My mom taught me to knit in 1999, when we were visiting my sister in Maine for Thanksgiving. She laments that I'm a better knitter than she is. It's not true: I just get bored more easily, and I have stubborn rules about sewing, so that makes me more adventurous. My stitches are more even, but she's faster. (She props her right needle in her lap, leaving her right hand free to throw the yarn).
Wanting to improve, she signed up for a class at her LYS for the Wong Way of Knitting; "It's easy on your hands, fast, and helps to improve gauge," says the shop newsletter. I figured, Eh, my technique's fine, speedy and ergonomic enough for my purposes, so I'll pass.
Well, last night one of my students was knitting with that technique and it was amazing, especially her purling. I woke up this morning thinking, "I've got to try this." So I did some Googling and was shocked to see that Andrea Wong is here in Columbus! Not visiting, but actually lives here in central Ohio. For all I know, I may actually have even talked with her in Temptations.
I keep telling you: central Ohio is a knitter's paradise.
7 comments:
Funny.... I took a class from her just yesterday. She's a wonderful teacher... you must go see her! She also taught me the 'Wong Way' of knitting. Quite fasinating!
man, see I'm really on the fence about visiting Matt now. I was going to put that money towards booze, but since it's a knitter's-paradise, I'm not sure what I'm going to do this weekend.
Oooooooooh - sounds very interesting! I'm sure you'll have it mastered in about 10 minutes . . .
I followed the link. From her site it seems to me she just knits the old plain standard Portuguese way, like millions of other people in Portugal and Brazil. She sounds like a great teacher, but she must have a gigantic ego to rename that method with her own name (either that or she couldn't resist the pun).
Let us know more if you take the class.
(I just found your blog today. I enjoyed your sock heel experiments and wouldn't have minded a close-up on the side joins.)
More pun than ego, Urraca. I met her last week, and she said she never thought of it as "her" way -- just the way she (and obviously legions of other people) were taught.
I've still got the heel experiments around somewhere, I think. If I run across them, I'll do some photos for my Flickr account.
Oops, I didn't mean to sound so harsh, but I am not a native speaker.
I was just curious to know whether the Wong style is plain Portuguese style or a more personal, improved, modified style based on the Portuguese one. I enjoy collecting knitting styles.
Having more pictures of the heel experiments would be great, specially to see how the diagonal ridges compare, but only if it's not too much trouble.
Thanks for replying.
I've knit side by side with her. It's not too hard to knit much faster than she does if you are proficient with continental knitting. I do not see what all the fuss is about.
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