Occupation: Lace Knitting Jedi Master

My introduction to the world of lace knitting was rather a rough one. I “taught myself” in this sort of trial-and-error method (resembling nothing so much as beating my head against a brick wall– except instead of brick it was sadly snarled wads of Kidsilk Haze) that produced these dropped-stitch-plagued, misshapen things that my mother gamely accepted as presents for Mother’s Day, her birthday, AND Christmas (this was probably as exciting a gift as when the cat brings you a dead mouse).

I remember being reduced to a pile of tears on the floor of my freshman dorm room because I could NOT figure out the Print O’ the Wave Shawl (…still haven’t knit it, by the way). This was back when The Internet and Knitting were still in early courtship (whereas now, I guess, it’s more “unbelievably productive union”)– there really wasn’t any help for me online that I could find.

I wish like heck I’d had someone like Laura Nelkin to save me years of lost time. I just took her Craftsy class– it’s called Knit This: Mastering Lace Shawls– and it is fantastic. I’ll go so far as to say that you couldn’t take this class and NOT become a very competent lace knitter.

She uses two shawls, Skywalker and Clarus, to teach her class, which, in eleven lessons, walks you through every possible aspect of lace knitting. As a young Padawan (okay, she doesn’t stretch the Jedi metaphor as far as all that), you learn about yarn selection, the shapes of shawls, and why lace is so fantastic to begin with. As your Jedi training moves along, she introduces you to all the myriad increases & decreases that lace requires.

The really genius part is that, as you and Laura and your classmates knit the shawl together, the pattern gets harder as you go. So, up at the top of the semi-circular shawl, the lace is relatively simple. But, once you’re down at the bottom of the shawl and are putting on the lace edging, you’re doing rather more advanced stitchwork (I think that lesson’s called You Are Yoda). Its an absolutely perfect way to learn to knit lace.

The other thing that I cannot recommend highly enough is Craftsy itself. I’d never worked with it before, and was honestly a little unsure about how well you could teach someone to knit– or do any craft, really– over the internet (plus, being freshly out of university, I’ve seen my share of poorly-utilized education technology!). But the Craftsy platform really interfaces perfectly between student & instructor– all its functions were immediately apparent, and, what’s better, all seemed to be really useful (nothing fancy-but-confusing-and-perhaps-extraneous, is what I mean). The meat of the course are the 11 lessons, themselves broken up into four 10-to-15-minute chapters, shot in excellent HD quality (which really helps when you’re learning how, when, & why to slip a stitch purlwise v. knitwise!). But the parts that really impressed me were the extras– there’s the ability to ask a question at any time (there’s a really intuitive, facebook-style conversation feed down below the video player, where you, Laura, and your classmates can discuss problems and share successes) or to make a (private) note to yourself for future reference. Plus, the lessons are accompanied by supplementary materials in PDF format: a glossary of knitting terms, the patterns for the shawls themselves, and blown-up charts. I was so impressed that I’m seriously considering taking a Craftsy sewing class.

And Laura takes advantage of all this neato web 2.0 functionality like a champ. She’s always answering folks’ questions (if a classmate doesn’t answer it first!), prompting the class for discussion (“So, who’s going to knit Clarus first instead of Skywalker?”), and cheering you on when you post a photo of your progress thus far. To be honest, I think it’s pretty darn Herculean to stay on top of that many people’s questions by just giving simple, pat answers (“Yes, your stitch count is correct”), but she goes a step further than that by really helping you to understand the lace you’re creating. I was really impressed by how accommodating the whole class is– which is why, again, I’m saying that you can NOT take this class and NOT end up as a competent lace knitter. It’s just that good.

Convinced? If you’d like to learn to knit lace, you can take this class for 50% off, using this link right here.

Note: this class probably is best for someone learning to knit lace, or who wants a better understanding of how to read your lace knitting– we’re not talking absolute mastery here. You’re not going to learn how to design lace, or reverse-engineer it, or make a nupp, or why people make such a big deal about ‘lace knitting’ v. ‘knitted lace’– that’s, like Force Lightning or something (to extend the metaphor to its breaking point), and most Jedis don’t learn it. But you will be able to tackle just about any lace pattern you come across. Which is nothing to sneeze at. Not in the least.