This 2 part class takes place on 10 and 17 April

Take your colour work in kaleidascopic new directions with textiles explorer, Liz Baltesz. Stacked! is an exciting pair of 2 hour workshops for experienced knitters, which takes you into the weird and wonderful and world of distorted stacked stitches.

The workshops focus on the work of three designers: Xandy Peters, who blew knitters’ minds in 2014 with her ground breaking Fox Paws pattern, then other patterns, many inspired by Missoni; Natalia Moreva, who has created a range of simple and complex designs using stacked stitches; Kieran Foley, who combines stacked stitches with lace, stranding and intarsia.

Workshop 1

The first workshop will explore:

• The basic stitches used in stacked knitting
• Choosing yarn for stacked knitting
• Choosing needles
• Choosing colour
• Initial thoughts on your first stacked project

Workshop 2

The second workshop will explore:

• Planning your first project – yarn and colour choices
• Swatching for your first project
• Different approaches to stacked stitches
• Combining stacked stitches with intarsia and lace

Skills needed

• Basic knowledge of stranded colourwork and simple lace

Materials

Patterns and yarn to play with will be provided, but please bring with you:

• Leftover fingering weight yarn which can be used for swatching
• A range of needles. Liz recommends needles with sharp points, ranging from 2.75mm to 3.5mm

About the teacher

Liz Baltesz has been knitting for over 50 years. She loves playing with colour and is fascinated by creating fabric and experimenting with pattern and form. Her colourwork journey began by learning to knit fairisle as a teenager. In the 1980s she discovered the bolder more experimental designs of Kaffe Fasset and her work began to draw on the relationship between textile design and patterns found in ceramics, tapestry and the built enviroment. More recently she’s been inspired by Keiran Foley’s work and the affect of complex stitches such as stacked increases and decreases on colour and texture.