Last week, I wrote about my adventures at Stitches West and how on Saturday, I took a class on Traditional Fair Isle Tams.
I must say, it was worth it. Best money I've ever spent.
The class was with Beth Brown-Reinsel of KnittingTraditions.com, and she was one of the most wonderful knitting teachers I've ever had. Everything that she said was clear and concise. She taught multiple methods for each technique, but never in a way where you got them confused with each other. She broke the group up into small sections so you could see better, but you never felt like you had to wait for her, since there was always something more to do.
She taught extensively about Tams themselves, their construction, and their makeup, and with the nature of Tams as they are, you were able to work steadily as she went around from person to person and checked your work.
The class was over a morning and afternoon session, each one three hours, so it was a long day, but it didn't feel like it. By the end of the class, I had almost finished the Tam, and quickly finished it up and wove the ends in that night at the house with the ladies.
The end result was a child's Tam, which was a little sad because you couldn't wear your accomplishment right away, but I think it would probably have been overwhelming if we had tried to make an adult tam in that time.
She also had dozens of beautiful examples and tips for great ways to improve our knitting as we went on and other resources to use to create our own patterns. We got to experiment with color (and I learned that I probably should have switched the green and orange placements in my tam).
I am so glad I took this class.
Oh, and here's my cute little finished tam!
