Madrona Fiber Arts: Modular Knitting

Ginger Luters taught a great class at Madrona Fiber Arts. Her designs are fabulous - her choice of color incredible. She made it look so easy. And she also communicated her skill in a simple, concise way.
I was motivated to take this class because of this:

Yup - left over bits of skeins that continue to grow in my basket - eventually I will have leftovers of all the Sock Hop Yarn colors after I have made all my socks.. (at least that is my hope). But what to do with them? Read along and you'll see.









Ginger's class was chock full of information. We learned many of the types of modular knits fabric. I shot photos of a few of her pieces. Aren't they lovely?













While I am not able to go into all the techniques (you'll need to take her class or perhaps buy her book) I can share a few of the really ugly things I made during class.... (I had already ripped apart most of them before I realized I should take a blog photo - oopps)
We made garter stitch squares that magically attached to each other, stockingette squares that seemed to bloom out in all directions, and even a few triangles. (yeah - I know, I probably could have chosen better colors to mix - but you get the idea. We learned a great technique to make stockingette squares really square - and learned when to use a cable cast on instead of long tail (and why). There was so much information that finally made sense to me. I had purchased the book awhile ago, but had not fully comprehended it.



So I came home, ripped out all the other really ugly squares I made in class and began to play.
In the back of my mind, a design for a Sock Hop Afghan was taking form. I've gotten a small start on it - and the jury is still out as to whether it will be one of those funky-ugly things that I hide whenever company comes over, or will it be an astoundingly creative show piece..??? I plan on continuing to add to it as I finish spinning all the colors. I'm rather amazed at how different this yarn looks when knit in mitered squares versus knit as socks. (note to self: write down the pattern I made up for this afghan - so that I will be able to keep adding to it in another month or two)
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