My second Craftsy Class is coming up next month!

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I am so glad to make this announcement! You all know that knitting is a passion of mine for over 40 years and Craftsy is a WONDERFUL venue to work with! So, recently, I was in Denver, CO shooting my second class with them. It is going to be “Knit Faster with Peruvian Knitting”.

In 2014 my son had an opportunity to live in Peru for a internship with the American Embassy. My husband and I had the privilege to visit him and travel all over the country. Of course I planned way ahead to visit the knitting villages and get together with many knitters as possible. And I did!
They use the same style of knitting as the Portuguese, knitting with the yarn tensioned around the neck. No surprise there as South America was colonized by the Portuguese and Spanish. But something amazing happened in Peru: they were experts weavers when the Spanish got there. They raised alpacas, knew how to card, spin and dye with natural dyes, so it was not hard to learn how to knit and incorporate all their expertise into this new craft. And, because they were geographically isolated, they kept knitting just like they did 500 years ago using hooked knitting needles that they make themselves.

Their knitting is very colorful, incorporate a lot of the weaving motifs they had developed, and very tight to keep them warm in the highlands. Another remarkable characteristic is that they invented so many techniques themselves (working with many colors per round, zigzag intarsia,popcorn stitch, tons of earflaps!).  In oppositions to our knitting world, where every knitter wants a pattern to knit exact what the designer created, in Peru they are very proud of only knitting an article once! And they put every effort to make it more beautiful and more unique than the one knitted before (and they knit all the time when they walk, work as shepherds, watch the kids…). That alone allowed them to create what I consider pieces of art.

But enough with my talking. You are going to learn all about the history, motifs and techniques in my class anyway.

Here is a link for you to try to win a free class:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/512851755/

Enjoy it!

Andrea

 

 

6 thoughts on “My second Craftsy Class is coming up next month!”

  1. How exciting! I can’t wait to see the class preview. I sure want to take this class to continue learning more of what I learned in your first class. Love this style of knitting .

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    Reply

    • Hi Debra,

      No, this is not a repletion of the first class. A couple of things I teach again, like the knit stitch and the purl stitch, but then I explore the Peruvian motifs and their techniques: how to make earflaps, knitting with 3 colors, how to make the popcorn sitch and more. All based on their culture. I hope this helps,

      Andrea

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      Reply

      • Thank you for such a quick response. Will you be covering Brioche? I knit mostly all Portuguese style due to your excellent instruction and it has helped tremendously in relieving soreness. I loved your first class and I am eagerly looking forward to a new set of Portuguese knitting techniques. Thank you Debra

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