear a variety of different shawl shapes, and start wearing your amazing creations! In fact, bring all your unworn shawls to class and we’ll help you find several ways to wear each one.

Colour, especially combining colours, often makes us nervous. Come and play with colour in this workshop and learn how colours can change how your textiles shine and reflect different personalities. Learn how to create different moods with colour, neutral knitted items that are not just black and grey and how to build colour combinations that are fun or sophisticated, professional or playful. Use colour to flatter YOU and express yourself, without fear.

As a die-hard fibre and fabric nerd, I am endlessly fascinated about why different fibres, yarn constructions and fabrics can determine how much a project is loved.  Why do you love some projects more than others? Why do some yarns produce a fabric that “tilts” to one side, and how that will affect your final sweater? Why does a lace shawl knit with wool yarn differ so greatly from a cotton one? How yarn is constructed, the fibres it comes from and how those two factors combine with your needles to create fabric is a web of mysteries that we will unravel in this class. Learn how to create fabric you love for knits that will wear, drape, fit and last the way you’ve always wanted them to. 

Stitch patterns create our favourite textures in our knits, and should be as unique as we are. Let’s develop a library of personalized stitch patterns, by expanding and contracting, manipulating and warping common stitch patterns. Learn how to adapt a favourite pattern to best suit a garment, scarf or shawl. Learn how to plan, map out or improvise a stitch pattern to travel in a dynamic way across your knits and how to incorporate it into newly increased or decreased stitches.

Learn how to manipulate shapes and use stitch patterns and increases/decreases to add a sculptural element to your knitting. Building on basic flat figures, we’ll explore how to build 3-dimensional shapes and how to use modular methods to put them together. Unusual shawl shapes, asymmetrical hemlines, unique sleeve details, toys, jewellery and more… The applications are endless!

How do you take an idea from inspiration to finished object? Over your knitting lifetime, you’ve developed techniques, colours and stitch patterns you love to work with. This class builds on what we already know, showing how to translate the skills you have now to your knitting projects to make them deeply personal.

Hand dyed yarns seduce us with their beauty, but are often challenging to work with. But once the honeymoon is over and you’re knitting your project, all its secrets rise to the surface. What is your hand dyed yarn REALLY telling you, and how can you best use it in your next project? 

We’ll explore:
-What kinds of projects are best suited for different dyeing styles
-Identify different dyeing styles and how to “read” your yarn
-The myth of the “dye lot”
-How to easily and effectively alternate skeins for larger projects