Marnie is a knitwear designer, spinner and sometimes weaver located in beautiful Portland Oregon, with her wonderful guy and two fantastic dogs. She’s been knitting and crocheting since she found a well worn Mon Tricot book in her father’s crochet stash, some 28 years or so ago. In 2003, Marnie started creating her own garments and has been designing ever since. She offers a great many patterns and tutorials on her website, marniemaclean.com, and is a frequent contributor to Twist Collective. 

Classes with Marnie

Microsoft Office for Pattern Writers

Organizing and grading a pattern can be a daunting task and often holds back creative and innovative designers from taking the next step and publishing. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on high-end applications to keep your work organized, if you already own Microsoft Office.

In this class, we’ll discuss setting up your own spread­sheet, some introductory concepts in grading (sizing) your patterns and how to put all of this into a Word document. We’ll look at ways to use Excel to check your work against your standard sizes, convert from metric to imperial (or vice versa), calculate the finished garment dimensions for your schematics and some of my favorite tips and tricks for making pattern writing as painless as possible.

By the end of class, you’ll discover that with just a little pre-planning it can be as easy to design one size as it is to design 6 or more.

When: Tuesday, 9.30 - 5.00

Length of class: 6 hours

Level: Any level of knitting or crocheting but you should have a basic understanding of computers.

Homework: None

Bring with you:

Notebook and writing utensil

A well fitting garment you’d like to use as a reference

A tape measure

Questions

Minimum class size: 10  Maximum class size: 20  

The Adobe Suite for Pattern Proposals and Layout

Adobe products are the industry standard for image ma­nipulation, technical illustrations and print layout; all of which can improve the look and clarity of your patterns. Even if you don’t ever design your own patterns, Illustra­tor can help you with charting written out instructions, or creating your own intarsia, stranded, lace or cable designs. Photoshop can let you envision designs in other colours or brighten up and crop photos of your finished pieces, for use on Ravelry, blogs, and more.

In this class, we’ll cover some basics of creating charts, touching up and colouring photos and how to lay out all these pieces in an In Design document, as well as some of my favourite tips and tricks for working creatively and efficiently in these programs.

When: Thursday, 9.30 - 5.00

Length of class: 6 hours

Level: Any level of knitting or crocheting but you should have a solid understanding of computers.

Homework: None

Bring with you:

Notebook and writing utensil

Questions

Minimum class size: 10 Maximum class size: 20

La Cumparsita

This mid-sized triangular shawl is the perfect size to toss around one’s neck on a brisk day and then unfurl and wrap around one’s shoulders in those too cold offices and movie theatres. Two simple lace motifs are paired to­gether for a seemingly complex design that is a delight to knit. Worked in your favourite solid, semi-solid, or slightly variegated sock yarn, this piece is easy to care for, and a fun accessory to wear.

We’ll talk a little about the construction of triangular shawls, and discuss ways to adapt the pattern to make the shawl longer or shorter. We’ll also cover inserting life lines to avoid catastrophes, understanding lace charts and comparing it to your work so that you can “read” your stitches.

Additionally, I’ll provide the class with a spreadsheet they can use to determine how many rows they can work with the available yarn they have if there’s not enough or more than indicated in the pattern.

When: Friday, 9.30 - 12.30

Length of class: 3 hours

Level: Intermediate knitting skills including casting on, binding off, knitting and purling and increasing and decreasing.

Homework: None

Bring with you:

Sock yarn (enough for a large swatch)

3.75 mm circular needles (you may want to bring other sizes if you are a very loose or tight knitter)

Tapestry needle

At least 4 stitch markers

Thin undyed or light coloured crochet cotton thread, sewing thread, or other thin, tightly spun, cotton fibre for lifelines.

Scissors  

Notebook and writing implement

Minimum number of students: 10 Maximum number of students: 25