Recap of Mary Annarella’s Presentation to the Guild.
Mary Annarella, aka Lyrical Knits, joined us by Zoom for the August meeting. Mary learned to knit as a child, but put it away until college when she re-taught herself how to knit using chopsticks. She spoke about her journey of learning to overcome a fear of building a new skill for lack of some basic information.
Her talk on “Swatches are Lying Liars that Lie” focused on many aspects of swatching that newer, or even not so new, knitters might not be aware of. Among many of the tips she shared were to make a big swatch for a big project (smaller projects can have smaller swatches), letting the swatch soak in water overnight before drying it, and hanging the swatch and putting weights on it to better represent the finished item. When a pattern calls for swatching in the round, she suggests making a hat as your swatch. Some reasons to swatch in addition to finding gauge include discovering if you like the fabric, the colors, and the yarn.
Mary also taught two workshops, one on slip stitches and mosaic knitting, and a second one on using short rows in sweater design.
Her patterns can be found on Ravelry here and on her website at LyricalKnits.com
– Nancy Lerer, Programs
Screen shots from the August Guild meeting – click on any photo to enlarge
