I took two classes taught by Melissa Leapman. The first was Basic Pattern Drafting. I thought it was going to be the basics of pattern drafting, but it was more like the drafting of a basic pattern. A drop shoulder sweater, even. Oh well, next time I’ll pay attention better when reading the class description. But, I actually did learn a few things towards the end, and even got a refresher on solving simultaneous equations. I did it the hard way when figuring out the front of Kyoto, so that would have come in handy and will definitely go into my knitting notebook. All in all, I am glad I took the class, just for the second half when we got more into the interesting stuff like set in sleeves and planning decreases or increases.
You don’t actually do any knitting in this class. She has you create some swatches and then has you measure them in class, to demonstrate the correct way to measure gauge. She also has you measure your bust measurement with a tape, and then with a piece of string, to show that a lot of people make their bust fit the number they are going for on the ruler rather than the actual measurement. I did measure a half-inch difference, but some people were up to 3 or 4 inches different when measuring the string instead of the tape.
The second class I took from Ms. Leapman was Fully Fashioned and Fabulous. This class has a few homework swatches that you build on in class. She discusses moving ribs across a garment and the types of figures that this style might flatter.
She talks about interesting neck treatments, such as splitting a cable along the neckline and having it meet at the back of the neck.
This swatch demonstrates another way of travelling your ribs by using YO for your increases instead of an M1 type increase, leaving a trail of lace along the edge as it moves. I liked this one.
And here is an example where the lace has a series of increases and decreases, and where you can continue the lace pattern as you split for the collar. You could continue the collar as in the cable swatch above.
She discussed the idea of letting your knitting do what it wants to do instead of fighting with it, as in the case of the stockinette collars. She has you cast on stitches at each edge and then you let them roll to the inside, making a nice smooth edge, which is exactly what the yarn wants to do. Pretty neat, eh?
I really enjoyed this class and it gave me lots of jumping-off points for designing my own sweaters. This class, along with Maggie Righetti’s Sweater Design in Plain English, and the other classes I took at Stitches really have my mind going and I am hopefully going to design a sweater for me (instead of just a kiddie sweater) with lots of nice design elements that fit.
Ms. Leapman is an interesting personality with a sense of humor and a great attitude. I really enjoyed her as an instructor. She had lots of stories of mistakes she has made, or that her assistants have made, which added a lot of humor to the class. A bit of a reminder that this is all supposed to be fun, so we should do good work, but not take it all so seriously. After all, it’s just string – you can unravel it and start over when you make a mistake.