Saturday, March 21, 2009

Not afraid anymore

I may have been knitting for ever, and I don’t think I am too bad at it, but it’s the sewing up that lets it down, I’m not sure whether I never liked it because I wasn’t any good at it or if I wasn’t good at it because I didn’t like it (iyswim), but I’ve seen the light, or rather been taught it.

I attended Jane Crowfoot’s finishing course at Kangaroo at the weekend and it was brilliant, there were several occasions when a little light bulb came on ! Jane is an excellent teacher and showed us so much in the day. The setting is good too, once I got over the shock of going down an unmade lane past small industrial units and a scaffolders – I have to admit that it was then that I severely doubted the ability of my sat nav, though I did it a disservice as it delivered me right to the door. The class was in a nice workroom with plenty of natural light above the shop (very handy for shopping and the kind lending of needles when I discovered I needed to change sizes and had only brought what was on the list – typical me, any other time I would have brought everything but the kitchen sink)

As well as sewing up using mattress stitch (easy when you know how rather than guessing) she taught us different types of increase (found a new one) and decrease (discovered a variation that makes it sit better) how to do neat button holes and picking up stitches round a neck line plus several other little tips. And as for short row shaping, it actually makes sense now!

My little samples don’t look much but I really benefited from the day and am quite chuffed with my efforts.

Would you believe this is sewn up using orange yarn!


And no those aren’t mistakes on the ‘sleeve’ it’s where we practiced increases and decreases, and the buttonholes are examples of the good, the bad and the ugly, though not necessarily in that order!

And of course with a 10% discount I had to do just a little shopping - well it would have been rude not to wouldn't it?

3 comments:

Linda said...

That sounds perfect and the sewing up is perfect! I have her book and it is indispensable for tips.

Sarah said...

I went on a similar course a while ago and really found it beneficial too, some things just make so much more sense when someone shows you

MandellaUK said...

Lucky you! I wish I could take a class like that.