SALLY MELVILLE
Sally Melville loves all aspects of life as a ‘professional’ knitter: teaching, writing, designing, and explaining what this all means! And what does it mean? It means an extensive teaching schedule that takes her around the world, speaking to wonderful folk who can appreciate the perfect buttonhole, who love the textures and colors and techniques of knitting, who want to be more intuitive about their craft, and who know that life is about learning.
Sally first wrote a successful book about how to make beautiful garments from a yarn stash (Sally Melville: Styles | A Unique and Elegant Approach to your Yarn Collection (1998)) and then began a five-book series: The Knitting Experience. The first volume in the series is dedicated to The Knit Stitch (2002); the second, The Purl Stitch (2003); the third, Color (2005). To date, sales of all four books are above 250,000.
Besides designing for her own books, Sally has contributed work to most major knitting publications plus books by other authors.
In addition, Sally served as the Study Skills Advisor at the University of Waterloo (1993-1999). This meant taking the material of how the brain works most effectively and turning it over to students to help them work more productively.
These two fields (brain function plus fiber arts design) come together to produce some interesting material. And this material appears as a favorite and unique feature of Sally’s classes - stimulating discussion, challenging basic assumptions, teaching us the value of being creative and of using our hands and of paying attention to life!
Sally Melville (far right) and examples of her knitting from her book The Knitting Experience - The Purl Stitch
A KNITTING EXPERIENCE 
• Dates: May 19-23, 2008
• Level: Beginning to Intermediate and beyond!
• Zig Zag Sewing Machine: No
• Tuition & Meal Plan: $750
• Materials Fee: $10
> Accommodations and meal information
DESCRIPTION
This 5-day workshop will explore the choices, decisions, and techniques of a typical knitting experience. To start, where does the idea come from? And once received, how does one translate it into a garment: what yarns, colors, silhouettes look good on ME?
As we proceed with the knitting, we face constant choices: how to cast on, how to manipulate needles and yarn, how to increase and decrease, how to achieve the best results in multi-color work, etc. Then as we approach the finish line - perhaps the most important part of our knitting - more questions arise: how to pick up around a neck, work the perfect buttonhole, seam the pieces well? And finally, there's the inevitable question: "What went wrong, and how can I fix it?"
Most of us are self-taught, which means that there are holes in our experience and expertise. This workshop is meant to address these. In addition Sally will also offer short presentations that allow us to think about our choices - for our knitting and for our lives - in ways that will leave us all refreshed, renewed, and re-energized.
SUPPLY LIST
• paper
• pencil
• measuring tape
• calculator (optional)
• tapestry needle with blunt tip
• scissors
• selection of knitting needles
• small selection of crochet hooks
• more yarn in same weight as each homework piece, contrasting color
• one colorful art book or magazine (knitting or gardening magazines are not good, home décor or fashion are)
HOMEWORK PIECES REQUIRED
- Day 2
1. Do all of what follows on the same swatch. (You will need to cut colors frequently, but do not sew in tails.) With light-colored (MC) worsted weight yarn, long-tail cast on 16 sts. Work as follows in garter st: 5 rows in MC, 1 row in contrast color (CC), 4 rows in MC, 1 row in CC, 4 rows in MC. Now work in Stst as follows: 4 rows in MC, 1 row in CC, 5 rows in MC. Leave sts on needle. (You should be ready to work a RS k row: if you are not, then work 1 more row.)
2. With same yarn as first swatch, cast on 16 sts. Work garter st for 4 rows then Stst for 3 or 4 rows, until ready to work a WS (p) row. Leave sts on needle.
- Day 3, morning
With worsted weight yarn and appropriate size circular needles, cast on 20 sts. K 5 rows, then p 1 row.
- Day 3, afternoon
With DK or finer yarn and appropriate size circular needle, long-tail cast on 120 sts.
- Day 4, morning
With worsted weight yarn and appropriate needles, cast on 20 sts. K 5 rows, then p 1 row.
- Day 4, afternoon
Use smooth, light-colored yarn for all swatches.
1. Work 4" x 4" swatch in Stst, working selvage sts in Stst also.
2. Cast on 24 sts: work 3" Stst. DO EXACTLY AS WRITTEN: do not slip sts and do not work short rows. At beginning of next RS row, bind off 6 sts. At beginning of next RS row, bind off 3 sts. At beginning of next RS row, bind off 2 sts. At beginning of next 3 RS rows, bind off 1 st. Work 8 rows straight. Bind off all sts.
- Day 5
Use smooth, light-colored yarn for all swatches.
1. Work two 3" square swatches in St st, blocked flat.
2. Work a 4" wide swatch in Stst for 3" length: work 1 row in a 2x2 pattern (2 sts MC then 2 sts CC, across row): return to MC and work 1 " Stst: finish with 1" k1p1 rib on smaller needles, then bind off all sts with needles MUCH TOO LARGE.
MATERIALS FEE PROVIDES:
• 45 pages of handouts
• knitters' graph paper
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