In my online “Design Your Own Shawl” class, I guide the students through the shawl design process, give them the basic structure, tools to create their patterns and charts, and they do the designing themselves. Each student ends up with a complete pattern.
This one is by Jennifer Hansen of Knitting Like Crazy blog fame. (Here’s her shawl blog post.) Jen’s shawl came out beautifully! I love the way that her stitch patterns work together and create a wonderful flow from top to bottom.
Here’s a closeup of Jen’s border stitch pattern:
I just love it! I can't tell you how cool it is to see such a wonderful, professional finished student project!
The second FO from class is by Gina Kanouse, who writes the awesome Brownie Knits blog. (Here are her shawl blog posts 1, 2.)
Gina’s shawl is a real standout, in that Gina used just one stitch pattern, but she used it so effectively! It’s just strikingly beautiful.
Gina’s pattern is already available in her Etsy shop!
Gina teaches classes at Stitches and Scones in Westfield, IN, and will be teaching several upcoming classes on her “Gina Shawl!”
Go Gina!
And, here are Mazie and I with “our” finished shawlette from class:
It’s both of ours, because she definitely made appearances in this class! Mazie is a great helper, with blocking, making videos, and just all-around making things interesting.
You’ll see several more finished projects from this class! We are all working at different paces, and doing different things with varying levels of difficulty…so the FO photos will keep trickling in. I’m SO impressed with my students!
Here are just a few student reviews of the class:
From Paula: The class is superb. It is giving me the skills I need to share and possibly sell my patterns. Each step of the process is carefully outlined. The videos and handouts have been right on target. Stefanie has done a great job of simplifying a complicated process. I highly recommend the class to anyone interested in designing and marketing patterns.
From Gina: The Design Your Own Shawl class was fabulous! The videos and handouts are highly informative, and Stefanie was supportive and encouraging throughout the process. The inspiration provided by the class, instructor, and other students will leave your head spinning with new ideas and you will LOVE it. I left this class with a pattern in hand, a design I adore, and lots of new friends. I will be taking many more classes from Stefanie via the site.
From Stephanie: It has been an awesome class. I would keep telling my friends that I was taking an on-line shawl design class and they really couldn’t understand my enthusiasm. I spent hours and hours pouring over stitch books and lace patterns. I even had my sock pattern books out for patttern inspiration. But after lots of swatching and thnking and learning, I closed all the books up and charted out my own design using the free KnitChart software that Stefanie linked us to. The whole class was well organized with lots of hand-outs and videos. We had scheduled chats each week. I am hoping to take my design and make it in several weights of yarn. I know each one will be different. I am sort of a production person. I was even thinking tonight that it would make a great blanket knitted in the round. And an easy top-down raglan also! I now have more new internet knitting friends. I will be checking their blogs and web-sites to keep in touch. Thanks again Stefanie. Can’t really believe your will be having your second child in less than 2 weeks. Keep us posted.
From Judy: This is my 3rd on-line class with Stefanie and I’ve loved it! I’ve learned a lot about combining stitch patterns that I can envision using in other projects besides shawls. I’ve also simply learned how to build on my skills! Designing for me has always been intimidating as I consider myself mainly “left-brained”; but I’ve learned that this process can be logical, too. So, this class has helped me be a more fearless knitter and I commend Stefanie for that aspect of it. As always, her classes are exciting and interactive (live chats, forums), informative (handouts), and very visual (videos). I always feel like I’m being welcomed into Stefanie’s home during her videos and I just love that her little daughter Mazie makes an appearance once in awhile. The whole experience besides being informative, is also very personal and friendly, and as a knitter I really value that. I look forward to more classes, Stefanie!
that I designed for the recent IK Weekend issue. I’ve requested permission from IK to create a version of the pattern with expanded sizing, and will let you know when it’s ok to release it. For now, though, it’s also been relegated to “The List.”
