We'd like to introduce Knitting Skills Labs, a series of focused, one-hour long classes that concentrate on a specific topic, such as increases, short rows, or cast-on methods. They're designed to help you broaden your knitting experience and become a smarter knitter. Pick and choose the classes you'd like to attend, and only attend as many as you can. You're not tied in to a three-week long class, or committed to a project. Each class will involve swatching, and while some classes will have homework, it won't be much homework.

Pick classes with your future projects in mind, or just pick classes that sound interesting, you decide! A punch card will allow you to take any four Knitting Skills Lab Classes. Individual Labs are $12 each, or you may purchase a Punch Card good for four classes for $40, equalling $10 per lab, for an $8 savings.

Please call and sign up for skills lab classes as space is limited.

Knitting Skills Lab: Learn to Knit Afghan
Specific Sundays from 1 PM to 2 PM (see individual dates below)
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
This series of individual labs is for all knitters from beginners to experienced. Participants can begin the series at any time. Skills are presented and explored using Barbara Walker’s classic Learn to Knit Afghan Book. Each afghan square provides an opportunity to add to your knitting repertoire and understand the application of each skill to our beloved craft. An added bonus is a wonderful sampler afghan charting your progress. This fall afghan labs will continue with the following pattern categories: Cables, Increase-Decrease, Lace, Special Techniques, and Finishing and Joining.

Materials for the Afghan labs: Barbara Walker’s Learn to Knit Afghan Book, worsted weight wool yarn in two light and two dark colors. The entire afghan calls for 28 ounces of each light color and 12 ounces of each dark color and an additional 12 ounces of a 5th contrasting color, if desired, for borders. (Dye lots are not important so you can buy as you go along), #6 straight, 16 inch circular and double point needles, stitch markers, coiless safety pins, and tapestry needle, knitter’s journal or notebook for keeping notes.

APRIL

Introduction to Lace Knitting
Saturdays, April 21 and 28, from 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM
Instructor: Miriam Felton • $50 fee
New to lace knitting, or just want to learn more? In this in-depth class, learn how to make knitted lace. This course will cover everything from how to make a yarn over in a variety of situations, to which decrease to use to get which effect, to how placement of decreases shapes the finished fabric. This class will also cover how to read charts. Create fingerless lace mitts to put the techniques learned into practice.

Materials: 50-100 grams of smooth sock yarn, in a solid or semi-solid light color (dark colors make it hard to see your stitches), copy of the Evolution Mitts pattern by Miriam Felton, and 2.5mm needle or size needed to obtain gauge according to pattern; DPNs, 2 circulars, or magic loop according to you preference.

Knitting Skills Lab: Cables
Fourth Sunday of the Month: April 22, from 1 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 per session with Punch Card)
This ongoing class will work through the afghan squares on cables.

Knitting Skills Lab: Blocking
Saturday, April 28, from 11 AM to 12 PM
Instructor: Miriam Felton • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
Join us to learn this essential technique. Blocking can make a world of difference in what your finished project looks like. Blocking evens out uneven gauge, gives you nice straight edges, and opens up your lace work. We'll discuss how to block various fibers and when to soak your piece as we block a miniature shawl to demonstrate.

MAY

NEW! Knitting Skills Lab: Reading Charts
Saturday, May 5, from 11 AM to 12 PM
Instructor: Miriam Felton • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
Charts can be intimidating and confusing, but once you've learned how to read them, you can knit ANY pattern, and learn to read your stitches. Learn to read charts for texture, cables, colorwork, and lace in this very useful class!

Bring with you: Yarn and needles for swatching, pencil, and sticky notes.

Knitting Skills Lab: Lace - Learn to Knit Afghan Class
Sundays, May 6 and 20, June 3 and 17, July 8 and 22, from 1 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 per session with Punch Card)
Come join our on-going afghan class to learn about lace. We will work through lace squares which, by themselves, would make an elegant throw. We’ll discuss lace eyelets, mesh and faggoting, dropped stitches, symmetric decreases, bias, safety lines, lace cast ons and bind offs. If the entire afghan was just too much of a commitment, this is a great way to simply focus on lace and end up with a lovely throw.

