Fibre Breakaway 2019

I drove to the FBA 2019 venue in Benoni on Sunday afternoon. Most of us who were staying over arrived by Sunday evening, and during the week we had mainly day visitors and some lodgers.

Day 1:

I started on Monday morning with Brioche knitting. We were making a headband in aran-weight wool. The colours were cream and a hand-dyed mix I had made.

I had NOT anticipated the problems I would encounter because of different knitting styles! I knit Continental style (the Scandinavian version) while 2 ladies were knitting English (throwing) style and the other 2 were knitting regular Continental (picking) style (the purl stitch is executed differently to the way I do it)! What the English-style ladies struggled with was the yarn over and slip stitch (yos) combo – they kept on losing the yo which meant the pattern did not work. All the ladies struggled with the pattern. I was rather frustrated, until I read the following on a blog:

So we continued… One of the ladies asked me to show her my knitting style, which she grasped very well and finished the entire headband in a new knitting style as well as a rebel knitting technique! Kudos to C!

I taught one of my other students my knitting style the following night (she came a day late because of work obligations) and she also grasped it well (I sent them both links to YouTube videos demonstrating Continental knitting).

Slowly but surely we continued till the end of the day. In hindsight, I should have done the course over 2 days – I forget that not everyone knits as fast as I do!

Day 2:

On Tuesday we tackled Tapestry crochet. We started with 2-colour crochet to get the students used to holding the yarns, as well as the actual technique of crocheting into the back loop. Most of my students coped well and were well on their way by the end of the day with their loyalty/credit card pouch. I had made a felt inner as part of the kit which they could simply stitch to the inside upon completion of the pouch, and I had also included a matching button in the kit.

Day 3:

We continued with Tapestry crochet, this time with 3 colours. That was a bit more challenging as I had designed a pattern for a coaster, so it was a round design with increases. One of my older students really struggled, but the others managed very well. We had some very pretty coasters at the end of the day!

Day 4:

I was not teaching on this day, so had elected to take a spinning class with Tina. We did boucle yarns!

My first one was not very successful, but the second one was much better and quite passable. I need to practice, practice, practice, especially as I have to teach Jo how to do it once she has recovered!

Conclusion:

All in all it was a very successful FBA. We all learnt a lot from the teachers and each other.

We also socialized in the evenings in our little house after supper and just enjoyed being away from home and the daily grind. We didn’t have to cook (we had 3 meals per day!) or clean, so it was a good break for most people.