Saturday, February 08, 2014

Swing-Knitting II

So other than working with the Nordic Knitting Symposium I have managed to slowly finnish Swing-Knitting WS3 and a bit faster Swing-Knitting WS5.
Swing-Knitted landscape by Petra Neumann
WS3 was not difficult but I was completely uninspired, I constantly found other things to knit, which is not bad, but it slowed the learning process down. I started with WS3 last May on my way to the "Swing-Strick-Treffen 2013" in Helmstedt.
 Where I took some amazing workshops with Birgit Fitzke and Heidrun Liegman. The workshops were above my Swing-Knitting knolledge and all in German, I'm not that very good in German, but I think it went quite well and I saved what I was taught there in the back of my head even though at the time I had difficulties to apply what I learned.
To me as a native Swedish speaker the Swing-knitting terminology were clearer in German than in English so that helped.
The reason for my dislike of my WS3 project were due to five things.
I couldn't figure out what should become of the knitted workshop item.
I do not like when there is only one stansa and a loooong stem.
I chose the wrong quality of yarn, acrylic, it do become squeaky to knit with when it is warm in the summer.
 I used to wide pauses with a pattern that made it difficult to follow where the pins should be placed.
I was getting tired of following the written instructions, I usually knit after my own mind.
So now I am ready but I have not decided what to do with it. I might make some kind of shrug or shoulder warmer.
WS5 - The Swingy Hitchhiker were a much more agreeable project to me.
It is smaller, fewer stitches, there are no stems or at least fewer and shorter ones, multiple stansas on one row, and here I finally broke free and started to Swing on my own.
That was such a relief, I hate to sit with my nose in a pattern. I also really like the Melody and beat given in this workshop. It do create beautiful stansas. there were a learning curve but I made it.

So finally, I have now started my first genuine own swing-knitting project. I am going to make a sweater knitted sideways inspired by a pattern called Bahar.

I started on the first sleeve last week. I do hope to have it done by May when I am leaving for The "Swing-Strick Treffen 2014" in Helmsted.

Friday, February 07, 2014

Nordic Knitting Symposium in Vörå 2014 part I

I started a new job in December.
I got job at Ostrobothnia's Craft Assosiation . Together with my colleguaes I have been organizing the Nordic Knitting Symposium for 2014!
This is really something that I like to do and I also have had the opportunity to contact interesting knitting teachers and lecturers from Finland-Sweden-Estonia-Germany-USA and Japan!
After two months we, I do not work with this on my own, were finally ready to launch the programme a week ago and what a success it was!
When I went home from work today 72 applications had arrived and some of the workshops have almost filled up completely!
We have both full day workshops and half day workshops.
Each participant can choose to participate in two full day workshops and in two half day workshops.
I am especially happy to be able to present Swing-Knitting with Heidrun Liegman on the programme. At the symposium it will be the more basic parts in Swing-Knitting that will be taught. Heidrun calls her classes the Taster class and the Needledance class. We call them basic and beyond the basics for simplification.    
We have also been lucky to get Pörrö Sahlberg to have two workshops teaching how to make buttons in Polymer clay and Colortheory in Polymer clay. I participated in Pörrös button workshop a few years back and managed to make some pretty decent buttons myself. Making this programme I really felt the urge to start making my own buttons.
Another interesting Workshop is Tuulia Salminen's "the tailored sweater" where you both get to know how to knit a top-down set-in-sleeve sweater and get a Excel 2003 worksheet  to fill in your measurements and choice of model and it creates a custom made pdf pattern for you! Amazing! 
Tuulia will also have a workshop in knitting toe-up socks, I really would need that workshop myself.
The amazing glove artist Kristi Joeste from Estonia will teach some beautiful estonian knitting techniques in two different workshops. 
We have Susanna Hanson teaching stripes, how to arrange the colors, how to make jogless stripes etc.
My friend Leena Siikaniemi will teach the technique to make her amazing Doublefun socks.
Some amazing 3D knitting can be learned at Adrienne Sloanes workshops "Sculptural knitting" and "Knitting wired".

more coming soon.........