Video Included | MLOKnitting

Overview

I had the distinct pleasure of taking 3 classes with Lucy Neatby (pictured right):

Fringes, Folderols, and Furbelows!
Seeing Double – Clearly!
Every Which Way But Loose! Multi-directional Knitting

The classes were sponsored by Heritage Spinning and Weaving in Lake Orion Michigan. This is one of the best knitting, weaving, and spinning stores in Michigan.

The classes are worth every penny! Lucy makes some seemingly complex techniques easy. One of the things that I really liked about her teaching method was her use of her DVDs (reviews to come) during the class. She would project – without sound – the up-close technique from her DVD while going over the technique.

This allows Lucy to use her time to give more individual attention to the knitters in the class. The student can just look up and see the technique whenever she forgets what she is doing.

Despite the brain fog I suffered from – there was a great deal I learned. The photograph to the above left displays some of my accomplishments. These included using beads, a Latvian Twist, and a number of other unusual finishing touches.

On my drive home, my brain finally remembered what a cast-on / cast-off was. I went home and watched some weird conglomeration of movie clips purporting that Fidel Castro was an alien invader while eating dinner. It’s called Tribulation 99. It was just very, very strange.

Saturday:

Saturday was the day of Seeing Double – Clearly! This is double-knitting. How it works is you knit in the round with just two needles. Now, I know I was successful at doing this, but I don’t remember exactly what was involved. From the picture, you can see that we cast on two different colored yarns – a pink and blue yarn in my case. The colors alternate and then you knit the pink yarn into the pink yarn and the blue yarn into the blue yarn.

This, of course, has all sorts of possibilities. You can create a pocket while knitting a sweater. You can create a bag when you can’t find your double-points or circular needles. Of course, you can even do stranded-type color work to create a double-sided blanket. It would be a really warm blanket.

Sunday:

Sunday was the third day of the marathon learning session. Lucy introduced a variety of multi-directional knitting. We created samples of entrelac, mitered knitting, diamond knitting, and short row shaping.

I almost forgot! We got to create mini log cabin type samples: