The Everyday Knitter Academy is Open!

Why I created the Academy?

I started out like anyone else. Picking up the needles after a hiatus of over 20 years I immediately reverted to what I knew. Straight needles, picking a pattern from a magazine and buying the exact same yarn used in the pattern, sometimes even in the same colour. This was knitting how I knew it. How my beloved Nana had taught me. I wished I could tuck my needle under my left arm the way that she did too, but that bit always eluded me.

I knit quite a few jumpers like this until one day I discovered the beta version of Ravelry and a whole new world of knitting opened up to me. Here were knitters who didn't always follow the rules.

Here were knitters who substituted a different yarn to that called for in the pattern. They adapted the patterns to fit their body shape. They switched in and out little design elements, replaced a cable here and a lace panel there. I was immediately transfixed as this hobby of mine took on a whole new dimension. I started to knit socks, and then to adapt them and to design my own and my knitting adventure grew along with my confidence.

There's something about knitting, about making something with your own two hands which builds confidence. It's a quiet confidence but it's there just the same. It proves to your inner self - who let's face it, is probably your worst critic - that you can do something positive and something well. And yet all too often I hear knitters who are plagued by self doubt and their own internal voices telling them that "They could never do that" or that "They would love to have the skills to do that one day".

If I achieve one thing with this course, it will be to prove that yes, you can indeed do that. If you have the skills to pick up the needles, cast on, knit/purl and bind off then the possibilities are endless. You can knit lace, you can adapt a pattern, you can knit a intarsia sweater in the dark in the cinema - OK I may have exaggerated that last point but you get my drift.

You can do anything you damn well please with your knitting. You are resourceful, you are patient and you have the skills that together we can build on and develop. Please don't let fear put you off. It's just yarn at the end of the day and if all goes to hell in a handbasket it will still just be yarn. You won't have lost anything but you will have at least tried and the skills you learn from trying new things are what help us to grow as knitters.

How does it work?

The course material will be set out in modules on the Teachable site which I hope you will find to be a simple and straightforward place to navigate.

Signing up and providing the payment details will unlock access to the course modules as they are published. Some of these courses will be longer than others but you will be able to dip in and out and work through them at your own pace. To go along with the courses and to provide that much needed support you will also have access to the secret Facebook Group created just for Academy members.

Based on the same principles as the Everyday Knitter Facebook group this group is just for people like you, people who have taken the plunge and signed up to become Academy members. Some of the courses (depending on the material) will have a free pattern associated with them. This will be a pattern that I have written in order to help you develop the skills we are working on. In addition, as Academy members you will have access to live Q&A sessions with me which will run on a weekly basis. The purpose of these sessions will be to unlock any barriers to you achieving what you want from your knitting. Anything you are stuck on, anything you can't understand or anything you want help with. Think of it as a friendly Knit Night session in the local pub - glass of chilled white wine is optional.

And, just as an extra thank you as an Academy member you will receive 2 free patterns from me during the course of a year. These will be my self published patterns which are normally sold via Ravelry. On publication Academy members will receive an exclusive Ravelry code which will enable them to download the pattern and enjoy it for free.

How much does it cost?

The membership site works on a monthly payment system. You set up the details and every month the membership fee is deducted from your account. You are free to cancel at any time. If you decide it isn't for you simply cancel your account. You won't be able to access the course material or the secret group after you leave but I hope you will still keep in touch through the Everyday Knitter group.

I deliberately kept the monthly cost low - at the price of a moderately posh coffee - as I want it to be affordable for everyone.

Access to all the material and the Facebook group is priced at $3 per month ($2.70 at the time of writing). Once you have enrolled you will automatically have access to all new courses as they become available.  At this time, unfortunately paying by Paypal isn't an option when setting up recurring monthly payments but I'm hoping that this is resolved in the future.

How do I join?

You can find out more by jumping straight over to the Academy and clicking "enroll now". Don't worry, this bit is entirely free and without obligation, it just enables you to have a look around.

Click on the "What is the Everyday Knitter Academy" button to access a series of short classes designed to give you a feel for the site, how it works and what you can expect.

If you like what you see all you need to do is click on "Full Academy Content" to enroll. This option costs $3 per month and gives you access to all the online material - with new stuff being added weekly - as well as access to the closed Facebook Group.

I really hope to see you over there and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Twixtmas

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love Christmas. I love the anticipation, the twinkling lights and the smell of a real Christmas tree. I'm not so keen on the queues and the crass commercialism but on the whole I think that Christmas has a lot to commend it.

But, for me, the real joy is that period that I've recently seen referred to Twixtmas. That special no mans land between Christmas and New Year when no one knows (or really cares) what date it is, and it's perfectly acceptable to eat mince pies and cream for breakfast. 

For our family it's made even more special by the fact that after the festivities are finished, we pack as much leftover food as we can into our car and head for the hills. Literally. We make our regular pilgrammage north to the Lake District and hole up for a week in our favourite cosy holiday cottage. 

I'm sitting this watching snow fall outside the window, looking out over the valley. We have all our essentials (it's surprising how much knitting you can pack into a family car) and nothing to do for a week. I'm planning on spending the time knitting, writing and reading.

One thing I am absolutely not going to be doing is making any sort of resolutions or Grand Plans. Out of interest I brought a few of my old journals with me and one thing I was really struck with, was how repetitive they are - and not in a good way. My last 3 years journals show me here, in the same cottage writing much the same list of resolutions. But somehow I haven't transformed into that magical creature who rises at 5am, writes in her gratitude journal for half an hour and then greets the day with yoga, body brushing and a green smoothie.

So, this year I am embracing being me. I'm not going to be destashing, cataloguing my Ravelry inventory or making knitting plans for the year. I'm not going to be reviewing my 2017 knits - because, really - who cares? And it goes without saying that Cold Sheeping is never going to happen in my house.

I'm embracing my knitting, embracing my stash and embracing me.

If anyone wants me I'll be sat in the window seat with hot coffee, my knitting bag and the last of the mince pies.

What makes an expert knitter?

It's a bit like the quote about beauty being in the eye of the beholder isn't it? What makes a knitter an expert or when could you consider yourself to be an expert?

It's a question that frequently crops up when patterns, on Ravelry and in other sources, are graded according to level of pattern difficulty. A simple sock pattern with a cable might be rated as 'easy' by a competent and experienced knitter on her 30th pair of socks, but a knitter who was new to socks or knitting in the round might have a very different experience. This is why I always caution newer knitters not to rely too heavily on these fairly subjective assessments but instead look at what specific skills you need to knit that pattern. If it just calls for knitting in the round and increasing/decreasing then you can knit a sock or a simple sweater - no matter what the 'official' rating might be.

One thing I really love about teaching and blogging is the ability to chat to people at all levels of knitting ability and pointing out to people that sometimes, what they think of as 'hard' really isn't that hard at all. It is all just a matter of perception.

It's a common misconception that just because we live in an age where information is so freely available, that it is equally accessible to everyone. Some people are visual learners, some like the written word and sometimes people just need the help and support of a friendly community. Ideally we would all have a local LYS or regular knit group that we could pop into when we needed help or advice. Somewhere to sit down with a cuppa, have a bit of a knit and maybe get someone to show you exactly what a lifeline is (and why it can change your life). Sadly we can't always have that real life interaction when we need it and that's my main reason behind creating the Everyday Knitter Academy.

I absolutely love the community we've created over in the Everyday Knitter Facebook group and that is absolutely staying as it is. But I've also created the Academy as a way of being able to give more focussed and more practical advice and tutorials on a range of subjects. In addition there will be a specific (and closed) EK Academy Facebook group where I will be able to do Facebook Live sessions with tutorials and information Q&A sessions.

The Academy will be based on a monthly membership site - where for the price of a posh coffee every month you will have access to a host of tutorials, a friendly community and a world of knitty information to peruse at your leisure.

If you'd like to find out more about the Academy and how you can be involved, please click the link here to sign up to the newsletter for more information.

If you knit something set it free

To paraphrase the famous quote "If you knit something set it free" - this neatly sums up my attitude to knitting and gift giving.

At this time of year particularly when us knitters are frantically trying to finish off Christmas presents (or like me, eating mince pies and contemplating the WIP pile) there can be a lot of discussion about who is "knitworthy".

We've all heard horror tales, or even experienced them of a knitted gift carelessly thrown aside, of thoughtless comments and of thank you notes never received. A long time ago however I developed my own frame of reference for gift knitting which is quite simply, I don't. Or rather I do, but only on my own terms. If the recipient in question has asked (politely, and in a suitable timeframe) for an item then that's fine. We can have a discussion about colours, yarn choices and styles. I might email them some suggestions for patterns or styles or set up a Pinterest board for them. In this way I've successfully knit gifts for friends and family for years and it works well. They get something they will love and wear to death and I get the satisfaction of sending a loved one or close friend out into the world warmly clad.

