Joan Schrouder

Joan loves teaching knitters to reason out solutions.  Intriguing construction details, seamless knitting and ethnic styles fascinate her.  She teaches classes at national knitting conventions such as Stitches and TKGA, plus travels the country teaching for guilds and yarn shops.  Shealso answers technique questions on various internet knitting lists and Ravelry, and in the past she has designed for knitting magazines and yarn companies.  Joan is retiring from teaching at the end of this year, so if taking a class from her is on your bucket list, here’s one of your last chances.

From Bavaria in Germany and Austria come these beautifully crafted stockings encrusted with ornate grillwork of traveling, twisted st patts.  The shaping for the ankles can include elaborate clocks that shape as well as decorate or, if knee socks, the calf is shaped with specially increased wedges filled with their own unique patterns.  No wonder lederhosen became so popular; who would want to hide these works of art under long pants?  Learn to knit the beautiful traveling/twisted stitch patterns while making a mini-Bavarian stocking complete with calf shaping.

Would you like to extend your sock pattern to make knee socks?  Learn where to measure to get a well-fitting stocking and how to convert that information into rates of shaping.  You’ll practice with knitting flat swatches that have abbreviated calf shapings in several different ways so you can choose the method that best fits your particular sock pattern.