Skrå-trøje!

My sister and I took the Danish Skrå-trøjer class from Beth Brown-Reinsel at Stitches West and we really enjoyed it.

For me, this class was unique in that it focused on the techniques and construction of one sweater--one unique sweater--that a woman made for her husband in the late 1800's. Beth designed this class around the original sweater's construction and stranding--get this--fingering weight and worsted weight yarn.

I KNOW!

Actually, the original sweater appeared to have incorporated more than 2 yarn weights, but I guess Beth didn't want our heads to explode so she limited it to two. lol

What did I learn? Plenty. Here are the highlights.

• I learned about this fascinating sweater and what might have motivated the woman to make it the way she did. The half gussets and seam stitches are nice details that I'd like to use again.
  
• I learned more about color dominance in stranded colorwork. Beth taught us why one color is more dominant than the other. It was such an "Ah ha!" Now I can look at my knitting and figure out which hand holds the dominant yarn. I don't have to think, "right? or left??" and I don't have to look it up. That was big.
  
• Beth demonstrated 2 color knitting and trapping floats when holding both yarns in the right hand, both yarns in the left hand, and one in each hand. Awesome.
  
• Even better, she demonstrated 2 color PURLING and trapping floats with all 3 ways of holding the yarn. Very timely, especially since I have more to do on the Sipalu Bag and my plan is going to require stranded purling.
  
• A refresher on Twined Knitting. There's twined knitting trim on the sampler and it's really a nice touch. There's more twined knitting in my future.
  

Want to see the sampler? It still needs neck trim, the sleeves aren't sewn in and it could use a good blocking...


Danish Skrå-trøje


Danish Skrå-trøje


Danish Skrå-trøje

I highly recommend the class. Take it with your sister or a friend. It's more fun that way!