Sunday was the last day of the retreat and I had signed up for a 3-hour
morning class. Janine Bajus said
that the other teachers had questioned the wisdom of offering a class on cutting
up one's knitting early on a Sunday. Despite my exhaustion after a full weekend
and a late night before, I found "Steeks: What, Where, When, Why, How" a very
educational class. I was extremely nervous about cutting into my knitting and
took the class basically for hand holding.
Janine showed us how to set up a standard steek, useful for a cardigan or
V-neck opening, and a kangaroo steek, useful for sleeve openings. For a
kangaroo steek, one puts stitches on a holder and casts on stitches for the
steek thus making an open bottom pocket.
She then showed us how to stablize a steek with crocheting before
cutting.
I practiced this a couple of times before I liked the look after cutting.
First attempt:
Second attempt:
She had us just cut the kangaroo steek without stabilizing first so we could
see how it looks. Since we were using sticky yarns (wool yarn that grabs itself) for our samples, the cut
steek didn't unravel.
After all that, Janine showed us how to pick up stitches along a cut steek
for adding bands or sleeves.
I had arranged for George to pick me up after my last class since the Sounder
commuter train doesn't run on weekends. We had originally planned to go to
lunch in Tacoma and then to the Point Defiance
Zoo or the Museum of
Glass depending on the weather. However, I was so exhausted after 4 days of
classes and learning (in class and out) that we just went to lunch and then
headed home to Seattle where I fell into bed for a nap.
Overall, I had a great time at the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat 2009 and
look forward to next year.