Saturday, November 12, 2011

Knitting with Amy Detjen

Today, I attended my first knitting workshop.  The Indianapolis Knitting Guild brought Amy Detjen in to town for the weekend to conduct a series of workshops.  I signed up for all of them.   Fabulous day in the company of some great knitters with mad skills.  First up was a stranded knitting workshop followed by a session on techniques to make knits fit better.  This evenings session was a lot of knitting and socializing, but we also worked on "knitting back backwards."  

Knitting back backwards is also know as mirror knitting.  If you are a standard western knitter who normally works stitches from the left needle to the right needle, knitting back backwards means working stitches from the right needle to the left.  It's a way of working stitches without having to turn and purl back. 

Why would anyone want do this?  Well there are a few situations where this technique cannot only save time, but your sanity.  Think about techniques where you only have to knit a few stitches, turn purl a few stitches, turn, knit, etc.   All that turning to just work a few stitches can peg the tedium meter. 

Amy ticked off a number of situations where knitting back backwards is worth the effort to learn:
  • entrelac
  • bobbles
  • "short" short rows
  • intarsia in the round or festive knitting
My own motivation to learn, in addition to these situations, is so that I can help really left hand
dominant knitters who just feel more comfortable knitting "mirrored" from the rest of us.
 
If you have a chance to attend a class with Amy, I highly recommend it.  She is a very knowledgeable, interesting, wickedly funny, and clever instructor.

1 comment:

  1. I totally agree with your observations regarding Amy. A thoroughly enjoyable knitting workshop; made even better by a kind soul willing to help a novice!

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete