Classes
Welcome to KAN 2018!
This lineup is proving to be the best yet. Please take time to plan your workshops and I strongly suggest selecting a first, second or even third choice classes. Classes do sell out EXTREMELY quickly. It’s like trying to book tickets for a concert, so please don’t be disappointed if you miss out. There is still plenty to see and do at KAN and ALL the classes are brilliant.
All classes are 3 hours long and are $67 each (with the exception of The Hexi Blanket which is 90 minutes at $45)
Unless otherwise stated a KAN base registration must be purchased in order to unlock and book classes.
| Room |
STREAM ONE Friday 9am – 12pm |
STREAM TWO
Friday 3pm – 6pm |
STREAM THREE
Sat 9am – 12pm |
STREAM FOUR
Sat 1.30pm – 4.30pm |
STREAM FIVE Sun 9am – Noon |
| East Pier 1 |
Crochet Lace Sofia Moers-Kennedy |
Heels & Toes Techniques
Clare Devine |
Introduction to Lace
Sue Schreuder |
Off the Cuff
Nanette Cormack |
Frida Crown Alia Bland |
| East Pier 2 |
Drop Spindling Frances Stachl |
Yarn & Pattern Magic
Nanette Cormack |
Creative Cables
Nikki Jones |
Continental Knitting
Frances Stachl |
KAN Knit Lounge |
| Crown N |
Top Down Raglans Georgie Nicolson |
Triangular Shawls and More
Georgie Nicolson |
Frog Free Zone – Fixing Mistakes
Georgie Nicolson |
Short Rows
Georgie Nicolson |
Sock Short Row Shaping Clare Devine |
| Crown V |
Intro Double Knitting Nathan Taylor |
Intro Double Knitting
Nathan Taylor |
Strand-tarsia
Nathan Taylor |
Shaping in D-K Nathan Taylor |
|
| Port View |
Fab Fairisle Morag McKenzie |
Knit 2 Fit
Libby Jonson |
Sweater Skills
Libby Jonson |
Secrets of Steeking Morag McKenzie |
|
| Skeinz |
Hexi Crochet & Basic Charts Deborah Moore |
GWT TBC |
Class Descriptions
STREAM ONE
Friday 24th August 9am – 12pm
Drop Spindling for Beginners with Frances Stachl
Drop spindling is often considered the gateway to hand spinning. One of the most ancient of yarn crafts, drop spindling can be a wonderfully rewarding skill that enables you to have power of the entire process from yarn creation to finished garment. Frances will cover the fundamentals of spinning and will have you going around in circles in no time at all!
Fab Fairisle with Morag McKenzie
Walk me down the fairisle! This time honoured technique has never been revitalised in recent designs. Morag will dive into all the techniques to make your fairisle next level amazing. It will cover technique, colour selection, yarn selection, gauge and getting those pesky floats just right. This class also dovetails perfectly in Steeking with Morag in Stream Four
Top Down Raglans with Georgie Nicolson
Raglan shaping is a classic way of shaping sweaters to give an easy classic fit to all shapes and sizes. In this class you will knit a mini version while looking at the construction process, how it works and how you can adjust and alter to suit. After mastering this class you should understanding on how create and modify your own raglan designs.
Demystifying Double-Knitting with Nathan Taylor
This is a class for knitters who want to explore the wonderful world of double-knitting (DK). That’s the two-sided technique, not the yarn weight!
DK is a versatile and wonderful way of creating stunning effects in reversible, two-sided knitting, so no morewrong sides, no unsightly floats, and best of all, two garments in one, as whatever beautiful pattern is displayed on the front, shows on the back too, but with the colours reversed. Magic!
In this class we will be exploring how the basic mechanics of DK work: looking at the structure of the fabric, and how the two sides interact with each other to create the interlocked, reversible beauty that only DK can give you. We’ll talk a little bit about what is possible in the technique, to give you a flavour of where this foundation can eventually lead you, but we’ll mostly be concerning ourselves with getting you familiar with what yarn goes where!
Crochet Lace with Sofia Moers – Kennedy
Create stunning embellishments, lace coverings and fabrics using Crochet. Learn how to create crochet lace motifs that can then be transformed into projects from fashion to furnishing. You need to understand the basic crochet stitches.
