We still have a few workshops with spaces available this Spring/Summer – these are fascinating workshops, taught by some truly excellent teachers (who are authors and designers in their own right!)

Have a browse of the list below and if there’s any you fancy joining us for, give us a call on 01626 836203 to secure your place. All the workshops listed below cost £49 for the day which includes a delicious home cooked lunch.

Any questions about the workshops themselves? Just give us a call or email us!

April

22nd April: Fair Isle and Intarsia with Claire Crompton
Learn how to use Fair Isle and Intarsia together with slip stitch patterns and simple stripes to add colour to your knitting. In the workshop you will learn the basics of each technique, knitting samples of each. We will also explore some basic colour theory so you can be confident about putting colours together and altering a pattern into another colourway.

Examples of Fair-Isle Knitting

26th April: St Aubin’s Bay Shawl with Anniken Allis
St Aubin’s Bay is an elegant crescent shaped shawl worked from the top down with an eyelet garter stitch pattern. Two short row wedges and a beaded picot cast/ bind off add interest to a fun accessory. In the morning we’ll practice the techniques used to knit this shawl including short rows, adding beads using a crochet hook, picot cast-off and how to shape the shawl. In the afternoon you will start your own St Aubin’s Bay shawl.

St Aubin’s Bay Shawl

May

20th May: Knitting in Different Directions with Claire Crompton
Progress from making garments and accessories in rows and circular knitting, to knitting them in different directions. Join squares or circles, worked from the centre out or from the outer edge inwards to make pieces of knitted fabric. Learn how to construct garments from diagonal (bias) knitting and how to use short rows. In the workshop we will experiment with the techniques and you will be able to take away information and ideas for your own designs.

Knitting in Different Directions

24th May: Knitting the Mar Menor and Daisy Shawl with Anniken Allis
The Daisy and Mar Menor shawls are both fun shawlettes featuring unusual stitch patterns and the most popular shawls in the Shop! In this class you’ll learn the elongated and crossed stitch patterns used in these two shawls as well as how to add beads using a crochet hook, how to work a beaded picot cast off and how to shape both shawls.

Close up of Mar Menor Shawlette

June

2nd June: The Magical Moebius Cowl with Alison Crowther Smith
Using the cast-on made famous by Cat Bordhi, Alison will show you how to knit a lovely yet simple Moebius cowl using DK yarns and edged in Kidsilk Haze. The morning will be spent learning this cast-on and how to establish the Moebius, which once started, is easy basic knitting and purling. In the afternoon you will start your own cowl.

Moebius Cowl

10th June: Starlight Fingerless Mitts with Anniken Allis
The Starlight fingerless mitts feature a beaded lace pattern and are worked in the round. In the morning we’ll practice the techniques used to knit these mitts including how to knit lace, how to read a lace chart, how to add beads using the crochet hook method and how to knit in the round on double pointed needles and circular needles using the magic loop method. In the afternoon you will start your own Starlight mitts.

Starlight Mitts

22nd June: Hairpin Crochet with Di Stewart
Hairpin Crochet is an easy and rhythmical technique of wrapping and crocheting around a small loom pin, forming rows of loops which can be used in many ways. In this workshop you will learn the basic techniques of Hairpin Crochet and how to join, gather and crochet around the loops, using basic crochet stitches. It will also include how to make Hairpin Flowers and how to join them to make a Hairpin Flower shawl, with written instructions and a free pattern for the shawl.

Hairpin Crochet

24th June: Crochet in Different Directions with Claire Crompton
Explore motifs, spirals, flowers, fabric, three dimensional forms and loads of other ways to work crochet in different directions. In the workshop we will explore all these techniques and you will be able to take away information and ideas for your own creations.

Crochet shells

July

26th July: Persephone Shawl with Anniken Allis
Persephone is a crescent shawl worked from the top down. Multiple yarn overs used in the edging create a big impact. In the morning we’ll practice the techniques used to knit this shawl including how to read a lace chart, how to work large yarn overs and how to shape the shawl. In the afternoon you will start your own Persephone shawl.

Persephone Shawl

Friends of the shop and regulars at our Knit Clubs will know of the amazingly creative and perfectly eccentric Terri Bate, who usually teaches our Spinning Workshops. Having recently retired from her job as a local midwife (including having delivered the babies of several staff and customers!) she has just embarked on an amazing adventure – Spinning Around the World.

Terri’s plan is to cycle solo to her sister who lives on Kangaroo Island, Australia (and possibly back again – she has 18 months to complete the journey in!), exploring textiles along the way.

She says:  “I want to live a simple life, getting up and going to bed with the sun, journaling, sketching, being in the moment and appreciating the big, wide world without the rush of trying to meet the many (more often than not) self imposed deadlines. Travelling slowly, meeting people – exploring inner and outer worlds and learning to live with less ‘stuff’.

I have the gear, the bike, the panniers etc – I have had all the vaccinations and I have pored over maps in anticipation.  I have even taken a couple of bicycle maintenance classes (not my forte, you understand).

In no way am I setting a precedent – there are many, many, other solo cyclists who have laid the trail – from Dervla Murphy to Al Humphries, from Annie Londonderry to Anne Mustoe and Josie Dew, from Louise Sutherland to Rubina Soorty and Anne Wilson (I could go on) – that’s a deep wheel rut to follow.

I, too, will do this solo (I think I will meet more people if I’m on my own) though, hopefully, friends and family will come visit en route. I plan to use hospitality sites like CouchSurfing, WarmShowers for accommodation, or camp (have tent, sleeping bag, trangia stove etc).  I will take my knitting  – of course – I knit EVERYWHERE and am a complete geek!  Although I’m getting rid of ALL my stash apart from the teeny weeny bit I can carry with me. Deciding what to take will be a tough decision – but I can start hoarding again when I get back.

Many people have asked me if I’m ‘doing it for charity’, and I really hadn’t intended to, but then I changed my mind because that’s a woman’s prerogative apparently.  And P/Hop is the knitters’ charity (thanks to Natalie Fergie at Yarn Yard for starting it off – see http://www.p-hop.co.uk for a full explanation) so yeah, why not?

I’ll be raising money for Medeçins Sans Frontieres and have set up the Justgiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/Terri-Bate

I will be funding the travelling with part of my NHS pension (got to leave a bit for the other half to pay what’s left of the mortgage- him indoors, who is keeping the home fires burning) – but also selling the journal sketches for the price of a couple cups of coffee or pints of beer and sending them as postcards from wherever I am to the purchaser (donating a third of what I raise to MSF).”

Terri set off yesterday, and we’re looking forward to following her adventures from here in the shop – we’re going to have a map in the shop to track her travels! If you’d like to follow her progress and (digitally) keep her company, her blog is http://www.tutleymutleytextiles.com/blog.

Bon Voyage, Terri!