Tuesday, March 19, 2013

See Susan Knit




Hi, Knitters,
I am not sure if you will find this interesting or not but I frequently get asked about how I knit so fast. By fast I think people are mainly talking about how many items I finish. However, this does include technique questions, too. I also get many requests to take a video of myself knitting. So on this bright, very cold, sunny morning I set up my iPhone on a tiny tripod and filmed myself knitting in the round on double-pointed needles.

This is not an instructional video! I am just sitting and knitting.

If you are receiving this blog post as an email via subscription, click here to see the video!

In the short video I am working on a class sample for my new Build-a-Toy Workshop that is premiering at Vogue Knitting Live in Seattle. I believe both of the Build-a-Toy Workshops are sold out at this point but if you are interested keep checking back in case someone drops out. I have worked up about 22 different toy elements and I have about 5 or 6 toy designs made from these elements left to complete before class. I can do it! It's going to be an incredible class and really fun. There is so much technique involved in this workshop and that is what I love to teach and demonstrate for my students. The other toy workshop is String-a-Long Toys and it looks like there might be a couple of openings left in this class and we cover a lot of the same techniques if you are interested.

I am using Signature Needles, double-points, 6-inches in length in the stiletto point. I didn't talk or put any music on so you can hear the needles click and slide as I work.

This is my favorite way to sit as I knit. I like to cross my legs and hold the knitting relaxed and low on my lap and slightly off to the right.

A couple of things to point out and watch for are:
1. After I knit about half of the stitches on a dpn, I quickly place the point from the previous dpn in between my pointer finger and middle finger to get it out of the way. You can barely see my hands doing this but it really helps me go faster and knit smoother.

2. After I knit the first stitch on a new dpn I give it an extra tug to tighten up the yarn in between the needles so there won't be any laddering (stretched out columns) between the stitches at those changing points.

That's all today! Short and sweet. 
Happy Tuesday.
best, susie