Folks, if you weren’t there, you
missed it. Kathy Zimmerman
rocked.
I’m not much of a “theorist.” I love practical discussions about how
you can accomplish a task by following steps A, B, and C. Kathy did not disappoint. Her discussion on Thursday described
the design process from the point she received the request for submissions
through the life of the garment once it has been She even discussed her start as developing a
reputation as a samples knitter for several years before being invited to
submit her own designs.
I appreciate Kathy’s frankness
about how she designs her garments to meet the needs of the editors. For example, she knows which editors
prefer or dislike certain finishes and design features, and she designs her
submissions with those preferences in mind. On a personal note, I appreciate Kathy’s love of worsted and
bulky weight yarn. The project
moves so much faster with bigger yarn and gives slow knitters (like me) a
needed sense of accomplishment much sooner. And I suspect that she chooses the larger yarns exactly for
that reason. Well done!
While I was only able to attend two
of Kathy’s classes, I found both of them inspiring. The first class I attended was the slip-stitch sampler.
I love the different combinations that
you can create with the simple slip-stitch – who knew? I don’t want to say I was inspired by
the class, but I immediately went home and created this little beauty from
Mason-Dixon Knitting:
The ballband dishcloth is a little distorted
because my youngest got a hold of it, and we had a great game of “keep away.” On a side note, the Peaches and Cream
yarn holds up extremely well to extreme abuse.
For my next class, I studied
fringes, ruffles and scallops.
Again, her class did not disappoint. What I found especially interesting is how knitting into the
back loop is an integral part of these patterns to twist and tighten the
stitches and to help the edgings keep their shapes.
By the end of the day (not the end of the class – remember the slow knitter thing), I had the following edgings:
Someone noted that the fringe
looked like the beginning to a pattern for a trauma bear. I agreed, and a new pattern is in
progress.
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I’ll post the final product when I have it.
A big thank you to Kathy Zimmerman
for all of her wisdom and inspiration!
We thoroughly enjoyed having you as our guest and teacher, and we hope
you will come see us again.
And, of course, thank you to
everyone who made this event possible, including Kathleen, Eve, Marian, Betty, Ellen
R., Joan, SEFAA and its members, and the entire AKG board. It was an amazing weekend.