STREAM TWO
Friday 24th August 3pm – 6pm
Yarn & Pattern Magic with Nanette Cormack
How many times have you seen a stunning pattern on Ravelry but the suggested yarn is something that is nigh on impossible to get in NZ or you’ll need to a mortgage to acquire it. Nanette will look at how you can use readily available local yarns to help you substitute to get the great results every time. From effective swatching, sizing and yarn properties, this class will give you skills that EVERY knitter needs in their toolbox.
Heel & Toes Sock Techniques with Clare Devine
Love knitting socks but not always happy with the fit? This class is the perfect introduction to some of the more technical aspects of sock knitting, allowing you to knit “off piste” a little and adjust sock patterns to suit your foot shape, rather than knitting something you love the look of and hoping that it fits.
The class contains a mixture of technical information, practical hands on measuring and knitting time to explore the shaping of heels and toes. You will also be provided with a comprehensive handout that contains many heel and toe options that you can use to adjust patterns to suit your foot shape
Triangular Shawls Deconstructed with Georgie Nicolson
In this class you will look at how you can change up the traditional triangular shawl to create other shapes. Also look at how to go about swapping in different stitch patterns and charting for them. Move away from basic triangles and start exploring how you can create your own special shawl patterns based on the triangular method of construction.
Knit 2 Fit with Libby Jonson
Back by popular request you will learn to knit garments that fit!
You’ll cover what yarns to use, clues to look for when starting a pattern, gauge and swatching and we’ll take our measurements and figure out how to find our size in a pattern. You’ll also learn how to make simple changes so our sweaters and cardigans fit us and you’ll do a hands-on exercise to get to grips with making changes to width and length. Everyone will go home with a Truly Myrtle garment pattern customised to fit them.
Demystifying Double-Knitting with Nathan Taylor
A repeat of Stream One’s class
STREAM THREE
Saturday 25th August 9am – 12pm
“Strantarsia” – Stranded Intarsia with Nathan Taylor
We all know that intarsia can’t be done in the round. (Well, you can do some sorts of things that involve working back and forth, and seaming up the side, but it’s not really possible to do it properly.)
You CAN, however, work a panel of stranded (think fair-isle) knitting in the round, where the colourwork does not go all the way round the piece, but is only worked in one specific area.
This is a technique is pioneered by Nathan and it’s really fun to do. Its applications are many and various. You can, for example, put a contrasting motif on the ankle of a sock, or a sports logo on the front of a hat. Fancy working a patch of colour work into the breast of a jumper knitted in the round? Thought you could only achieve it with duplicate stitch after the event? Not anymore! Now you can add little patches of stranded colourwork anywhere you like in your in-the-round projects.
Creative & Classic Cables with Nikki Jones
Nikki is obsessed with cables – from their meandering ways to their robust construction and the stories they tell. Cables may look difficult, but Nikki will simplify them to allow you to take on projects which have that cabled wow factor. This class will extend you from just basic knitting and purling, she will show you basic cables, cover cable charts and what yarns will help your cables pop.
Frog Free Zone – Fixing Knit Mistakes with Georgie Nicolson
The guide on how to avoid doing the big rip by just dropping back to the problem. Fix dropped stitches, mis-crossed cables, incorrect stitch patterns (including lace) or even a missing or extra decrease/increase, without having to rip back entire rows or frog your whole project.The skills in this class will save you hours of reknitting, frustration and UFO’s.
Secrets of Lace Knitting with Sue Schreuder
Sue first taught this class in 2014 and it’s time to share the secrets of lace knitting again! Sue covers the basic fundamentals of lace knitting, the importance of yarn overs and how to get those increases and decreases facing the right way and also how to read your lace and generally make it less daunting. Filled with plenty of “A-Ha” moments, this class will have you itching to download those shawl patterns you just thought were out of your reach.
Sweater Skills with Libby Jonson
New to garment knitting? Libby has got you covered.
Libby is the designer of sweater sensations such as Oatmeal & Gingerbread and her Timely Cardigan is the “it” piece for this Winter. In this class you’ll learn a bunch of useful techniques that’ll make you feel confident to tackle any sweater pattern. You’ll cover casting-on, and binding-off, increasing and decreasing, knitting in the round, picking up stitches, seaming, short rows and more. This is a hands-on, jam-packed class so get ready to knit and learn!
