Past Events

Socks for Beginners

For the knitter who has been knitting for a while and feels like they’ve found their footing. Let’s put a sock on it!

Over a few weeks you will knit a top-down boot sock (DK-weight) or an around-home sock (Worsted-weight). You can also knit a tiny sock if you don’t have time for homework. If you’re a knitting socks for someone else, bring in their measurements: foot circumference around the ball of the foot and length.

Techniques To Be Learned:

• Holli’s favourite stretchy cast on
• Circular knitting with double-pointed needles (DPNs), or two circular needles or one long circular needle for Magic Loop (your choice)
• Avoiding ladders and loose stitches
• Heel construction including heel flap, heel turn and picking up stitches around the heel
• Grafting (Kitchener stitch)
• Getting the right fit

Beginner Sweater Class

Using a baby cardigan pattern that Holli Yeoh has designed specifically for this class, you’ll learn the basics on sweater construction, shaping, swatching, pattern reading and lots of other helpful tips. Come to class with your first gauge swatch already knit and you’ll be well on your way to completing your first sweater. By the end of the class you’ll have the skills to tackle a full-sized sweater for yourself!

Expect to work on the project at home between classes so you’ll be ready to learn the next step in the sweater at the next class.

Suitable for Advanced Beginners and beyond.

Interested in Intarsia?

In this live online class, you will tackle the intricacies of intarsia to add blocks and motifs of colour to your knitting. You’ll learn all the basics including joining colours, avoiding holes, managing all those ends and tangles, reading graphs, and tension issues. Holli will show you how duplicate stitch can be used to fix mistakes, draw outlines, and add even more colour, after the garment is done. Holli breaks down the techniques into simple relatable ideas and actions, showing you there is nothing to fear; by the end of this workshop, you’ll have the confidence to work with colour.

Seams Simple

Give your knitting the attention it deserves when seaming your garments. You’ll have a chance to try your hand at mattress stitch and false grafting. We’ll also discuss the merits of reinforced seams and cover other seaming techniques as time permits.

Skills needed: suitable for beginners and beyond.

Tricky Tips + Tantalizing Tricks

Knitting boils down to just knitting and purling. But it’s how you finesse those stitches and keep track of them. How you make those stitches and care for them. That’s what leads to the success and failure of your project. It also leads to how you feel about the knitting experience. It’s the little tricks along the way that add to the enjoyment factor. The more you enjoy it, the more you like the results, the more you want to knit. Enjoyment and fulfillment are what it’s all about. Here are time saving tricks that help you focus on the things you love about knitting.

Suitable for beginners and beyond.

Saturday Seminar: Degender Patterns

Vancouver based designer, Holli Yeoh, is adding a new aspect to her ongoing design work. She’s designing thoughtfully to make her work more gender inclusive (or perhaps, less gender exclusive!). Holli will help us understand how she approaches a non-binary design to create a garment that fits and flatters all types of folks. Holli will provide insight into what changes/options we might consider when knitting a unisex garment.

Fixing Common Mistakes

UH-OH! THERE’S A FIX FOR THAT.

$%#$@#^! Isn’t knitting supposed to be relaxing?? Learn how to get yourself out of a knitting-related disaster and get back on track. Picking up dropped stitches, fixing missed increases and twisted stitches, unknitting and other common fixes will be covered in this 3 hour workshop.

Pre-Work Required: A PDF with a small amount of pre-work will be sent to you upon registration in this class. Please make sure that the pre-work is completed before the class.

Fixing Mistakes (Lace + Cables)

Knitting and mistakes go hand in hand. All knitters, even the most advanced ones make mistakes. You already know how to make simple fixes like dealing with a dropped stitch or twisted stitches. Now it’s time to kick it up a notch and learn some advanced skills to fix your mistakes. We’ll concentrate on lace and cables, ripping out small sections and recreating them row by row instead of ripping out several rows or the entire project.

Skills needed: You’re comfortable with the basics and know how to knit simple lace and cables, read a chart, and follow simple pattern instructions.

