Hat Exploratorium with Anna Zilboorg
What happens when we leave our patterns behind and instead trust our hands and minds to create something that is truly our own? For most of our knitting history, this is how things were made.
From Anna:
There has been a movement in the knitting world to make the crafty rely more and more on knitters following directions drawn up by designers. While it is pleasant and relaxing to follow directions and come out with something desirable, people are spending a great deal of energy learning to follow often byzantine, not to mention faulty, instructions while never learning the fundamentals of knitting. This is unfortunate. It destroys the craft.
This four week exploration of creative knitting will begin with a few fundamentals (knitting is really a very simple craft) and continue with individual experiments in many directions. We’ll work with hats. In Maine we all need warm hats and in the gloom of February we need wonderful, cheerful, inspiring hats. So: starting with basic shapes— beret, fez, stocking — we’ll play with stitches, shape changes, color patterns— anything and everything. To a large extent this class is an experiment. We’ll meet on Sunday mornings first to get started and then to encourage and inspire one another as well as share our discoveries.
My hope is that each person will make something uniquely their own that will provide not only personal gratification but will be empowering for endless future projects.
We’ll start with good, old-fashioned graph paper, consider the design features that might spark our imaginations, and start playing with yarn. Will you end up with a finished hat? Possibly. Will you have some trial and error? Yes, hopefully! Will you be in the good company of fellow knitting adventurers? Guaranteed.
About the Instructor
Anna Zilboorg is 91 years-old and she has lived in NYC, Cambridge, Meadows of Dan in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and currently in Rockland, with past travels to Turkey and Armenia to study Middle Eastern knitting patterns. Anna considers herself primarily a teacher. Of her six books, she considers “Knitting for Anarchists” the most useful, and because of this book, she has been known as the “anarchist knitter.”
Dates: Sundays, September 15, 22, 29, October 6
Time: 9:30-10:30
Suggested Reading: Knitting for Anarchists by Anna Zilboorg
Materials to bring to the first session: a selection of yarn(s) with a variety of appropriate needles, your good intentions, and a spirit of adventure.