This past Saturday and Sunday I took two knitting classes led by Lucy Neatby of Tradewind Knitwear Designs. It turned out to be one of those times when something perfectly pleasant although not noticeably earth-shattering at the time completely changes your consciousness. I know that sounds melodramatic and overstated, but it's true. The classes were held at the always wonderful Cornwall Yarn Shop and since nearly everyone I've encountered there is encouraging and friendly, and given that Gail (the owner) had been even more than usually enthusiastic about Lucy, I expected to have a good time and probably learn some good things. But it was so much more.

Lucy considers knitting an art, and knitters as both technicians and artists. She would seem to be on a mission to help knitters who are willing, to move toward understanding its potential and realizing their (our) own.

To begin with, her designs and work are amazing -- full of colors that knock you out (the photos are clues to that), patterns and humor that are amazing. She loves "playing around with yarn and other ingredients," as she says on her website, and, indeed, her designs, her instructions, her comments, her guidance all have a wonderful sense of play. But she also is a meticulous technician and her instructions are geared toward passing on some of her fantastic techniques.

Theoretically the classes were about socks and two-sided knitting, but there was so much more. We learned how stitches are built and why they work or don't work as we want them to. We learned to "read" knitting and why we should treat stitches well. We learned innovative ways to cast-on effectively and bind off efficiently and attractively. We learned a positively revolutionary way to begin a 4-dpn project such as a sock or mitten. We learned how to insert heels so socks fit feet snugly and comfortably. We learned double (two-sided) knitting in a way that makes me wonder why we don't everything that way. We learned techniques for casting on and knitting two-sided projects like pillows and bags, and for working with two colors on two sides at the same time. She made us feel as if it's perfectly reasonable and possible to produce work like the diagonal socks shown here. She made us believers that we can and will have patience with our work rather than try to strong-arm it into submission. Sure enough, then and there in class, pockets sprouted from our samples and one-piece/two-sided bags displayed alternate color schemes on each side. And why not?! It's all clever and logical and fun.

And it's all informed by her philosophy is that "it doesn't matter how you get there, it is the outcome that is important" even though careful and precise techniques are involved. She avoids and dislikes words like "wrong" and "better" and "worse" and teaches with an unusual and startling mix of things that don't often come together in crafts or artistic endeavors: enormous calm, quiet encouragement and great excitement. That's probably why I'm already partway through the short-row-wedges-with-picot-edges-twisty-turny scarf. And can't wait to do more.

If you want to, check out her website and her patterns, and read the interview that Veronica Avery conducted and was kind enough to print on her blog -- although neither the patterns nor she come across as vibrantly onscreen as they do in person. It is, however, better than not experiencing her at all.

All I can say is that if you have a chance to take a class with Lucy, or are willing to jump into learning via DVD, you are in for many treats and many new skills, and (perhaps most important of all) a leap in your awareness about your work as well as a sense of accomplishment and joy.

Labels: knitting, reflections