Materials: Learn to Knit Afghan book by Barbara Walker, five 100 gm. skeins of worsted weight yarn and size 6 straight needles, magnetic board with magnet.

Color-Stranded Sweaters
Second Saturday of the month, May 12, June 9 and July 14, from 12 PM to 1 PM, Newcomers come 11 AM to 1 PM on May 12 session
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $30 fee
This class is for new and continuing knitters who want to knit (and complete) a Fair Isle, Scandinavian or Icelandic multicolor sweater in a group setting filled with lots of support and technical help. Come into the shop to pick a pattern and yarn in plenty of time to be ready for the first session. New participants should come in an hour early (11 AM) on May 12 for some extra help getting started.

Materials: Pattern and yarn with appropriate needles for a stranded color sweater.

Ethnic Folk Knitting Study Group: Ethnic Cast Ons I - Derivatives of Long Tail Cast On
Saturday, May 12 from 1 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
Come learn some interesting cast ons taken from traditional folk knitting traditions. They are all easy to remember without referring back to notes since all progress logically from Long Tail Cast On: Double Stitch, Double Bead, Estonian Double Start, and Channel Island. We will use a special trick for getting three strands for a cast on with only one end to weave in.

Materials: Two colors of worsted weight yarn (rolled into balls, ready for knitting), # 5 double point needles for practicing cast ons, three ring binder for samples.

NEW! Estonian Lace Scarf
Saturdays, May 19 from 12 PM to 2 PM; June 2 and 16 from 12 PM to 1 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $40 fee
We will be knitting an Estonian Scarf by Nancy Bush from Interweave from start to finishing ending with a blocking party in June. This is a beautiful and surprisingly easy scarf which starts with a provisional cast leading into an elegant lace pattern using traditional Estonian Nupps framed by a lace border picked up from the well-designed slip stitch selvages. We’ll also personalize the chart to optimize accurate and relaxing lace knitting and learn how to rehabilitate and offending selvage stitches.

Materials: Two 25 gram skeins of Douceur et Soie or Debbie Bliss Angel or 500 yards lace weight yarn, #4 straight and 32 inch circular needles, #6 needle for binding off, #0 16-inch circular needle (or any #0 needle you have), # G crochet hook, coiless safety pins, stitch markers, several yards of fingering weight wool, cotton waste yarn for provisional cast on, optional lace blocking wires and pins for final session blocking party. Pattern provided in class from Interweave.

Knitting Skills Lab: Knit to Fit - Mittens & Gloves
Sunday, May 27 from 1 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
Learn the secrets of well-fitting gloves and mittens. We’ll discuss negative ease, finger and thumb gussets, use and types of ribs as well as easy pattern adjustments for custom sizing while making a template using our own hand measurements.

Materials: Tape measure, manila envelope or sheet of card stock, optional small calculator, pencil.

JUNE

Ethnic Folk Knitting Study Group: Ethnic Cast Ons II - Two-Color Cast Ons
Sunday, June 2 from 1 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
Add color to your projects right at the start with these fun cast ons. We’ll work variations of long tail cast on for Contrasting Edge, Alternating and Pull-Through Braids and expand them to three and four colors.

Materials: Four colors of worsted weight yarn (rolled into balls, ready for knitting), # 5 double point needles for practicing cast ons, three ring binder for samples.

Knitting Skills Lab: Buttonholes
Saturday, June 9, from 11 AM to 12 PM
Instructor: Miriam Felton • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
Learn a variety of buttonhole techniques for all sizes of buttons. One-row buttonholes, two-row buttonholes, and yarnover buttonholes.

Materials: Worsted weight yarn, size 8 needles.

