Unblocked, unfinished samples from the workshops. On the left, two intarsia samples using cotton 4-ply and Kidsilk Haze, designs inspired by architecture. Middle (Alpaca Soft DK) and right (cotton 4-ply), samples using i-cord cast on, cast off, and in various patterns in the body of each sample.
Four or five times a year, one of the yarn producers I like to use, Rowan, has a weekend of workshops, talks and demonstrations. It's £10 to register which covers lots of complimentary activities and then you can purchase additional workshops, generally two hours long.
There is a discount code against a purchase to cover the cost of registration (£10 off minimum spend of £30), and 20% discount off an unlimited purchase. These codes are available as soon as you register so you can purchase items for the workshops in advance if you need to. Needless to say, my stash abides 😂.
Earlier in the year, Rowan ran a wellness retreat, also with workshops and talks, including how to give yourself (or someone else) a hand massage, and a goody bag with lots of gifts. That was an inclusive price of £165 but, apart from the hand massage, there was nothing there that I really wanted and especially not the goody bag. And there are half a dozen free hand massage videos on YouTube.
I've learned over the years to be wary how many workshops I sign up for. The recordings of the workshops are available for two weeks (up from an initial one week) after they take place, which is just as well, because I often need to watch them three or four times as I practice what I'm learning.
I would guess for every hour of workshop, I spend about four hours practicing and that is really only to learn the basics, not to start using what you've learned, or experimenting. Sometimes, even though I think I've got it in the workshop, I'm completely at sea the first time I come to practice.
Generally speaking, you do get very good handouts that you can refer back to learn the basic techniques and as you start to use them, but that assumes you can decode: [KFB, K1, SB2] or [KFB, K2tog, SB2] or [K1, K2tog, SB2] x 2, 3 or 5 times. Even then, there are assumptions, like you know how to long-tail cast on.
Tutors are very good, but not everything is written and you learn little tips in the demonstration that are not written down like use 2-5 stitch i-cords (stands for idiot-cord, which is a bit unfair really, whichever way you want to view it) for casting on or off, but only 2-stitch i-cords between lines of plain and patterned knitting.
Anyway, I've become very picky which workshops I attend, especially if I think I won't have enough time to practice before the recordings expire, or I can't think of any good reason I will be using the technique in the next few months. This time, though, I went for it, and signed up for four workshops. That was a mistake. In future, it will be a strict maximum of two workshops.
There was one on mixing yarns in intarsia, using techniques from a newly published collection, Abstract 2 by Georgia Farrell. The workshop used Summerlite 4-ply and Kidsilk Haze. I had some cotton 4-ply which I substituted and a range of single colours of Kidsilk Haze.
I thought about using my £10 discount to get a few balls of Summerlite 4-ply, but you have to buy over the £30 to trigger the discount and you're still paying shipping costs! A local yarn shop has some colours at half-price and I thought I would check those when I'm in town, although £4 for parking, am I saving anything?
I went to one about using i-cords in various sizes, yarns and techniques by Xandy Peters, another one about colour theory in colour-work, covering intarsia, stranded colourwork (including fair isle) and slip-stitch by Florence Spurling - I've more to do on this one. The final one, which was the biggest mistake, although there was nothing wrong with the workshop, was modular knitting by Sasha Hyre. This was interesting and well-constructed, and reminded me of some techniques, but I have covered these before, so a bit of a waste of money, and it wasn't really necessary to add the pressure of a fourth workshop!
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