I took a class at Stash Local in Corvallis with my mother and a friend of ours about a week ago. It was on knitting Scottish haps (shawls) in the Shetland tradition and taught by Gudrun Johnson. Altogether a great class and I love the style of shawl making. We made mini haps so we could learn all the stages as a group and though mine is about eight inches of edging from being done I love it. I’m calling it a cat hap because I intend to make Pirate the Kitten wear it for at least one photo shoot. I’ll post pictures later.
The best thing I got out of the class though, besides lace borders and knitting on the diagonal and a bunch of other wonderful things, was the moment when Gudrun looked at my sticky note placed neatly on the lace grid and suggested getting some clear highlighter tape so I could “read the pattern” as I went. The materials suggestion was a good one but what shifted my entire paradigm was the idea that I wasn’t just row by row, stitch by stitch, following the directions but rather that I would “read the lace” and understand the pattern. It was like my first number theory class after years of rote memorization of math.
So, consider this: don’t just obey the stitch grid, read the pattern of the lace!
C is for Crafty 