If every you get a chance to take a workshop or class with Lucy Neatby, run, don't walk to sign up! Oh my- if I had known how much information I was going to learn I would have begged my dad to let me off work so I could have attended the Saturday class as well. If you can't find a class, buy the DVDs. Worth it, worth it, worth it!

The minute I walked into the class I knew I was in for a fun time- from her blue, purple (and I think there was green too) hair to her hand-knitted (mismatched) earrings, all the way down to her vivid neon (mismatched) socks and vivid neon (mismatched) Birkenstocks (after she took off her bright, sparkly, mismatched boots) you KNEW you were in the presence of someone who heard all the rules and promptly ignored them. She had samples of her knits around the room and I have never seen such vivid, glorious use of color. And with such FINE stitches (both as in neat and as in tiny!)...wow. I was blown away.

I can't even begin to go through what we learned- partly because it was a workshop that I paid for and partly because I learned so much. My brain was literally bursting by the time I drove my friend Maaike home afterwards. There was a morning session on edgings and an afternoon session on buttonholes, and we didn't stop knitting all day. She was extremely hands-on, going around the class one-by-one to make sure we were picking up the techniques, and, when appropriate, playing the matching area of her DVDs on a big screen so we could see some steps in "larger than life". Wow. All I can say is wow.

(I didn't realize how small the text came out on the photos, so I'll recap underneath in case you can't read it)

Self-Fringing, right-side-only shawl.

Ignore the scraggly ends...sparse fringe in dk weight yarn is not the most attractive thing.

Latvian Twisted Edging- I love it. I need a daughter so I can knit something with this edging...

or for myself. I am so incredibly charmed by this simple twist of knitting. Love it.

You can read this one...knitted-in fringe, plain and with sprinkles (beads).

I love this little swatch! The puntas edging is charming and so easy to knit, the knit-on garter edge is a great technique, and the best part? Look in the middle- that's garter colorwork. I've never done stranded colorwork (Fair Isle) in garter before!

Same swatch showing the back.

Knit-on icord fringe...lots of fun!

And now, on to the buttonholes:

Eyelet buttonhole for 2x2 rib (the eyelet doesn't break up the ribbing pattern)

The One-Row, Self-Reinforcing Buttonhole. Genius.

The Japanese Vertical Buttonhole. No more cutting yarn!