DEMONSTRATORS

Helen Sharp – The Knitting School
Helen has approaching 40 years experience working in the sweater industry as a designer, teacher and trend forecaster in England, Scotland, Italy and the States. She is a leading resource for machine knitting education and has taught Knitwear Design at Lincoln University, Derby University and Leicester University in the '80's in England and more recently Knitwear Design and Construction at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Now in its 10th year, Helen founded The Knitting School to address a need for short, intensive classes and a one-stop shop for fiber artists, hobbyists, small business owners and knitwear professionals.

Helen Sharp – The Knitting Studio

  Plating & Ribs 1:   Combining plating with manipulated ribs to get both free-form and planned cable effects.

 

    Plating & Ribs 2:  Here the plating feeder is used with ribs and manipulated stitches to get dramatic woven effects.

 

  Fringing:   Punch-cards can be used to develop fringed fabric in both fair-isle and wrapped stitches.

 

 Decorative Decreases : Take some time to play around with stitches to elevate basic decreases into the focal point of the garment

Tanya Cunningham
The thing I love above all else about machine knitting is that it presents endless opportunities for learning new things. I have learned more than I ever imagined when I began, and realize that there is so much more that I will never even be able to tackle all of the things that interest me.
My current “specialty” is using the img2track program with Brother 9xx electronic knitting machines. I love to share how easy it is to use this program to produce all kinds of wonderful and interesting knitted images and textures.
Another thing that I love to spend endless hours on, both at the machine, and in my head, is figuring out ways to do things with the knitting machine that I’ve never read about or heard of anyone else doing. It’s sometimes very frustrating, but other times very rewarding and always interesting.
Hopefully I can share some of my knowledge and enthusiasm with you at the upcoming seminar.

Tanya's Class Descriptions:

Charting Devices I  (Friday morning and Saturday Morning) (Charting devices, such as KnitLeader, KnitRadar, etc) Overview of charting devices by brand, their differences and similarities. What device goes with what machine? Basics of finding your own desired guage, and then swatching for the device. If there is time we’ll look at charting for extra large pieces and we’ll reproduce an existing (baby) sweater.

 

Charting Devices II   (Friday Morning and Saturday morning) (Charting devices, such as KnitLeader, KnitRadar, etc) As a follow on to session I, or if you already feel comfortable with the basics of using your charting device, you can come to this more advanced session where we’ll look at creating ½ and ¼ scale patterns, using sewing patterns for knitted garments, using an existing garment to create a pattern, reverse engineering a text knitting pattern (machine or hand) to create a pattern for the shaping device. Using the charting device for intarsia.

 

Introduction to img2track   (Friday afternoon)   Img2track is a program that works with the Brother 930, 940, 950i, 965i and 970. It creates patterns from images which can be loaded, with a special cable, to the knitting machine for automatic stitch selection. Here’s your basic introduction to img2track (link). What knitting machines it works with, what it does and does not do. How to make or purchase a cable. How to download the app, where to find the user guide. Knit your face! We’ll draw names from a hat for several participants to “knit their face” for a take home piece. (I will also have cables on hand to sell.)

 

img2track – advanced   (Friday Afternoon) Using img2track for punch lace, lace, both machine and hand transfer, basics of setting up for and knitting double bed jacquard images

 

Cables, cables, cables   (Saturday afternoon) 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 3x2 cables and more. Travelling cables, tuck cables, and more.

 

Texture:   (Saturday Afternoon)  Thick & thin, fringe, pile, weaving, tuck, two carriage technique. Let’s take a look at some of the most textured fabrics you can make with your machine.

 

 

Carolyn Barnet

Born in London, England, Emigrated to Canada 1966. Canadian Citizenship 1980. Resident of Kingston, Ontario.

Carolyn Barnett is a one woman run enterprise producing hand loomed knitwear and felted art wear of her own designs.

Early in the 1970’s after much unsuccessful shopping Carolyn decided to knit herself the simple cardigan sweater of quality wool that she was seeking. This lead to more for herself and for anyone who asked; at the cost of materials. She taught herself anything she had not learned 13 years before as a child from her Mother and in school in England.

Carolyn studied fashion at Sheridan College and though she learned much she did not like the styles of the early ‘70’s so fulfilled another childhood dream and became a Nursery School Teacher.

In the winter of 1982 Carolyn decided to try marketing my ‘homey’ talents, June saw the birth of (for want of a better name) CAROLYN M. BARNETT DESIGNS and she had a successful summer with her cotton hand knits.

In 1985 she learned to operate a very basic knitting machine to see if she could break her hand knitting bias and started using a more advanced one the following year. Carolyn discovered a new (to her) avenue of creation; (domestic knitting machines have been around for over 400 years).

For many years Carolyn’s focus was on custom garments, worked around her clients’ tastes, colour preferences and sizing. She has accommodated uneven hip heights, pregnancy , sloping shoulders and people who are not ‘standard’ sizes.

Her approach is classic simplicity with a lot of fun thrown in, making her own funky buttons, sweater pins and sweater sticks as closures and to complement her garments. She wants people to be able to wear her clothes for many seasons stylewise because the garments are made to last. Carolyn works in wool and cotton. Carolyn’s customizing has enabled me to be involved in theatre costume work.

For the past few years Carolyn as been exploring new ways of working within her craft, felting/fulling wool accents, surface design...a more creative direction.

Necessity being the mother of invention she now also creates her own buttons, sweater pins and sweater sticks as closures and to complement my knits. An Arts Council grant enabled her to get started with wet felting in 2008 and she has added felted jackets, scarves, wraps, hats & bags to her collection.

After living in Toronto for over twenty years Carolyn and her husband made Kingston their home since 1995 where she has taken part in and run many arts groups. She is a member of the Kingston Fibre Artists and has also added web design to her quiver. She has worked in many fields and has found the most satisfaction in her wearable fibre art creating anew each time and teaching her craft.

Carolyn Barnettll's Classes:

Starting Out - Casting on and Hems Ewrap, waste yarn, weaving cast on, ravel cord. Hung hem, picot, double, triple e wrap.

Waist Shaping Giving some flattering shape to your garment. Garter bar, tucks, Dekker comb, hand stitching.

Armholes Dropped Shoulder with Dart, square arm, set in sleeve. Exploring different styles

Bands and Buttonholes For cardigans, working into the front, attaching extra ribbed or stockinet st bands. Title Description Design techniques and accents. All tools, Dekker combs, garter bar, etc. Using colour.

Garter Bar Using your garter bar.

Single Bed Fairisle, motifs & Colour Changer Techniques using fairisle and colour changer and all the their applications.

Finishing Pressing, seaming, sewing and tidying up ready to wear.

 

REMINDER: Out of respect for our demonstrators and vendors no outside selling will be allowed at the Finger Lakes seminar. Our members will have a sale list in our seminar book, a perk of being a member. If you find something they have for sale, that you're interested in, contact that club member with the contact information they provided. By registering for the Finger Lakes knitting machine seminar you agree NOT TO SELL anything at the seminar. Anyone found to be selling, outside of the demonstrators or vendors will be asked to leave with no refund given.

Note from Demonstrator Lora Kinnan of Daisy Knits: "What a fun event and a great group of gals. Each and every one of you was fun to deal with.... The people in my classes were always courteous, very involved and had great questions. It was encouraging to see the level of involvement that every one had. The garments that were presented at the fashion show were wonderful. Thank you for inviting me.

Seminar Accommodations:  We have booked rooms at a local hotel.  See our page on Seminar Accomodations