Untangled Purls Archives - Tinking Turtle

Starting next week I’ve got a great lineup of Fall classes at Untangled Purls, in Fredericksburg, VA. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to teach at Untangled Purls: Most of my classes for the last year (with the exception of my camps) have been workshop based – that is, one and done.

I’ve missed the camaraderie and relationship that builds with a class when you teach week after week: you get to know your students better, and you get to watch students progress in a way that is different than workshops. I wanted to highlight two of the classes I’ll be teaching at Untangled Purls.

Photocredit: © Ambah O’Brien

Beginning Stranded Knitting is based of of a wonderful pattern called Maroo Mitts by Ambah. This is a great introductory project to stranded knitting, and I hope you might be able to join me! Learn more about the class here.

Photocredit: Freshstitches

Crochet Softies is based around four of Stacey Trock’s FreshStitches patterns: Kepler the Lion, Nelson the Owl, Flavia the Unicorn and Cliff the Brontosaurus. I love these patterns because they’re a great next step for students who have learned how to crochet, but haven’t quite mastered reading a pattern or working in the round. I have so much fun helping students create these fun stuffed animals: and they make perfect gifts! You can find out more about the class here!

Wow, I’ve gotten a lot of responses to my previous post – I appreciate the support, emails, and congrats!

I wanted to talk a little bit more about the process of filming with Interweave, since I’ve gotten a fair amount of questions about it.

One of the biggest questions I got was: how did you manage to film four classes in two days?

First, Interweave’s got a great team that make the filming process smooth and intuitive. They were a huge help in making sure everything went smoothly. Having worked backstage more than once, I have a little bit of an idea of what goes on to prepare for a shoot. The second biggest thing that makes a difference when filming the classes is the preparation I did before we even began filming.

When I began packing for CO, all of my clothes went into my checked luggage. The luggage I carried with me, and refused to surrender? Was filled with something called “step-outs.”

What are step-outs, you might ask? Think of nearly any cooking show you’ve ever seen. That moment, when the host puts an uncooked cake in the oven, and the next moment pulls out the finished product? I bet you wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the entire filming crew isn’t waiting around for the cake to bake. The host, team, or someone has baked a cake beforehand, to enable the host to go onto the next step.

When preparing for the filming, I did something similar.

The last two weeks have been a flurry of working the same project over and over, each time working one “step” further. When we’re filming, I simply grab the project that’s on the next step, allowing me to skip ahead. Each of these unfinished projects is called a step-out, and they’re an important part of making a film class run smoothly.

Different people manage their step outs different ways. Each of mine went into a separate plastic bag, labeled with it’s order, and with a few different “hints” to remind me why I created the step out, and what it was supposed to be used for. They then all went on a tray, where I could grab them in between takes.

These were the ones for the barber pole cowl, along with my notes.

Using step-outs for class isn’t anything new: I often create similar things for my workshops. Still, having to have all the step outs for for classes has consumed most of my time for the last two weeks. And I have to admit it wasn’t even very absorbing work: basically, I did the same project over and over, each time going onto the next step.

Even if I love a design, the process became boring.

Still, it meant on filming day, I could grab and go, use the step-out, and move onto the next step. It also means that now that I’m back, I’m having to sort through everything that I tossed into my luggage at the end of the day.

Which kind of is a metaphor for how I’ve been conducting my life for the last two months.

I’m taking some time now to step back. In a month I leave for TNNA, and there’s some larger-picture goals I have for the show this year. Meanwhile, I have two guest bedrooms, and office, and other spaces around the house that have become a disaster. I’ve went two steps beyond “I can’t find anything,” and have launched myself into “I must leap over the piles to get to anything.”

As Mr. Turtle has reminded me, the floor should not be used for a shelf.

So the next two weeks are going to be devoted unpacking, organizing and getting back into the normal Tinking Turtle grove. If you haven’t heard from me, chances are your email is lurking in the bottom of my inbox – please be patient.

In other news, I’m adding a LYS to my teaching roster: Untangled Purls, in Fredericksburg, VA. I’ve added the class offerings to my calendar – take a look.

Finally, I’ve been working the last few months with the Cultivar Design team to create a new Tinking Turtle website. It was time, and I’ve been saving up for this endeavor for a while. In the next couple of weeks you’ll be hearing and seeing some changes – and hopefully the result being a website where you can find out what you need a little bit faster.

One of the things I’m looking forward to is an updated calendar, which I’m absolutely excited and thrilled to have… since the google calendar I use now does the job, but not elegantly, and it’s really hard to add pictures. You should, with the new calendar, be able to be able to see where classes are located a little bit better.

Sign me up!

Thank you for visiting!

Tinking Turtle

Latest Posts

Social Feed

Email Signup

Don’t miss a stitch!