On Saturday the 4th of October I had the pleasure of helping Jill Brownjohn and Rosie Sykes run a workshop on the Patchwork Knitting of Horst Schulz.

We had 11 participants, a mixture of beginners and those who had been to the workshop Rosie led last year, and the ones Horst taught a few years ago. It was a really nice number, and having three of us doing the teaching meant that we could be running several different things at the same time, giving people a choice of what they would like to try.

Here are some of the early arrivals before we got started (as with all the other pictures, click to see a bigger version).

I’m afraid a lot of my photos are a bit on the blurry side, the weather was rather dark and grey outside – a great day for being inside and doing lots of knitting. So here is Rosie talking at the start of the day.

We covered a variety of the modular shapes used by Horst Schulz, and also various of his joining techniques. Jill also talked about combining machine knitting with modular knitting, and I talked about shaping within modules, using the techniques I used in my Patchwork Sweater (I really must come up with a better name for it).

Here is Jill, showing her bag made by machine knitting strips and then joining them using one of Horst’s techniques.

And here Jill is again, talking about a waistcoat she is part way through working.

As well as showing the modular knitting we had been working on, we were fortunate enough to be able to show to everyone some pieces made by the other workshop participants – some of whom are very prolific! This is from Patricia Werner’s Dazzling Knits.

It was wonderful to see the different directions everyone had taken using the same basic ideas. One of the things I love about going to knitting groups and workshops is to see the creativity of all the participants, and to see the fantastic range of things produced when everyone is starting from the same basic starting point. Everyone has different tastes and interests and sees things slightly differently, and it is such a delight to see so many different approaches and what everyone brings to the process.

Here everyone is winding down at the end of the day and just finishing things off in time to pack up.

I had a really great time, and hope that all of the other participants had as much fun as I did. It was wonderful to spend a day with so many enthusiastic and talented knitters. I had such a fantastic time that I was totally exhausted when I got home and slept for 13 hours that night! I am looking forward to the next meet-up and to see what everyone has been making.

On a completely unrelated note, I have become completely addicted to Fantastic Contraption over the weekend. Marvelous for all you armchair engineers 🙂