Darn It! Mending Your Knits

Based on the time and resources we put into our knitting, handknits should be knit-for-life and sustainable. Learn green skills to maintain your wardrobe so your handknits can become heritage pieces within your family or lovingly donated.

Join Holli Yeoh for a three-hour, hands-on repair class that explores various ways to repair holes in your knitting. You’ll learn Swiss darning, stocking darning. The techniques are transferrable to commercially made garments, as well. Holli will talk about other strategies to repair holes, as well as provide an overview of the pests that can cause damage.

Skill Level: Suitable for beginners and beyond.

First Sweater

Using a baby cardigan pattern that Holli has designed specifically for this class, you’ll learn the basics on sweater construction, shaping, swatching and lots of other helpful tips. Come to class with your first gauge swatch already knit and you’ll be well on your way to completing your first sweater. By the end of the class you’ll have the skills to tackle a full-sized sweater for yourself!

This online workshop is presented in four sessions, each 1.5 hours long, over four weeks.

Tip Toe Up Socks

This toe-up sock class is a skill building opportunity to knit socks with completely replaceable heels and toes. Over three weeks we’ll tackle the beautifully invisible Turkish cast-on, Holli’s favourite increases, placeholder stitches for the heel, a stretchy sewn bind-off with no sewing, opening a large hole in your sock for the heel, and grafting on the needles.

Take this opportunity to learn a “new-to-you” technique for working in the round: using two circular needles, or one long circular needle for the Magic Loop technique or double pointed needles. Or feel free to use needles that you’re most familiar with while learning the other new skills.

This online workshop is presented in three sessions, each 2 hours long, over three weeks.

Beginner Mittens

Description TBA

Mending

We spend too much time on our hand knits to throw them away when they get a hole. Join Holli Yeoh for a three-hour, practical repair class. You’ll learn Swiss darning, stocking darning and how to use a knitted patch to repair a hole. The techniques are transferable to commercially made garments, as well.

Holli will share other repair strategies including needle felting to repair small holes.

Skill Level: Suitable for beginners and beyond.

Beginner Fixing Mistakes

$%#$@#^! Isn’t knitting supposed to be relaxing??

Learn how to get yourself out of a knitting related disaster and get back on track.
Picking up dropped stitches, fixing missed increases and twisted stitches, un-knitting (cleverly known as TINKing as it is the word KNIT backwards!) and other common
fixes will be covered in this 3hr workshop.

Skills needed: You’re comfortable with the basics and know how to decrease, increase, and follow simple pattern instructions.

Tip Toe Up Socks

This toe-up sock class is a skill building opportunity to knit socks with completely replaceable heels and toes. Over three weeks we’ll tackle the beautifully invisible Turkish cast-on, Holli’s favourite increases, placeholder stitches for the heel, a stretchy sewn bind-off with no sewing, opening a large hole in your sock for the heel, and grafting on the needles. Take this opportunity to learn a “new-to-you” technique for working in the round: two circular needles, one long circular needle for the Magic Loop technique or double pointed needles. Or feel free to use needles that you’re most familiar with while learning the other new skills.

There will be homework each week so you’re ready to try the next step in the class together.
You may knit a sock of any size, but plan to work about half the sock between each class. If you’re knitting a sock for someone else, come to class with the foot circumference and foot length (not shoe size).

Skills needed: Participants should have experience knitting in the round and be familiar with making cuff down socks. For this class is it recommended to use heavier yarn such as a Sport, DK or worsted weight and needles about two sizes smaller than the ball band recommendation.

Intro to Intarsia

Tackle the intricacies of intarsia to add blocks and motifs of colour to your knitting. You’ll learn all the basics including joining colours, avoiding holes, managing all those ends and tangles, and reading graphs. We’ll also cover tension issues and show you how duplicate stitch can be used to fix mistakes or add even more colour, after the garment is done. There is nothing to fear; by the end of this workshop, you’ll have the confidence to work with colour.

Skills needed: Knit, purl, cast on and bind off—advanced beginner

Fully Fashioned Shaping

All Knit City classes have been cancelled due to low enrollment.

