Knitting Embellishments Workshop at Unravel 2015

December 23, 2014 | Elanor

I will be hosting a workshop on Knitting Embellishments at Unravel in Farnham Maltings this year, I’d love if you could come join me.

Start: Saturday 21 February – 10:30
Estimated End: Saturday 21 February – 12:30
Auditorium: East Wing Dance Studio 2
Knitting Embellishments with Elanor King

Admission: £26 (including same day entry to unravel)

This workshop will explore what kinds of materials can be used as embellishments and where it’s appropriate to use them. We will consider the properties of the yarn, how the finished item will be used and what decorative effect the knitter wants to achieve.

Embellishments demonstrated will include knitted-in and sewn-on techniques e.g. thrums, loom bands, sequins and couching..”

Please bring 4mm needles and Dk yarn leftovers in your favourite colours OR a pattern you want to knit and decorate as well as yarn and needles appropriate to that pattern.

Recycled Cuffs

March 25, 2014March 25, 2014 | Elanor

My daughter and I got in a little sewing time after school today. We cut the cuff off one of Daddy’s old shirts and took a strip from another and raided the button box. I think it’s quite cute. I would love to learn how to sew properly. The Sewing Bee is utterly engrossing, but it all looks so precise! Kinda too scared to just try it in case it turns out disastrously. Otoh, my first knitting projects were no oil paintings either!

Wildacres Workshop at Puddleducks

August 10, 2013 | Elanor

I had a whale of a time at my first ever workshop last Saturday. The ladies who took the class were utterly charming, and keen to show me Ardee, which had it’s annual Turfman Festival on. Brilliant!

Clare is the owner of Puddleducks and she’s a busy lady! As well as running the yarn cafe, she makes and sells yummy jams and chutneys. I loved this notice on her van:

This is Puddleducks (looks really inviting, doesn’t it?):

This is a pic of my class in progress – I had knitted objects all over the place by the end – practically hanging from the chandeliers, so they were!

Clare put on a fab spread for us (Nommy!)

And look at these dinky little cupcakes! Perfect size really, as I could have 2!

I really enjoyed my first foray into Workshopping, and I definitely learned lots from how it went and the huge pool of knowledge that was in the room. I’m already thinking about what to put in the next one!

Make your knit your own – Workshop at Puddleducks, Ardee

July 26, 2013August 8, 2013 | Elanor

I am delighted to announce I’ll be running a workshop in Puddleducks in Ardee, Co. Louth on Saturday week (August 3rd).

We’ll be using Wildacres as the workshop pattern.

There are many ways to make your knits your own. First and foremost, once you understand all the information set out in the pattern, you can plan how you want to change it. The next step is to choose whether to substitute the yarn type and colour. There are also many techniques for modifying as you go or working decorations into or onto your piece. This class will go through the pattern, teaching you the standard pattern elements so you can change what you want to make it unique. We will cover:

– Choosing yarn

– Elements of a pattern

– Changing it up

– If there’s time, surface embellishments (beading & embroidery).

Wildacres is knit in the round. There will be an opportunity to learn to knit in the round if you have not tried this before.

Materials for Wildacres: leftover DK yarn and 4.5mm circular needles (80cm long) (or size required to get gauge 20sts x 28rows / 10cm over st st)

Optional: If you have them, please bring a st st or ribbed square or even an old knit that could do with some “je ne sais quoi”!

This workshop costs 45 euro and is being hosted by Clare of Puddleducks.ght lunch and refresh

A light lunch and refreshments are included in the price.

Ring Clare with any queries
+353-86-4066526

Puddleducks is a craft cafe (with lots of yummy cakes in both of the most important varieties… yarn cakes and chocolate!)

Puddleducks, Kells Road, Ardee, Co-Louth

spaces are limited and a non refundable
booking deposit of 25 euro is required.

Soho shindig

July 1, 2013July 1, 2013 | Elanor

Explicit Content Warning!!!

I had the great good fortune to attend Benjamin Wilson’s first off-piste (by which i mean non-sponsored) tutorial yesterday. The topic was “pornographic intarsia” which sounded hugely daring and exciting when I first read about it on Ben’s blog.
Ben is a character: I think, but I’m not sure (cos i didn’t ask) that he matched his contacts to his hair! A vision in turquoise. (pinched from his twitter feed).

My friend and I escaped suburbia and walked along Oxford st towards soho. Things were quiet, morning after the gay pride day before, perhaps?
The workshop was held upstairs in the Soho Theatre, and Ben sorted us out with a very civilised drink and course notes upon entering. My eyes immediately lit on the last item in the table of contents and before Ben had managed to get the words “explicit warning” out, I had already revealed an intarsia chart for an erect phallus. Brilliant.

Fab charts aside, the real value of this workshop was learning how to make any photo into an intarsia chart using gimp. Well worth the fee for that alone, but the craic was great and I enjoyed myself hugely.

We also got to feel Ben’s knickers and see Ron Jeremy on a cushion cover.

And I know it was an intarsia workshop, but I have to confess I didn’t do any… I like the bit of stranding I did though! Lovely colours.

I’ll be keeping an eye on knityounexttuesday for future workshops. You should try one too.

Catchloops

Data and knitting

Learning