Chronicles of a yarn farmer, shepherdess, and fiber geek!

Chronicles of a yarn farmer, shepherdess, and fiber geek!

November 12, 2010

My Knitting Guru

Knitting, spinning, life...I have a guru for each one. Wednesday I had the chance to spend time with my knitting guru, Lucy Neatby. Lucy was teaching at Your Local Yarn Shop in Battle Creek for a couple days and Ellen (sister) and I cleared our calendars and made an afternoon of it. 

Lucy giving Ellen some one-on-one instruction.

Lucy demonstrating double knitting.

(L to R: Ellen, Lucy, and me)

Lucy teaching while watching a up-close video clip of the technique.

Lucy teaching more stuff about double (reversible) knitting.

Lucy's Venue sweater...a project Ellen and I are going to tackle together.

Venus sweater and a baby venus....so cute!
I met Lucy Neatby my first year that I started in the Master Spinner Program in Alberta, Canada. Lucy was the guest teacher for the week during Fibre Week. There are many fine knitting teachers out there, but Lucy Neatby is the best IMHO! It's like she's a knitting engineer or a knitting doctor; she can look at a piece of knitting and quickly figure out what's going on. And her color work is fabulous! She has helped my knitting improve over the last few years. Next August she is hosting a retreat in the Yukon, the Canadian North. Although I can't go, it will sure fill my dreams and I'll just pretend I'm there.

Speaking of gurus...I have a few more that give me great inspiration. When it comes to spinning, hands down it's Mabel Ross, an internationally noted master spinner from Scotland. Serious or not-so-serious spinners typically know of Mabel Ross and the contribution she made to spinning. Initially she worked in meteorological research and was a teacher of mathematics and music so when she wrote about spinning it was natural for her to reduce the techniques to simple calculations. Mabel Ross took a very technical, exacting approach to spinning. Some people don't like her approach but it's a great way to get repeatable results (if that's what you're aiming for).

My other guru is none other than Mohandas K. Gandhi. There's nothing that needs to be said about him, his teachings, his non violence, and his charka spinning.....he's the Mahatma!

1 comment:

Val said...

How lucky you are to have a class with Lucy Neatby! I have one of her videos and enjoy her teaching style.