Maggie's Rags Knitting Technique Classes

Knitting Workshops and Classes - Knitting Techniques

Interested in scheduling a program for your shop or local knitting guild?
For more information contact us.

Classes are also available in the following areas:
Finishing Techniques and Embellishments
Pattern Stitches
Design and Creativity

KNITTING TECHNIQUES

Bind Offs for All Occasions
Bored using the same old bind off? Does it look too tight or just plain ugly? Learn bind offs to use when shaping or seaming, to make gathers or add fringes, in textured patterns, cables and multiple colors. Fix problems with bind offs that are too tight or too loose and learn to make that last loop look neat. Class provides hand on practice in all these techniques with ample opportunity to ask questions. Be prepared for any terminal knitting situation. (3hrs)

Beautiful Bind Offs
Tired of mundane bind offs? Ready to add some interest at the edge of your knitting? Learn to add ruffles or lace at cuff and neck, add lacey or solid edgings, flat or picot hems and casings, points, and rows of eyelets for threading ribbons. Find just the right edge for a fancy garment or spice up a plain one. Hands on practice plus discussion of other decorative options. (3 hrs)

Knitting from Charts--Charting your Knits
Do you panic when you see knitting charts? Learn to make sense of them and knit from them with ease. Knitting charts are just one more handy technique you can put to work for you. Charts can help you understand the structure of a textured stitch that's hidden in wordy instructions, help you center a pattern on a garment and plan shaping around cables. Learn the difference between charts for intarsia, stranded colorwork, and pattern stitchs. Switch between flat and circular knitting with ease. (3 hrs)

Cast On Cornucopia
Still using the same cast on you learned when you started knitting? It's time to explore some of the many different ways to start your knitting. Learn tough cast ons for kids' garments, stretchy ones for cuffs, multicolor cast ons that can add decorative edges to a solid garment or complement complicated color work. Even several easy "provisional" cast ons that can be removed in seconds. (3 hrs)

Intro to Circular Knitting
Never knit on circular needles? Do double pointed needles make you feel like you're wrestling with a hedgehog? Learn to knit on circular and double pointed needles. Discover how easy finishing is with no seams! Class will also cover converting pattern stitches and conventional instructions for flat garments into circular knitting. (3 hrs)

Perfect Your Circular Knitting
Unhappy or uncomfortable with circular knitting? Tried it, but you're not sure you like it? Perfect your circular knitting skills-learn the easiest ways to cast on and join the first round without twisting or gaps, become comfortable working with double pointed needles, get rid of those loose stitches, and adapt flat patterns to circular knitting. You'll learn all this, plus we'll trouble-shoot any specific problems with your circular knitting, such as stranding that is too tight or too loose when working Fair Isle. (3 hrs)

Personalized Patterns
Adjust your patterns to fit the wearer. Learn to change the length of the body and sleeves, how to shorten or lengthen the armhole depth and to adjust the width of the sleeve. Add bust darts, back darts or a yoke to improve fit and drape of your garments. Class will also cover integrating these features with pattern stitches and color work. (6 hrs)

Fitting Your Knitting
Learn to improve garment fit by using short rows to add bust darts and shoulder shaping. Students will knit a swatch with a bust dart in it, learning to measure, design, and knit the dart. Students will also measure, and calculate, and knit shoulder shaping, and will learn the technique of binding off together (3-needle bind off) to join the shoulder seam. (3 hrs)

Dreaded Disasters
Workshop on ways to solve problems with garments. Necklines and armholes too tight or too big, sleeves too short or too long, sweaters that fall off the shoulders, hoods too big or too small, ribbing that sags, collars that curl, garments outgrown before they were finished, dropped stitches, extra stitches and cables twisted the wrong way. Instructor will suggest solutions and improvements. Learn what went wrong, most efficient way to salvage it, how to avoid it in the future. (3 hrs)

Two-Handed Two-Color Knitting
Learn this fast, time-honored method of knitting color patterns without having to drop each color and pick up the next. Students will practice both the Continental and English methods of knitting, allowing them to hold two colors of yarn simultaneously. The technique of knitting steeks and cutting for armholes and neck openings will also be discussed. (3 hrs)

Helix Knitting
Knit circular stripes with absolutely no jogs. No one will ever find your beginning and end of round. Use as few as two colors or as many as you like. This technique produces perfect interlocking spirals of each color. Great technique for handpainted yarns. Class will cover introduction to circular needles and double pointed needles as needed, casting on, shaping, design possibilities and i-cord. (3 hrs)

Knitting in All Directions
Free yourself from conventional knitting! Tired of always knitting from the bottom up? Learn new ways to cast on, how to avoid binding off, and techniques for picking up stitches and joining pieces that allow you to start anywhere, pick up where you began, and continue in any direction. This class is designed to add to your "knitter's bag of tricks," giving you flexible ways to create new garments and fix or add to old ones. (3 hrs)

Bring out the Best in your Variegated Yarn
Bring out the best in your variegated yarn. Learn to avoid stripes, highlight desired colors, and emphasize texture. Review a variety of yarns and learn their properties, while knitting swatches to experiment with textured stitches, multiple strands, and stitch count. (3 hrs)

Knitting Shapes: Breaking Away from the Ordinary
Students will learn easy guidelines for knitting circles, triangles, mitered squares, pentagons, hexagons, octagons, and other many-sided shapes. Class will also cover how to use these techniques independently to create facecloths, dishcloths, place mats, or rugs; how to incorporate them into the body of garments as shaping; designing shaped borders; using these shapes as building blocks for other fabrics. Techniques to be covered will include single and paired decreases, on both the right and wrong sides of the fabric. (3hrs)

Mitten Workshop
Mittens are fast and fun to knit. Students will have the option of making child-sized, Orca Whale mitten, or a choice of cabled, traditional, and from-the-finger-tips-down mittens. During the class, everyone will be exposed to the basics of all three mitten architectures. (6 hrs)

Sideways Mitten Workshop
Short row shaping allows you to knit mittens sideways, giving great flexibility in adding intarsia, color patterns, vertical stripes. Concentrate patterns in one area or add them over the whole fabric. Short rows also make it easy to create animal mittens. Learn this technique by knitting an Orca Whale or striped mitten in class. (6 hrs) (3 hrs)

Questions or suggestions? Contact us