I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions, they are needless pressure that isn’t always helpful. I do however love the idea of using the start of the year as a reminder of what I want and the direction I want to go in. During the busyness of everyday life it’s very easy to forget our priorities and find ourselves drifting in directions we never intended. I frequently allow life necessities to become too dominant and forget that our life here is brief and we should allow a little room for ourselves to grow.
The direction and way you grow will look very different for everyone but if you want to grow your knitting skills this year I’ve got a big variety of ways you can do that. The way you want to grow your skills will depend on your learning style and the amount of time you have available to you. Even if you’ve only got a few minutes a week you can still keep learning!

Local In-Person Classes

This month for the first time I’m doing 2 local classes right here in Cork on Brioche. A lot of people find it easiest to learn in-person, with mistakes picked up immediately so there’s less frustration.
The first of these classes is on basic Brioche, this is the one you want if you’re a Brioche beginner and want to learn it right from the start. The second class will take your basic skills and will step them up to the next level. The brioche mitt you see above is what I’ve designed for this class; it allows you to practice brioche in the round, 2-colour brioche, syncopation and increases. Plus you end up with a very useful pair of pretty mitts!
On the class page here you can buy each class separately or together at a discount.

It’s been a while since I’ve designed a new class and I’m enjoying the process; trying to get myself into the knitters head to feel for the best way to learn and how the pace of the class works. It’s a delicate balance; if I move too quickly I would lose you and you’d go home feeling frustrated, alternatively if I move too slowly the class is boring and you would feel like you didn’t get your money’s worth! The class challenge is trying to hit that sweet spot in the middle for as many knitters as possible.

 

Free Online Brioche Course

If you’re not local to Cork and want to pick up some brioche skills then you can find my Brioche Basics here for free. Next month I’ll be adding a new class that works through a Brioche garment (in child size!) so you can put your brioche skills to work. Hopefully by doing these online classes in combination with in-person ones I’ll get a good feel for areas that frequently trip knitters up and can be sure to address them!

 

Tutorial Videos

Have you checked out the huge range of video tutorials I’ve got online? Every time I want to show a new technique I pop a video on here!
The  most recent videos I’ve uploaded are Integrated I-Cord, Twisted German Cast-On, Tubular Bind-Off and the Italian Cast-On.

 

I’ve recently added some Flyer needles to the shop that can be used for small circumference knitting. I think I need to put a video together looking at different circular knitting comparisons. I could show magic loop, dpns, 2 circulars and now also flyers. Would you like to see this?