Spring workshops announcement

VK-workshop-small
Thanks to Ann Falcone of the Village Knitter for this great photo!

Hey folks! After my packed Fall, I’m happy to relax for a little while — but I know you’re itching to learn some double-knitting, so I’m posting my workshop schedule for the coming Spring 2013 season. For more info and updated times, check out my calendar of events:

  • The Eliot School, Jamaica Plain, MA: 6-week double-knitting intro and hat design workshop starting Jan 3rd
  • FiberCamp Boston 2013, Cambridge, MA. Jan 12th and 13th, intro workshop and other awesomeness.
  • Mind’s Eye Yarns, Cambridge, MA: Intro workshops on Feb 17th and March 24th; 2-color advanced workshop on April 6th.
  • The Knitting Studio, Montpelier, VT: Intro workshops on Feb 23rd; 3-color advanced workshop on Feb 24th.
  • The Yarn Sellar, York, ME: Intro workshops on March 2nd; 2-color advanced workshop on March 3rd.
  • Woolbearers, Mt Holly, NJ: Intro workshop on March 16th; 2-color advanced workshop on March 17th.
  • The Knitting Boutique, Glen Burnie, MD: Intro and advanced workshops on April 20th and April 21st

If you don’t see the workshop you want to take on the shop’s website, don’t hesitate to contact them directly. All shops post their workshops on their own schedules but most have ways of reserving your space even if you get in touch early.

Don’t see a workshop in your area? Sorry about that! I don’t pursue specific shops or venues — they have to request me. If you want to get me to your area, send this link to your local yarn shop and ask them to get on my list to find out when I’m scheduling dates for the next teaching season. I am also willing to schedule into the early Summer this coming season, but I find many people don’t want to learn double-knitting in the warmer months. I’m not sure why!

In addition to my traditional, in-person workshops, there’ll be a new opportunity for everyone in the whole world to take a class with me on Craftsy, starting sometime in January! This affordable, interactive, online platform allows me to reach worldwide to spread the word about double-knitting to a much larger audience. In addition, I designed two brand-new patterns just for this class, which I’ll post photos of when I announce that the class has gone live!

52 Pickup Kits are now available!

In pattern news, the long-awaited yarn is arriving tomorrow according to tracking numbers and those who preordered 52 Pickup kits will still get them before Christmas if the Postal Service cooperates. I’ve got yarn enough to make a few more kits so if you’ve been waiting on purchasing one, now would be the time. Of course if demand is high enough I may be making more kits after the holidays, but I can’t make any promises about precise timing. I’ve also upped the shipping price (for Priority Mail) on the books alone to make sure any new orders still arrive before Christmas; the price will drop again after Christmas to the normal (Media Mail) price. Shipping to Canada is still the same price since I can’t guarantee Christmas delivery anyway at this point. Shipping on the kits is already at Priority Mail levels. But time is running out if you want to get any of this stuff before the holidays, so order now if that’s what you’re after. I’ll always ship the morning after payment reaches me.

The 52 Pickup pattern book is now available for holiday delivery!

Well here it is, folks, the surprise I meant to tell you about. I was hoping to have this out sooner but not everything fell together exactly on time. However, enough has come together at this point that I can extend the offer.

I’ve already posted this to my mailing lists, and now I’m going to reach further. In January of this year, I released the pattern for 52 Pickup, my first true “magnum opus” double-knitting piece. At the time, I didn’t think it would be practical to print it as well, but I realize that many people value having a nicely-printed and bound version of certain patterns. Binding it poses certain difficulties — for example, if the charts are stuck always in the same order, how is it practical to “shuffle” the charts so that the cards are in a random order?

A perfect gift for your obsessive knitter.

But I decided to go for it anyway, after Shannon at Cooperative Press gave me a lead on a printer that could print them cheaply and cleanly and in any number I required with a very short lead time. I printed a very small number — 50 — to start with and see how they sell. 10 of those are set aside for use as kits.

To solve the issue of the un-shufflable (is that a word? It is now) pages, I’m offering a free PDF copy of the pattern from Ravelry to anyone who buys the print copy of the pattern book. The book also includes a reprint of my article on the mathematics and design behind this scarf, originally printed in Issue Zero of Knit Edge Magazine.

The book alone is $19.95 plus shipping, and the kit (which includes the book, the free PDF download, 10 balls of Regia 4-ply in the proper colors, and a deck of cards) is $109.95, plus shipping. The kit is currently only on preorder — I am still waiting for the yarn to arrive but I’ve been assured that it’s Not Going To Be Long Now. I’m under the impression that I’ll be able to ship kits at least to US addresses before Christmas. If it turns out I need to eat my words, I’ll be happy to send the book alone to those who preordered, and the rest of the kit when it arrives.

I was planning on selling them on Etsy, but I decided instead to simply sell them directly on my website with a WePay widget, so that I only owe fees to one company rather than two. So if you’re interested, go visit my website’s patterns page!

Stay tuned for more announcements here soon (or sooner than usual, anyway)!