Stitch ‘n Bitch (link to website)  is not only full of great patterns, but it provides an introduction to knitting, stitches and abbreviations.  This book review section on knitting.about.com may also provide you with some fun ideas.

I had such a lovely time with you ladies, and I hope that you (and anyone else using this blog) will keep on knitting!  Send me photos of your finished projects if you can, and I’ll add them to the blog.

You can also continue to email me at dublinknitters@gmail.com with any questions!  I’ll try to keep posting new project ideas or suggestions on here as well.

Happy Knitting!

A pattern can look very daunting when you see a list of abbreviations that mean nothing to you!  Check out this reference page to help you through any knitting project.  The website often links back to explanations of how to do each stitch, as well.

Enjoy!

Just a reminder, no more Thursday classes, and next Saturday (the 21st) is our last class.  It’s been great, and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow and next week!

This Wednesday, 11 Octoboer, an open session to drop in and catch up on the first three lessons.  

The Library Bar

It will be a bit rapid fire, but I’d be happy to go over casting on, knitting, purling, increasing, decreasing, knitting in the round* or any other lessons you may have missed tomorrow night!  

We’ll be meeting at 6:00pm at the Library Bar, which is on the first floor of the Central Hotel in Dublin 2.  (The Curved Street Café, our normal meeting spot, closes at 5:30.)  The hotel is across Exchequer Street from the side entrance of Dunnes (the main entrance is on Georges Street).  If you need further directions, shoot me an email at dublinknitters@gmail.com.  

As always, if you need basic supplies (needles and wool), I have small starter kits for sale at cost.

Hope to see you there!

*Please bring a short set of circular needles if you want to work on knitting in the round.

If you’re unsure, circulars look like this:

And double-pointed are these:

If you’re going the cirular route, go ahead and pick up a pair with the shortest available cable, best for making a hat.  As far as needle gauge (size in mm) goes, find a wool that you’d like for a hat, then buy needles to match.

Hope to see you in class!

Unfortunately, we’ve had to cancel this Saturday’s class, on the 31st.  I have to leave town, unexpectedly.  I hope you take the occasion to enjoy Halloween all the more and maybe even pick up your needles.

Holiday Barbie looks like she could use some practical winter wear.

It’s a good thing I made her two scarves!

Last week in class, Aileen mentioned that she used to turn her knitting samples from school into Barbie clothes– mini skirts, tube tops (You silly Irish call them boob tubes!  That’s a TV!), you get the idea– which reminded me that I used to do the same thing.  So this week, in honour of that nostalgic moment, I’ve decided to make my otherwise useless class examples into Barbie-wear, because let’s face it, she’s not going to make it through an Irish winter in that getup.

Now, onto the practical side of things: tips for vertical and horizontal colour-changes in knitting.

[This part of the post has been moved to the student access only section of Week Two.]

We’ll go over all of it in class this week, but if you want to try it yourself, go for it!  If you’re still on garter stitch (all knit), just repeat the first half of the directions and know that you’ll have to move your new colour yarn to the back each time.

Looking forward to seeing you in class!

Now, who's got a chilly Barbie?

Could we do this for knitting?

The first week has come and gone, and we’re barreling into week two.  

Saturday was great fun.  Both of my students were former knitters– learned back in primary school– and as soon as we got past the awkward bit of relearning how to cast on, they were whipping through the rows.  In fact, they were much better than I expected, so we had time to throw in some colour experimentation at the end.  How are you getting on with that, ladies?

We cast on, we knit, we cast off.  Pretty basic stuff, and fun to see it coming back so quickly.  I really think knitting is like riding a bike, only better*!  Unlike biking, you can do it at the same time as watching TV or chatting with friends, and you get scarves and hats out of it at the end of the day.  Now if they can just invent an exercise bike that uses the force of your pedaling to knit, I’ll have to eat my words…

Now that’s a Rube Goldberg invention I’d like to see.

Because my quick knitters put me on the spot with their speed and agility, we ended the class with a little bit of vertical colour-changing, something I hadn’t done myself in some time… so we flew by the seats of our respective pants.  This week we’ll start with it again (after a bit of a homework challenge) and the different effective ways of changing colours without leaving too much of a trace.

Then it’s on to purling!  What does knit, knit, purl, purl look like?  Or knit, knit, purl?  Or just plain old stockinette?  All of this and so much more this Thursday and Saturday at 3:30!

*I love biking, and it’s obviously much better exercise than knitting.  You should do both.

(you choose!)

at the Curved Street Café in Temple Bar:

A drop-in knitting extravaganza!  Five weeks of classes at 15 euro a pop; a great way to meet new people, share stories over a cup of tea, and learn to knit just in time for winter!

Schedule:

22/24 October: Week one is all about establishing the basics and finding your rhythm.  We’ll cast on, learn the basic garter stitch, and cast off.  What happens when you throw in another colour?

29/31 October: Week two.  You can’t have a knit stitch without its counterpart: the purl stitch!  Well you can, but it’s not as much fun.  This week we’ll be playing with alternating stitches and stockinette.  But first, how did you do on your colour-changing homework?

5/7 November: Week three.  Tired of knitting that same old flat piece?  Scarves are great, but how about a hat?  This week we’ll discover what’s different about knitting in the round, why increases and decreases are very important, and how to do them.

12/14 November: Week four is a great week for people with some basic experience to come in.  We’ll be working on decorative stitches, with a focus on cabling.  Jazz up your jumper with these tricks of the trade, and get ready to start using some patterns.

19/21/November: Week five.  Have all you knitting bases covered, but having trouble finding or following patterns?  Come in this week for some hands-on practice and advice.  Make sure you’re up to scuff on your terms and abbreviations, and voilà, you are ready to go out and conquer the knitting world!