Saturday, April 26, 2008

Annie Modesitt Classes


Thursday and Friday I took 3 classes with Annie Modesitt. The first two, Cable Without a Cable Needle and Lovely Laces, were held at Abundant Yarn. The third, Combination Knitting, was held by Knit Purl.

I really enjoyed the two classes on Thursday. I had tried knitting cables without a cable needle before using a tutorial online previously. But I had problems dropping stitches so I gave up on that method. Instead, I went back to using a cable needle which to me is very cumbersome and time consuming since I'm apt to lose the needle between rows even when I put it in my lap.

Seeing Annie's method in person made much more sense to me and I was able to pick it up rather quickly. And when I followed her way exactly, I didn't drop stitches. I think I'll be doing more cable work in the future because of this.

The second class at Abundant Yarn was called Lovely Laces. In it we learned how to read a chart and practiced knitting lace. I knew a lot of the things that Annie taught us already but she did show us how to do a left leaning decrease that rocks. It is done over two rows, so it is a little confusing and I don't think I would have ever gotten it from a book or a video. But seeing her do it and explain it, made sense. Now my left leaning decreases won't be looking jagged ever again!

On Friday, after Therese and I went to Yarnia (more on this in another post) and Powell's bookstore we took our third class, Combination Knitting. This was the class I was looking most forward to since I'm a combination knitter but struggle with how to interpret increase and decrease symbols that are written for western style knitters. Unfortunately, Annie didn't really cover this except to say she wished that patterns were written to be more universal in this approach. So I was disappointed by the class because of that and because it repeated material from the Cable class. Oh well, it was good to have that reinforced.

I guess I'm just going to have to figure the increase/decrease thing on my own. I've been fudging it up to now anyway. Grumperina has a chart on how to translate instructions for combination knitting, so I'll use that as a start.

Anyway, over all I enjoyed Annie's classes. She isn't exactly PC in all communications with the class. I could tell she offended a few people with some of her remarks. I tried not to be one of them when she said something about lesbians. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Although sometimes that is hard!

2 comments:

Becky said...

I took Annie's combination class at HCW last fall and had a similar experience. I understand the basics of combination knitting, but wanted to be able to do it with my left hand, so I practiced that way during the class. She discouraged me from doing that, saying that wasn't the point of class. Well, that was the whole reason I was taking the class, so I was disappointed. I can see how many could get a whole lot from her classes if they have trouble learning things on their own, but since I am pretty good at learning things from books and the internet, I rarely take classes. However, I was struggling with doing the purls left handed so I thought it might be worth taking a class. I'm glad to hear someone else was a little disappointed b/c I felt like I was the only one. I could also imagine that the ladies in my class who had paid for a whole class on cabling without a cable needle were probably pretty bummed that she taught that during the combination knitting class too. As was I since I already know how to do that. Maybe she needs to create a Combination Knitting 2 Class.

emicat said...

Well I'm glad that for the most part, you enjoyed your classes.

I'm so wanting to hear all about Yarnia!!!

I also envy you and Therese for stopping by Powell's - I absolutely love that bookstore.