Two Great Classes with Nancy Bush

Nationally known knitting teacher and author Nancy Bush came to teach Vintage Socks and Making a True Haapsalu Sall. We made a wee sock, not even a baby sock, but a sock like you would wear over your toes if you had a cast on your leg. We learned several tricks of the trade from the olden days. Nancy brought ALL the socks from the two books, "Knitting Vintage Socks," and, "Knitting on the Road." What a treat to see all the socks, hold them and look at them up close.

For the shawl class, Nancy brought many Estonian shawls that were made from the women of Estonian to show us. Umm, Umm, BEAUTIFUL!! And the shawls and scarves from her book, Knitting Lace from Estonia. (Just a note, the first shawl you see in her book, near the title pages, does not have a pattern in the book, but you can get the pattern and yarn in a kit from www.woolywest.com for about $32.00. This is Nancy Bush's web store.) What a truly wonderful experience to sit and knit with Nancy as she taught us about the customs, traditions and techniques of the Estonians for the shawl class. I am a novice lace knitter, having knit a couple lace shawls in my recent knitting past. I was able to get though this class enjoyably with the supportive help of Nancy (I really goofed on one of the nupps, rhymes with soup).




The last lace photo is the sample we made in class -- a lily of the valley pattern. We knit the edges separately, the Estonian, traditional way, and then sew them onto the lace panel with a special technique. Truly unique, and inspiring. I loved this new information! But, I love history and cultural traditions, so it fits right in!

I so enjoyed this class, Nancy and I talked about her future classes with us... so now it's a question of when and what.....!

Of course we always do these classes with a good round of potluck brought in from the students, and it's always good and plenty! Nancy ended the class with a wonderful show and tell of all the shawls from Estonia and the book, highlighting the different yarns, needle size, handspun, or commercial (in most all cases). And there was plenty of time for her to autograph the books we brought.

Thank you, Nancy for coming to share and teach at the Shop!