What I absolutely don't do however is to knit random gifts for people on the automatic assumption that they will love it because I made it for them. Not everyone is as enlightened as us knitters and they may neither know nor care how many hours of painstaking work went into something. Colour choice, fabric/yarn choice and personal styling is just that - personal - and I would never to presume to that someone would absolutely love a bottle green cabled knit hat, just because I happen to have made it for them.

Yes, it's absolutely lovely when you give a handknit gift and it is warmly, nay effusively received. A thank you note or even a photo of the recipient wearing said handknit is a thing a of joy and something to be treasured. But I would caution against automatically judging those who don't send a thank you note and I'll offer up a personal story as illustration for this.

In 2006 I had just had my second baby, exactly 50 weeks after having my first. Like his brother DS2 was premature and was critically ill for a short but very scary few weeks. Finally at home we battled with all the things that expanding your family normally entails, with the additional livener of having an active 13 month old in the house. The health visitor wrote "not coping well" in my notes - a euphemism for impending post-natal depression. But we moved on through a difficult time and eventually found our routine. About 6 months after DS2's birth I moved a random pile of stuff in the spare bedroom and found 2 beautifully knit cream matinee jackets, still in a gift bag. There was no note or card or anything to identify who had sent them, or when. DH denied all knowledge, as did the other relatives who had been staying with us. It was a total mystery and obviously they were now way too small for my rapidly growing boy.

I felt terrible that I had no idea who to thank for them, and also that I hadn't used them. But in truth I didn't use any of the handknit items I was given (apart from a blanket) - DS2 spent his formative months in a series of white babygros as I had no energy for devising baby outfits. In the end, I decided to pass them on to our local baby unit along with some other bundles of donated clothing. 

I'm sharing this deeply personal story just to ask that perhaps we don't always rush to judge someone for not responding to a gift. Each of us, in our own way is doing our best with what life throws at us, and a lack of response isn't automatically equated with rudeness or ill manners.

If you knit something knit it with joy and give it freely, without hope or expectation. Just give it for the joy of giving. And rejoice that you can cast on a brand new shiny project to replace it.

An exciting new venture

I'm excited to be able to share with you some exciting news today - that I have joined up with the fabulous Lucy of Magnolia Tree Yarns in an affiliate program.

If you don't know of  Lucy already she has a wonderful site full of woolly goodness, that's packed full of some amazing yarns. She also has a really comprehensive range of resources on the site and runs in person workshops too.

Based in Cheshire, Lucy aims to offer a well stocked, friendly and knowledgeable LYS and she also backs that up with a comprehensive website too - so she can be your LYS no matter where you are.

To kick start our affiliate relationship Lucy is offering a flash sale, starting today with 40% off everything in her online store - while stocks last. And as I'm about to start my 12 Days of Christmas Event it seemed like the perfect opportunity to share this with you.

Just head over to her store by clicking here and have a browse - you might find the perfect yarn to go with one of my 12 Days' pattern offerings.

Full disclosure here: if you click on the link above and make a purchase a small percentage comes to me as an affiliate.

12 days of Christmas

I'm sure it won't have escaped your attention that Christmas is hurtling towards us at the speed of light and knitters everywhere are frantically burning the midnight oil to finish those holiday gifts.

This time of year can feel stressful and hectic, often I just want to bury under a pile of blankets (handknit of course) and emerge in the New Year. Last year I was inspired to try a Random Acts of Kindness challenge - doing something for someone else every day in December.

This year I thought I would step things up a little by running a series of 50% pattern discounts - one per day - for the first 12 days of December.

The final line up is still in draft form but I will probably try to alternate a shawl pattern with a sock pattern. I know that many of you lovely, loyal folk might already have some of the patterns that I offer, so in that case you could always consider having your own random act of kindness event and gifting a discounted copy to a friend. The ever helpful Ravelry makes gifting a pattern really easy and it's always lovely to get a gift message in your Ravelry inbox.

Each day for the first 12 days in December I'll send out a short email notification with the pattern and the discount code and each promotion will run for 24 hrs (please note that I am on GMT, London time). If you don't currently subscribe to my email list - this might tempt you to sign up.

Please feel free to share the code with others and on your own social media - and I'll also announce it via the other usual channels - Instagram, my Facebook page and Twitter. Although I might need a fortifying glass of mulled wine to get all that scheduled.

So, tell a friend, set your reminders and get ready to celebrate a bit of seasonal giving with me. And yes, mulled wine is absolutely encouraged.