Workshop with Donna Druchunas at Tricolaine

I'm very excited about announcing the forthcoming workshop at Tricolaine with knitting designer Donna Druchunas, author of Arctic Lace and Ethnic Knitting Discovery.

Donna Druchunas loves yarn of all kinds and sizes. Her curiosity about knitting results in long trips to unusual places and the study of a variety of languages. Her previous books include Artic Lace: Knitted Projects and Stories Inspired by Alaska's Native KNitters and Ethnic Knitting Discovery: The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and The Andes. Visit Donna's website at www.sheeptoshawl.com for information on where she's been traveling and what else she's making.

Saturday, June 20
10 – 13 h

Lace Knitting 1-2-3 (Beginner)
For years I tried to learn how to knit lace, and was frustrated as I failed each time. I finally gave up because I wanted to have fun knitting and enjoy my hobby. I was able to knit cables, fair isle, intarsia, and even entrelac with no problems, but lace stymied me over and over again. I thought I would never be able to knit lace, until I stumbled onto Dorothy Reade's simple techniques.

Working from charts, understanding decreases, and knitting with worsted-weight yarn and larger needles gave me the confidence and practice I needed to ease into lace knitting. If I learned how to knit lace after years of frustration and failure, I know other knitters can, too!

In this workshop we will discuss the tools and yarns used to knit lace, learn how to follow lace charts, and make one swatch in worsted-weight yarn and one in sport-weight yarn. Students will then be ready to knit a lace-weight swatch on their own, and move on to making a simple project such as a lace scarf or hat.

For the advanced-beginner to intermediate knitter. Students should know how to cast on, bind off, knit, and purl, and should have completed several projects.

We will learn:
Lace Overview
Tools and materials
Stitches used in lace
Reading charts
Fixing mistakes
Stretchy bind-off
Blocking

Saturday, June 20
14-17h

Design Your Own Lace
Eskimo women in Alaska have been knitting qiviut (musk ox down)
into lace since the 1960s. In this workshop, we will examine their
unique pattern stitches, inspired by Eskimo artifacts, and learn
how to chart our own custom lace patterns by adapting designs from
other art forms. We will start by charting a basic diamond using
yarn overs, then we will study several types of decreases and learn
how each decrease works to create a different result with the same
arrangement of yarn overs. We will also learn how to accentuate
lace patterns with an outline stitch.
Each student will then design and chart several lace patterns, and
knit a swatch of each to see what works and what doesn't work on
the needles. Finally, we will review basic patterns for lace
projects such as scarves, stoles, and ponchos, and each student
will work on designing a project.

Sunday, June 21, 2009
9h30 to 15h30

Explore Japanese Knitting
Japanese knitting books are hot right now. Although the patterns are written entirely in Japanese, they are not impossible for us to read. Very light on text and very heavy on charts and schematics, with a cheat sheet of translations, any adventurous knitter can enter the world of Japanese knitting. In this class we will learn how to read Japanese patterns, focusing on the charts and schematics. Because Japanese patterns usually are written for one size -- small or extra-small -- we will also learn how to resize the patterns for larger European bodies. In addition, we will learn a few interesting Japanese stitches and techniques that can be used to add an extra level of finesse to any project.

Price: CHF 75 for each lace class of 3 hours
CHF 150 for the Japanese Class of 6 hours

Classes will be in English. However, I will be there to help in case you feel that your English may be a bit rusty...

You can register for the classes at the shop or by e-mail at annelisl@hotmail.com