Ethnic Folk Knitting Study Group: Ethnic Cast Ons III - Derivatives of Knitted Cast Ons
Saturday, June 9 from 1 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
Come learn some interesting cast ons and when to use them to best advantage, all taken from traditional folk knitting traditions: Knitted, Cable and Knotted cast ons.

Materials: Two colors of worsted weight yarn (rolled into balls, ready for knitting), # 5 double point needles for practicing cast ons, three ring binder for samples.

NEW! Ethnic Folk Knitting Study Group: Ethnic Fringes
Sunday, June 10, from 1 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
Dress up your knitting with a variety of fringes: Looped, Twisted, and Unraveled Cable and Lace.

Materials: Two colors of worsted weight yarn (rolled into balls, ready for knitting), # 5 double point needles, three ring binder for samples.

Ethnic Folk Knitting Study Group: Ethnic Cast Ons IV - Lace
Saturday, June 16 from 1 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
We will work on Eyelet, Picot, Diminishing Circle and Provisional Cast Ons. Not only do these many of these cast ons add a delicate touch to your lace projects; they allow the lace to be blocked to show its inherent beauty.

Materials: Two colors of worsted weight yarn (rolled into balls, ready for knitting), # 5 double point needles for practicing cast ons, three ring binder for samples, several yards of a smooth cotton for waste yarn, #G crochet hook, one double point or short circular needle # 00 or 0.

Sweet Short Row Scarf
Saturday, June 16 from 2 PM to 4 PM
Instructor: Betsy Slayton • $30 fee
The scarf was designed using Aruacunia Ruca, a yarn made from the sugar cane plant—hence the name “Sweet” Short Row Scarf! It is shaped with a series of short rows that form a flounced edge on one side and has a knit i-cord edge on the opposite side. While the sample is knit at 5 stitches to the inch, it can be knit in other yarns or at smaller gauges for a different look.

Materials: Sweet Short Row Scarf Pattern and materials listed in pattern.

Beginning Knitting for Adults: The Knit Stitch
Saturday, June 23 from 11 AM to 12 PM
Instructor: Betsy Slayton • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card) per session
Learn to cast on and knit in this one hour class.

Materials: One skein light colored Naturespun worsted yarn and one set of #6 or #7 straight needles.

Socks
Saturday, June 23 from 12 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Betsy Slayton • $30 fee
We will knit a miniature sock which incorporates the skills needed for successful sock knitting.

Materials: One skein of Fixation, # 3 double point needles, tapestry needle.

Knitting Skills Lab: Mistake Proof Knitting
Sunday, June 24 from 1 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
There are so many tricks of the trade when it comes to setting up your knitting for optimal success. We’ll discuss developing your personal plan for keeping track of where you are in a pattern (including after having ripped out several rows): Use of markers, multiple row markers and safety pins, illuminating your graph charts and other useful ideas our generous knitters have shared with us.

Beginning Knitting for Adults: The Purl Stitch
Saturday, June 30 from 11 AM to 12 PM
Instructor: Betsy Slayton • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
Learn to purl and bind off in this one hour class.

Materials: One skein light colored Naturespun worsted yarn and one set of #6 or #7 straight needles.

Ethnic Folk Knitting Study Group: Ethnic Twined Braids
Saturday, June 30 from 1 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
Work charming braids into your projects adding folk appeal from cast on to bind off. We’ll learn several twine braid cast ons: Herringbone/Latvian braid/ Swedish Double Purl Twist, Estonian Kihnu Vits.

Materials: Four colors of worsted weight yarn (rolled into balls, ready for knitting), # 5 double point needles, three ring binder for samples.

Cascading Colors Scarf
Saturday, June 30 from 2 PM to 4 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $30
We will use short rows turned with a “German Double Stitch” using a multiple color yarn for this fun and easy garter stitch scarf. After the first triangle, you won’t even need to glance at the instructions for the next one. Techniques include slip stitch selvages and how to rehabilitate any errant stitches in them, purled-on cast on, use of twisted stitches at joins, and strategies for using stitch markers. Then onto the Swing Knitting with endless variations where you decide on yarn types, gauge, size of color fields, and rhythm of short rowing!

Materials: Two 50 gm. skeins of a multicolored yarn such as Noro Kureyon or Taiyo, # 9 32-inch long circular needle. If you choose a lighter weight multicolor yarn such as Noro Silk Garden Sock, Sausalito or Mini Mocha choose a needle one size larger than you would normally use with your chosen yarn. Bring 8 stitch markers of one type and one more marker different from these, coiless safety pins.

JULY

Knitting Skills Lab: Knitter's Journal
Sunday, July 1 from 1 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
Setting up a knitter’s journal was such a hit in our previous classes, we are offering this as a knit lab and it will include some great ideas from previous class mates. Imagine having one place containing your notes, size schematics, gauges for specific yarns and patterns you’ve knit, wish list-you get to decide.

Knitting Skills Lab: Seaming
Saturday, July 14, from 11 AM to 12 PM
Instructor: Miriam Felton • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
Join us for a quick class on seaming with mattress stitch. Learn how to seam two pieces together along side edges (like the two sides of a flat-knit sleeve), cast on or bind off edge to side edge (like a sleeve to a sweater body), and seaming in garter stitch. We'll also discuss the benefits of edge stitches for seaming along a curved edge.

Bring with you: Smooth multi-ply yarn for seaming in different color than swatch yarn (can be a lighter weight than swatch yarn too), tapestry needle (bent tip ones work best), and homework swatches as follows:

Swatch 1 (make 2 of this swatch): Cast on 20 sts. Rows 1-6: knit. Row 7: knit. Row 8: purl. Repeat Rows 7 & 8 for 2-3 inches. Bind off.

Swatch 2: Cast on 25 sts. Rows 1-6: knit. Row 7: knit. Row 8: purl. Row 9: k2, k2tog, k to end. Row 10: purl. Repeat rows 9 & 10 for 2-3 inches. Bind off on right side.

Ethnic Folk Knitting Study Group: Ethnic Travelling Stitch Braids
Saturday, July 14 from 1 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
These fun braids add interesting horizontal elements: Horizontal Chain/ Estonian Vikkel, Estonian Yarn Over, Lateral Braids based on bind offs or crochet.

Materials: Four colors of worsted weight yarn (rolled into balls, ready for knitting), # 5 double point needles, # G crochet hook, three ring binder for sample.

Knitting for Children
Sunday, July 15 from 1 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
One of the joys of knitting is making things for the children we love. We’ll cover everything from making sure the neck opening is big enough to wonderful children’s books which match perfectly to available knitting patterns, as well as ideas for teaching kids to knit. But best of all, we’ll share some unique ideas knitters have shared with us for bringing smiles to their little ones as they present their knitted gift.

Materials: None required, pictures of grandbabies optional.

Knitting Skills Lab: Knit to Fit - Sweaters
Sunday, July 29 from 1 PM to 2 PM
Instructor: Michelle Poulin-Alfeld • $12 fee ($10 with Punch Card)
Bring your most comfortable, cozy, and loved sweater to measure. You’ll make up a schematic for your future projects which automatically incorporates the appropriate amount of ease. We’ll also discuss easy pattern adjustments to custom alter the length, width, sleeve length and other important features for the patterns you knit, as well as specifics related to particular construction methods (for instance: straight versus in the round, set-in versus raglan sleeve).

Materials: A favorite sweater or top to measure (yours’ or any of the lucky recipients of your knitting), tape measure, optional small calculator, pencil.

2012 Spring Class Schedule

About Skills Labs and Punch Card Classes

Please call and sign up for skills lab classes as space is limited.

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

To register for workshops call 1-801-487-9378