Saturday we got to do what seems to be a rarity—take a fiber arts class in my very own city!

I had tried to take a yarn dyeing class at Neighborhood Fiber Co. in November 2022 but it was canceled and they haven’t offered too many classes since. The store has pretty limited hours so we actually hadn’t been until this class. I’ve seen their yarn elsewhere, of course!

My husband has really wanted to learn how to knit socks but they are almost always multi week class with homework. While multi week classes are fine, they are never close to home—even this was about 30 minutes away. Taking our beginner class was a little rough because it was at dinner time out in the county at a museum/event venue but doable twice.

A longer class is such a time commitment and there so so few fiber arts stores in our area that anything is bound to be far away. I ended up taking my my beginner crochet class two hours away in Lancaster, PA!

I swear I saw a tiny sock (or stocking?) class offered somewhere around Thanksgiving last year but it was not a time that worked for us but it sounded perfect—you learn all the skills you need to make a sock in one afternoon.

When I was taking my tape weaving class, I got an email from Neighborhood Fiber about this class and assumed they must have been the spring version of what I saw offered somewhere in the fall. My husband immediately signed us up.

As it turns out, it was not the same class I had read about before but the same idea. It is driving me crazy trying to remember where I saw it. I can’t find the email but I am on the list of yarn shops from basically any place we’d possibly be willing to travel to or might be near at some point so it could have been anywhere from VA to WV to PA to DE to NJ. I guess it’s not important because we were able to take this class!

This was a class on making a tiny toe up sock taught by Ellen using her own pattern and worsted yarn she provided.

We learned how to make Judy’s Magic Cast On, fleegle heels, knit using the magic loop and we were supposed to learn the Italian sewn bind off but we ran out of time.

This was not a class of speedy overachievers! I’m taking a sprang class (live) online and the class goes so fast I cannot keep up at all. It’s been awful. This was a slower pace and I think it worked much better.

Everyone was experienced with knitting to some degree but none of us knew any of the techniques that were covered in class before we came in. If we had 30 minutes more minutes in the class I think we all would have gotten to the bind off. It was nice to be basically all on the same page. A couple people had to restart so we did not continue to be all on the same page the whole time but Ellen did a good job helping all of us.

I was pretty close to the final knit rows and then four rows of ribbing (and getting tired) by the end of the class so I brought it home and finished it yesterday. Ellen’s YouTube channel was very helpful and had a video for the bind off. Matt has started a second practice sock (he was a bit behind me in class) using the videos as a refresher. She uses really chunky, bright yarn and big needles in the videos so it was easy to follow.

I would happily take a class there or from Ellen again! The class was affordable ($65) and the only added expense was bringing our own needles because we didn’t already have any circular needles quite that long. It was also at a great time (1-4 pm) on a Saturday that didn’t clash with meal times or any other major commitments.