Fully fashioned shaping lends an elegant and sophisticated air to hand-knit garments. We’ll examine the English-tailored shoulder: what it is, how to make it and how to alter a pattern to feature it. We’ll also explore the whole concept of fully fashioned shaping to help you make decisions on what increases and decreases to use when introducing shaping to your garments.

Skills needed: knit, purl, cast on and bind off —advanced beginner.

Interested in Intarsia?

All Knit City classes have been cancelled due to low enrollment.

Tackle the intricacies of intarsia to add blocks and motifs of colour to your knitting. You’ll learn all the basics including joining colours, avoiding holes, managing all those ends and tangles, and reading graphs. We’ll also cover tension issues. There is nothing to fear; by the end of this workshop, you’ll have the confidence to work with colour.

Skills needed: knit, purl, cast on and bind off – advanced beginner.

Virtual Fibre Event

Melissa Leapman’s Virtual Knitting Tour to Canada

Along with many of my Canadian knitting friends, I’m teaching at Melissa’s retreat. It’s going to be a fun-filled weekend. My class is Tricky Tips and Tantalizing Tricks.

Interested in Intarsia?

Tackle the intricacies of intarsia to add blocks and motifs of colour to your knitting. You’ll learn all the basics including joining colours, avoiding holes, managing all those ends and tangles, and reading graphs. We’ll also cover tension issues and show you how duplicate stitch can be used to fix mistakes or add even more colour, after the garment is done. There is nothing to fear; by the end of this workshop, you’ll have the confidence to work with colour.

The online workshop is presented over two 2-hr sessions via Zoom. There is a small amount of homework to do before the first class and between classes you’ll be asked to complete your 5 x 4” (12.5 x 10 cm) workshop swatch.

Skills needed: knit, purl, cast on and bind off—advanced beginner

Time Saving Knitting Tips

Knitting boils down to just knitting and purling. But it’s how you finesse those stitches and keep track of them. How you make those stitches and care for them. That’s what leads to the success and failure of your project. It also leads to how you feel about the knitting experience. It’s the little tricks along the way that add to the enjoyment factor. The more you enjoy it, the more you like the results, the more you want to knit. Enjoyment and fulfillment are what it’s all about. Here are time saving tricks that help you focus on the things you love about knitting.

Skill Level: Beginner and beyond—you know how to cast on, bind off, knit and purl.

Fine Finishing: Seaming

Make sure to give your knitting the attention it deserves when seaming your garments; now is not the time to do a rush job! In this class, you’ll have a chance to try your hand at mattress stitch on both stockinette and garter stitch as well as false grafting and joining stitches to rows. We’ll discuss the merits of seamed garments, including reinforced seams, and cover other seaming techniques as time permits. Let’s not forget those ends; we’ll cover several ways to weave in your ends.

Fine Finishing: Endings

After all the pieces of your project are completed you’ll want to prepare them for assembly and wearing. In the Endings class we will cover bind offs, blocking, picking up stitches and if time permits, buttonholes.

Fine Finishing: Beginnings

Before you begin a project, you should consider your finishing techniques. You’ll learn tips and tricks that will make your finishing easier and more polished, rivaling commercially made garments. We’ll work on cast ons, selvedges, tension issues and gauge, fully fashioned increases and decreases.

Darn It! Mending Your Knits

Based on the time and resources we put into our knitting, handknits should be knit-for-life and sustainable. Learn green skills to maintain your wardrobe so your handknits can become heritage pieces within your family or lovingly donated.

Join Holli Yeoh to explore various ways to repair holes in your knitting. You’ll learn about both Swiss darning and stocking darning. The techniques are transferrable to commercially made garments, as well. Holli will talk about other strategies to repair holes, as well as provide an overview of the pests that can cause damage.

View festival info at: https://edmontonfibrefrolic.com/

Knitting 911: Fixing Mistakes

$%#$@#^! Isn’t knitting supposed to be relaxing??

All knitters, even the most advanced ones make mistakes. Get yourself out of a knitting-related disaster by learning how to identify and fix your mistakes without ripping everything out. We’ll explore the most common mistakes including dropped stitches, missed increases, twisted stitches, split stitches, and more.

View festival info at: https://edmontonfibrefrolic.com/