Tips & Tricks

Combination Knitting

This is NOT the knitting you're used to!

Learn to knit using the Combination Method -- easy to learn and quick to execute. Beginner thru Advanced, special techniques will be taught as skills improve.

Christened "Combination Knitting" by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts (Fall 2000 Interweave Knits magazine) this method is a combination of the Western (German/American/English) style of knitting and Eastern (Islamic/Turkish/Portugese) knitting. 

Easier and quicker than traditional Western knitting, this method, creates a very even tension with less "rowing out" less wrist strain. If this method is different than how you've been taught, give it a try and you may discover a new love of knitting blooming! If you're a first time knitter - enjioy! You can mistress this right away! 

Cable Mania (Sanity?)
Yes, YOU CAN turn a beautiful cable!  If you can knit and purl, you can cable.  After this workshop, you will dance in the streets and knit Aran sweaters and cabled scarves with wild abandon.

Cables are a mainstay of knitting, but the technique for knitting them WITHOUT cabling needles has eluded many expert knitters.  Overcome your fear of cabling and at the same time learn a technique that is faster and easier than the standard technique which uses an extra needle to twist the yarn.

Annie's Bio

Short Pithy Bio     
A native of Ohio, Annie taught herself to knit at age 25 before a move from NYC to Texas.  The Texas tenure didn't last, but knitting did, and upon her return to the NY area Annie began knitting for other designers and designing for major knitting magazines.  Her work has appeared in Interweave Knits, Vogue Knitting, Knitters Magazine, Cast On, Family Circle Easy Knitting, McCalls Needlework and several family oriented magazines.

Author of Confessions of a Knitting Heretic, Knitting Millinery and editor of the 2006 Accord Crochet Pattern A Day Calendar and the collection of fiber essays, Cheaper Than Therapy, Annie has contributed to many knitting books including Stich N' Bitch, Scarf Style, Wrap Style, the Vogue Knitting Book, and Weekend Knitting and Holiday Handknits.  Twist & Loop (Potter Craft, 2006) and Men Who Knit And The Dogs Who Love Them (Lark, Jan 2007), Romantic Hand Knits (Potter Craft, 2007) and Knit with Courage, Live with Hope (Modeknit Press 2008)  Annie is the inventor of the astoundingly clever Flip Knit, a low tech, portable alternative to knitting videos.

Annie knits using the Combination Method and believes that there truly is no wrong way to knit.  She lives in St Paul, MN with her husband, kids and assorted pets.     
    
Personal Knit & Design History     
In 1983 I taught myself to knit just as I was being transferred by my company from New York City to Dallas, TX. I completed my first sweater in a weekend and realized that my destiny lay in fiber and needles.

Dallas was not part of my destiny, though, and upon my return to NYC I began knitting for designers and eventually submitted my own designs to knitting magazines. I was hired by Vogue Knitting as a technical writer but unfortunately my unorthodox, self-taught knitting style wasn't - at that time - well received by the more established knitting world.

I continued designing for most of the major knitting magazines and yarn companies, but reaction to my knitting style (which didn't affect the final look of a garment) led to my decision to leave knitting and move into Costume & Set Design.

After the birth of my 2nd child, during a hiatus from television and theatrical design work, I happened to read an article by Prscilla Gibson Roberts in the Fall 2000 Interweave Knits Magazine. It changed my life. Her article was an outline of the major world knitting styles, and the method I'd been using was described as the "Combination (or Combined) Method."

The legitimization I felt when reading the article was a turning point in my life. I re-entered the knitting world - not just as a designer but as an instructor. I expose my beginning students the Combination Method as well as the various forms of the Western Method, but more importantly I stress the different ways of forming a stitch and convey an appreciation of how a stitch is seated on the needle.

The method a student uses to knit is entirely irrelevant when they participate in one of my advanced technique classes (Lace, Cabling, Colorwork, etc.) As long as a student can make a knit and a purl stitch, I can help them fulfill any knitting passion they posess.

My unusual method of knitting has also allowed me a tremendous freedom of scope - I am as comfortable knitting (and teaching how to knit) furniture, fine millinery, basic sweater design or knit embellishments. A complete list of the classes I offer is available here.