St-EEK!

This Saturday, I was lucky enough to be able to go along to the second knitting workshop at GBY (read about the first one here) on Steeking.

I know what you're thinking - if you follow this blog at all you'll know that I am a total beginner and am in no way ready to be steeking. I shared your thoughts, and hoped to go along and merge into the background lest anyone ask me about cabling, thumb cast-ons or other such things I know nothing of. I planned to hide behind my role as photographer, and, as I didn't have time to prepare any sample swatches, I figured that the likelihood of me having to actually get involved was a slim one. Oh, how wrong I was.

The fateful moment!

Before I go any further, I'll explain to any fellow beginners what steeking actually is. It was explained to me several times before I actually got the hang of it, and even then, doing it was something else all together. It is as mad as it sounds so I'll say it slow. Steeking is where you cut. Your. Knitting. As you can imagine, this strikes fear and horror into the hearts and minds of knitters world-over. Well... apart from Norway, where they apparently tend to be snip happy when it comes to jumpers and such like. So, brave Norwegians aside,  the concept of cutting your knitting seems to be entirely superflous and a rather scary procedure. But, there is a reason to do it, and many fairisle patterns use steeking as a way of making armholes and seams where the pattern can continue as normal. I know, I know, I'm not a very good explainer - head here or here for more comprehensive guides. Basically, it's a very handy little technique which can turn the meekest of knitters into a scissor wielding maniac. Don't be put off any horrendous photos - they look like open chest cavities, but believe me, it needn't be that scary!

The workshop was run by the mighty Ann Kingstone, whose glorious website you can visit here. I was pretty anxious about going to what I knew was going to be a full workshop, having inadequently prepared and lacking the knowledge to even feign the confidence I needed!

Copious amounts of tea were needed.

To be honest, having had to be told what steeking actually was, I wasn't at all sure what to expect. I was even afraid to wear any knitwear on the day in case I was forced to cut it apart. Thankfully, once we had all arrived and said our hellos (and had a good look around the shop, it has to be said!) Ann was very clear that she wanted the day to be fun. She gave us an introduction, but it wasn't long before we had to get down to cutting our samples. (Lucky for me, Sharon had knit some spares!)

Ann, and all the lovely ladies who shared the steeking experience with me, were all super encouraging. It was also nice to be there on my own terms - as much as I love doing these things with my mum, it was really interesting to be there by myself. It meant I couldn't rely on the person next to me to help me out when I made a mistake, and forced me to speak up when there was something going on I didn't understand. Thankfully, everyone was so lovely, I found myself being a little too honest about my inability to pick up stitches, but they all encouraged me to keep at it and I had the hang of it pretty quickly, helping me to keep repeating it until I had it dialled.

Weirdly, even though I was by far the least experienced person in the class, I didn't feel left behind at all. I may not have been the quickest, but I achieved the same amount as everyone else and managed to even pick up a few bonus skills! We learnt three different ways of reinforcing knitting, and I'm so completely confident that I feel fully able to attempt a pattern with steeking in it. I don't know when one will come my way, but I know the skills I learnt will help me when one does!

Machine enforced knitting - weird, huh?

The experience overall was so edifying. Just when I reach the end of my patience with a project, or get bored with knitting swatches, an experience like this will come along and completely restore my spirits. I cannot recommend the workshop experience enough! The combination of great teaching and great company really added to my enthusiasm and I'm still buzzing! I'm trying to refrain cutting up everyone's projects - apparently "just because I can" isn't a valid reason for doing it!

Fairisle steek sample.

Anyway, I know I've rambled long enough... I'm off to Wonderwool this weekend and if anyone else is going please do pop by and say hello - I'm there with my mum [Jillybean Yarns] and would love to meet you!

Workshop!

A selection of glorious Jamesons yarn
that was free with the workshop!

   I had my first workshop experience on Saturday, a colourwork and fairisle session with the mighty Mary Henderson at the Great British Yarns showroom. I was really apprehensive before going, I knew that I would have the lowest level of skill of anyone there, and was afraid of taking up everyone else’s time by having to insist on basic instruction. I wasn’t sure how advanced the others would be, and whether I’d be slowing everyone else down. Thankfully, as soon as I got on with the first task, I realised that everyone was there because they were after a day of peaceful knitting and learning new skills, no-one was there to show me up or make anyone else look bad. It was a suitably challenging day, which definitely utilised my brain a way that hasn’t been done since leaving university! It is so refreshing and rejuvenating to learn a new skill, with each step forward we all gained momentum and were all keen to keep progressing. We were able to go at our own pace and choose our own work, which meant that we each learnt something slightly different. This was good as it meant that we all could share the one-on-one time with Mary as and when we needed it, and we could learn independently alongside that. As it was a colour workshop, it was really interesting to see how everyone put their colours together, and it has left me totally inspired for fairisle. 

Everyone's finished samplers. Mine is the purple and green
fairisle and the brown. blue and red intarsia.

I started my day by doing a fairisle sample that we all were given, it was a useful way to go over the techniques we were going to use for the rest of the day. Although I was the slowest in the group, I didn’t feel bad about it or feel like I was wasting the teacher’s time. Everyone was really patient and encouraging, which really put me at ease for the rest of the day. I managed to get to grips with the two-handed fairisle method, which I think will make me faster when I get around to doing larger things, and, although I haven’t quite mastered it, I’ve gotten to a level where all I need to do is practise. It feels great to learn something new and something that not everybody can do. It really gives me confidence, and that confidence inspires me to do lots of new things.

As Mum and I keep saying, all I need to do is learn the rules, and then I can set about breaking them.

A fellow workshopper getting down to it.

I was happy with my finished sample, it was a bit wobbly and there were a few mistakes, but overall it was pretty impressive and something I never thought I could do so quickly. After that I wanted to learn how to do intarsia. I have to admit that when I asked to do it, I wasn’t 100% sure what it was. I just knew that it was something I couldn’t do currently, and therefore it was something worth learning. It’s the kind of thing that, as a beginner, doesn’t occur to me to learn. It doesn’t come up in many patterns that I look at, and I often assume that the colourwork I’ve seen comes about from sewing up blocks of different colours. Intarsia is the way of knitting so that you keep it all together as you knit, and it was so rewarding to get my head around it. Once I’d got used to what I was doing, it was really easy to get on with it, and I am so pleased with the finished result.

Colours on the go!

I also conquered the long-tail cast on, something that I’ve wanted to do for ages for no other reason that it looking awesome when you do it. Of course it has its practical uses too, but I feel like a wizard when I do it and that’s that.

The whole day was so lovely, I’m still buzzing. I feel more confident in my abilities and I’m so keen to keep knitting. It was just what I needed after having a few weeks of being exasperated and disappointed with myself. My mind is racing with all sorts of ideas, and I’ve learnt so much. 

Glorious pile of fairisle.