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SUSAN DIRK
Susan was born in North Vancouver, BC and was taught to knit by her mother at the impressionable age of six. She has always had a love for textiles and has been fascinated by spinning, dyeing, weaving, knitting and felting. After living in New York and studying photography in Maine she returned to the west coast and settled in Seattle. For a decade she worked as staff photographer for the Seattle Art Museum and then as a freelance photographer and photographic artist exhibiting her work at a number of galleries in the United States and Canada. Her knitting needles have become an extension of her creative being. She brings her knowledge of art and photography to her knitting career with an outstanding sense of color and design and an appreciation for fine craftsmanship. Susan was the President of the Seattle Knitters Guild in 2006 and Instructor and Instruction Manager at Hilltop Yarn Queen Anne for over five years. Currently she is a freelance instructor and designer of knitting, felting and textile arts. She has taught classes in a wide range of traditional and contemporary knitting and felting techniques for the past 6 years and is designing a suite of patterns that will be for sale at her website,
Thebigwooly.com .
Tlingit Style Octopus Bag or Classic Pocket Purse
Gone are the days when beads were traded for a buffalo hide or a good horse, but in these times beadwork, like knitting, is making a worldwide resurgence. The use of beads in Native American textiles is practiced throughout the United States and Canada from Florida to Alaska.
We will take traditional ornamentation of Native American beading and apply it using knitting techniques. In this class, suitable for both the novice and experienced knitter, you will learn several techniques to incorporate beads into your knitting and will learn the advantages and strengths of each.
Students will be guided through the steps of making a small classic pocket purse with a flap or a Tlingit Octopus bag with beaded edgings and tasseled tendrils. Choose from a number of decorative bead motifs provided for you or design your own bead pattern to knit into your bag. You may decide to simply knit your bag or you may opt to knit and then felt it. To help you with this, Susan will share her knowledge of felting, one of the oldest forms of manipulating fiber. Leave with the skills to create beaded designs and with the understanding and confidence to incorporate beads into your knitted projects. |
BETSY McCARTHY
Designer, instructor and author of “Knit Socks!” (2004) , Betsy will join us again in 2009 for the second Alaskan cruise knitting adventure. She has been knitting and exploring other fiber arts since she was five and has recently added hand and wheel spinning as a new passion. Betsy loves sharing her knowledge and skills with others and has taught widely at national, regional and local knitting events, including Stitches and the Black Sheep Gathering, over the past ten years. While she always has socks on the needle(s), Betsy has recently been designing smoke rings and lace scarves inspired by traditional NW coast Indian arts. She looks forward to teaching lace knitting on the cruise to help whet our appetites for the qiviut we’ll see at the Oomingmak Collective in Anchorage and the Musk Oxen Farm in Palmer. Betsy lives in Vancouver, WA with her husband and two border terriers. She has two adult children and feels fortunate to live near her two grandsons.
Traditional Alaskan Nahaq, a scarf and handwarmer
The workshop is appropriate for all knitters, beginners to masters. We will knit items inspired by traditional Native designs worked by Alaskan women from remote coastal villages. Patterns and instruction will be provided for a nahaq (a light weight hood which can also be worn around the neck as a loose cowl scarf or smoke ring), a scarf and wrist warmers. You will learn to knit easy lace patterns in the round if you haven’t done this before. More experienced knitters may select a related but more challenging project. The traditional patterns are influenced by Eskimo culture (hunting, ancient artifacts, animals, etc.), and will be knit in lightweight yarns. Numerous models will be available in class, including a qiviut nahaq from the Oomingmak collective.
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