Hexi Blanket and Basic Crochet Charts with Deborah Moore
Why just crochet a “Granny Square” when you can do a hexagon? Deb will show you how this simple shape change can make for a stunning and effective blanket and will also cover off basic crochet chart reading. This is a great class for those who have just crochet. This class is open to the public and KAN registration isn’t required to attend.
STREAM FOUR
Saturday 26th August 1.30pm – 4.30pm
Off the Cuff Embellishments with Nanette Cormack
Do you have a garment that just looks, well, a little boring?
Adding a simple Cuff, Collar or Hem embellishment can transform a garment from drab to fab! Nanette will cover some simple embellishments, how best to attach them and other ways you can embellish your wardrobe! She will look at taking basic stitches and skills to add that something special, including the Latvian Braid!
D-K Shaping – The Future of Double-Knitting with Nathan Taylor
Ready to move on from using double-knitting to make pot-holders, coasters and scarves? Then this is the class for you.
Double-knitting is a fantastic technique for creating reversible, double-squishy fabric with no unsightly wrong sides, and can be used for many different purposes. If you want to take your double-knitting to the next level, you are going to need to know a little bit more than how to make the standard stocking-stitch-on-both-sides fabric that we all know and love. Nathan will show you how to execute a variety of different types of both increases and decreases, and tell you where you might want to use each of them to their best effect.
The class covers two different types of yarn overs (both connected and unconnected forms), along with the Make One increase (both left- and right-leaning). For decreases, we’ll discuss the idea of matched pairs, and learn about right- and left-leaning single and double decreases, as well as the Centred Double Decrease, and a whole variety of others. Time permitting, we’ll even learn how to do German Short Rows in DK, so that you can send your double-knitting round corners! Once you get to grips with what is possible, the possibilities are endless. This really IS the future of double-knitting!
Short Row Magic with Georgie Nicolson
Georgie will explore 3 or 4 different techniques but also teach about the difference between increasing and decreasing short rows and how they appear in your knitting; the best place to use them. Experiment with short rows and their interesting results rather than just the boring short rows for shaping busts and shoulders. This will take your shaping and short row skills to the next level and open up an entire world of shaping you didn’t realise existed.
Continental Knitting with Frances Stachl
Continental Knitting is often considered faster and more efficient by many knitters. A mystery to many, this technique is a great one to master and Frances is just the lady to demystify if for you. This technique is brilliant if you are left hand dominant and is often referred to as ‘Picking’ . Many right handed knit designers have retaught themselves in the Continental method as it is very efficient in movement and less stressful on hands and joints. This is one of KAN’s most popular classes
Secrets of Steeking with Morag McKenzie
Taking to your knitting with scissors feels like an unholy act but Morag will explain when steeking is best to be used, basic steek techniques and how steeking can revolutionise your knitting. Steeking enables to explore colourwork not possible worked flat and makes your knitting more effective and efficient. She will take the fear factor out of making the cut and open up the wonderful world of pattern and colour works that s only made possible by taking to your knitting with scissors! The perfect follow-on from fairisle as these two techniques go hand in hand.
STREAM FIVE
Sunday 26th August 9am – 12pm
Frida Crown with Alia Bland
This vibrant, lush crown of crocheted flowers is a wonderful project to add to your arsenal and is also a great class for those who have the learned the very basic crochet stitches and now want to make something spectacular. Alia will show you tips and techniques that will improve your basic skills and have you hooked using this amazing project.
This class is open to the public (no KAN Registration required) and is a great project to do with a friend or family member.
Short Row Heel Shaping for Socks – Clare Devine
There is more to short row heels than the standard wrap and turn – explore the short row heel in more detail. During this class you will learn about five short row methods suitable for creating a short row heel (W&T, Yarn over short rows, Japanese Short Rows, Double Wraps / German Short Row and Shadow Wraps).
To improve the fit and finish of a short row heel we will then explore two short row heel adjustments. The mini heel flap and gusset and a simple gusset insertion with “Boomerang Rounds” to anchor the heel to the leg.