Susan Crawford

Swatching the stitch we looked at with Susan Crawford

I am on a yarn fast.  One of my 2012 objectives is not to buy yarn until some of the stash has been used.  So, I made sure to book myself on a course at Unravel therefore minimising the time I would have to be led astray among the wonderful stalls of colour and squishiness.  I figured even with the course fee it would be cheaper. 

I booked myself onto 'Interpreting and Working from Vintage Patterns' with Susan Crawford.  What a knowledgeable lady, not only about knitting, but about social history and all things vintage.  And although we all got too interested in home front issues of the war and the austerity period just after, and we all talked too much and ran out of time to knit, I learned a lot.

I came home and straight away swatched the stitch from the vintage pattern Susan shared with us.  She showed us how to dissect the pattern, look at what it tells you and what it doesn't and all the pitfalls and assumptions you shouldn't make.  I had several attempts before I mastered the stitch.  All down to terminology I think.  If you strictly interpret the yfwd printed in the pattern as a yfwd, you run into trouble and suddenly lose about 5 stitches.  I learned a lot just from battling with that.

Susan helped me understand a few things one of which is that I'm not far off in the way I look at vintage patterns.  I just needed someone with her experience to articulate a few things I hadn't quite grasped.  I had a good time and am inspired to start to use my collection in a practical way.  Susan gave me confidence.

Try the link to Susan's blog to see how she gets her inspiration for her knits and her books and the wonderful things she creates.
Susan Crawford's Blog