Happy Friday! Thanks for all the positive comments about my sponge roller set tutorial! I’m so happy to know some of my tips may help someone else out there. 🙂
Today I just have a brief post to unveil an exciting and big new project for my blog: the Vintage Knitting College!
I was chewing on the idea for the Land Girl sweater knit-along after I proposed it ever a couple of weeks ago. There was some interest, but not as a much as I was hoping for, with at least one or two people interested in the idea of the KAL but wanting to do a different pattern. That got me to thinking that it might be better to do something more like a series of posts and tutorials about vintage knitting and colorwork. Out of that (plus my obsession with campus-inspired fashion this Fall) hatched the idea for the Vintage Knitting College!
Basically, it will be a long-term project of instructional posts about knitting, geared towards knitters who knit from vintage patterns. I’m not going to set any specific deadlines, but figure I’ll continue to periodically post tutorials and informational posts for the Vintage Knitting College over the next year or longer (possibly including fun things like guest posts and giveaways now and again, too!).
Because my Fall-focused mind is on colorwork knitting right now (fair isle and other stranded projects, as well as intarsia picture knitting), and because it did seem like several of you liked the idea of a fair isle knit-along, I’m going to focus first on vintage colorwork patterns.
In a series of posts over the next several months in a “class” called Colorwork: 101, I’ll cover techniques that can be applied to vintage patterns that involve colorwork. Such as converting patterns to knit in the round, steeking, and charting colorwork when the pattern doesn’t include charts (many vintage patterns don’t include charts for where you change colors, which slows you down like molasses). I’ll also probably wax poetic now and again on picking colors with a vintage look in mind, yarn suggestions, and more. And while it looks like from my opening logo that I’ll be focusing only on sweaters, I won’t! Expect accessories to crop up now and again, too.
Over time I’ll probably cover some of the basic concepts I went through in the Briar Rose KAL, such as resizing patterns, creating your own sleeve caps and the like. I hope to have several posts per topic area, like colorwork, basic techniques, advanced techniques, lace and such. This will get fleshed out more thoroughly as I go along. If you can’t tell, I’m trying to take this fairly easy, so it remains fun for you and fun for me! 🙂 Expect things to go at a fairly slow pace sometimes as I don’t always knit only vintage patterns, and not everything I plan to knit will get documented in the Vintage Knitting College, or I’ll never get anything else done. lol
Many of the posts on a given topic will follow through the life of a project. So even though it won’t technically be a knit-along, I’ll let you know ahead of time what I plan on knitting and instructing on, so if you’d like to follow along with that or a similar project, you are more than welcome to. And depending on interest level, I may start a general Vintage Knitting College Flickr group for people to post inspired-by creations to! I’m hoping over time for this to become a nice resource for vintage knitting, and will probably devote a separate page on the blog just for the knitting college, once it gets rolling.
And the first project on tap? Well, I admit I’m still deciding! But it will be a vintage stranded/fair isle pullover pattern from the 1940s, and possibly one of the ones shown in my logo! Oh speaking of logos, as this gets going I’ll create little logos in case you’d like to promote it on your own blog. 🙂
Phew, I’ve finally shared my little (well, big!) idea. Do you like the idea of the Vintage Knitting College as an ongoing knitting resource? Let me know via comment or email if you have any suggestions (for colorwork or other knitting). I’d love to hear from you.
Have a great weekend, and happy knitting!
What a lovely idea! 🙂
This idea is brilliant. I can’t wait.
Hi Tasha! this sounds great!
I just started my ‘Datemaker’ from the pattern you posted earlier. My first knit from a vintage pattern.
I’m into stranded fair isle knitting also at the moment. It is hanging in the air this autumn!
So great idea!thanks!
Brilliant idea, Tasha. I will be following even though I can barely knit a stitch!xxx
Sounds like a fun adventure to me 🙂 And definitely a worthwhile endeavour! I still say I want to do a fair isle, so I shall wait and see what you have coming up the pipe and get ready to have fun!
I think that’s a great idea, Tasha – thanks! I’m a pretty poor knitter, so am reluctant to join KALs, but something I could look at, get inspired by and return to when my skills improve would be really valuable.
Wicked idea. I love it! There is certainly an audience for it!
Love this idea! Can’t wait for the first day of class. 😉
This is a great idea! I loved the idea of a colorwork KAL, just not a fan of LandGirl. I think this might be my next project http://rarerborealis.com/wordpressblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/lincoln.jpg
Great idea! I’ve just taken up knitting properly after having taught myself the fundamentals a few years back, and am about to start on some 50s patterns I picked up for next to nothing. I’m sure tips and tutorials along the way will be really helpful so I’ll be following eagerly 🙂
These are some great thoughts. Being relatively new to knitting and vintage knitting, I will really appreciate these upcoming posts. I still do like the idea of another KAL hosted by you. Perhaps you could try having several patterns and having a vote again. I think that because knitting is such a process, you have to fall in love with a pattern, or else it’s too difficult to commit to. But, I can also see that you have your heart set on LandGirl or something similar, so it is important for you to love the pattern of a KAL as well.
I think this is a wonderful idea, and it makes me with the timing was better for me (not anyone’s fault…I’m still trying to finish up a degree). I’ll be keeping a close eye on the collage though, and I hope to have time to play along every now and then 🙂
this is a wonderful idea! i could do with all of the help i can get with both vintage patterns and colourwork.
Oh this is a fantastic idea!! I do believe I’ll be present on the first day of class =)
Brilliant! I love this idea. I know it will be really useful for me. I hope you’ll be getting a blog button so we can put it on our own blogs too 🙂
I’m really looking forward to this! Thanks!
This idea is just what i need, being just a beginner, I need to familiarize myself with many other things, i know for a fact that i will learn so much from you.
I am so looking forward to this!
Thanks Tasha ^_^
xox,
Jacqueline
This sounds great, I’m a knitting novice and honestly, vintage patterns scare me! I’d love to learn, but sometimes they seem so complex. Can’t wait to see what you come up with x
This sounds like a fab idea, I’ll be one to follow closely! Very excited to see what you’ll teach us, I have several vintage patterns that will need some adjustment or other …
Fabulous!!! I loved all your informative KAL posts and I’m desperately ignorant of all but the very very basics of colorwork. Looking forward to your classes!
Wonderful idea! Someday, not too far from here, I’ll actually learn to knit for real (not just long scarves). I love all the cute vintage patterns out there, but they often seem to short-sleeved, which barely even works for summer where I live. Knowing how to alter the patterns to long sleeves would be great! So I’m looking forward to reading along and bookmarking for future re-reading =)
This is such a great idea, Tasha! I couldn’t (unfortunately… boo-hoo!) join in on the knit-along idea (as I think I said in that post), so I’m excited you’ll be still doing instructionals on vintage knitting–just more in general now. I’m so looking forward to your series on colorwork!
I think it’s a great idea.I don’t know how to knit at the moment but my mom does so this would be good.she won’t have to ask me what I want for christmas.My knitting skills are the first chain you make.lol.Looking forward to it if you decide to do this.xx
I love it! Can’t wait for your first, real post.
I can use all the color-work help I can get, since I’ve been avoiding it like the plague. heh
What a splendid idea. I enroll in the Vintage Knitting College 😉
Oh I like this a lot. I don’t have the patience to make a whole sweater, but I have been wanting to try to learn fair isle, intarsia, etc. and hadn’t found a good resource. Hooray!