Beth Brown-Reinsel's Twined Knitting Craftsy Class + Enter to Win!

This post contains an affiliate link, but you know that doesn't influence what I say, right? 

In this Craftsy class, Beth Brown-Reinsel teaches a wonderful folk knitting technique from Sweden, Tvaandsstickning. In English, we usually call it "Twined Knitting." The class includes a lot of techniques and a full mitten pattern in twined knitting.

I'm a sucker for a new-to-me cast on!

When I first started knitting again in college, my sister took up spinning. I stumbled across twined knitting early on - and so I asked Lisa to spin me yarn in the "opposite" way - with a Z-ply. It got her some strange looks from more experienced spinners, at the time! (If you don't understand more than 5 words of what I just said, don't worry, Beth explains it really well and there are also graphics in the class to help.) I made a pair of mittens, at the time, with the wonderfully unique yarn my sister made.

Even if you don't go full-scale into twined knitting (and, really, you could, it's fascinating), you could still get a lot of use out of this class.

The cast ons, cast offs and color work in twined knitting are absolutely fascinating. They really look more like magic than knitting, in a lot of cases. It's worth learning it for just those techniques. It would be fun to use them to make a really simple fingerless glove or even a dishcloth a little more fancy.

Beth shows an absolutely gorgeous sweater in the class that is mostly "standard" two-color knitting, but has lovely twined knitting at the cuffs, collar and bottom edge. Truly inspiring!

She's also a clear-spoken and relaxed teacher. I love her style. She's really good at breaking down complex concepts and making everything simple.

The pattern in the class is for a mitten, but since you learn how to increase, decrease, pick up stitches, cast on and cast off, you actually have a lot of tools here to forge ahead with your own designs. Hats would be easy, as would scarves and cowls knit in the round. A sweater isn't out of the question, if you have the will to try it!

Beth has offered to give one lucky reader of this blog a free enrollment in her class! Leave a comment on this post by 6/16/15 to enter. I'll notify the winner on 6/17/15. Good luck!

Beth Brown-Reinsel

Beth Brown-Reinsel is someone who I have admired for a very, very long time. Her book, Knitting Ganseys, was one of the very first knitting books I found in my quest to Read All of the Books when I was a college student. It's all about traditional fishermen's sweaters from England and Scotland. You can even knit a tine, adorable sample sweater as you read the book. It was a bit too adventurous for me, back then, but I still harbor fantasies of taking a month away from everything else to knit one of her sweaters.

So, when she agreed to review Sock Architecture, you can imagine my extraordinary delight. You have to sign up for her newsletter to read the whole thing, but here's a snippet:

"I am still amazed at the really good sock books coming out. I remember thinking recently that there just couldn't be any more one could say about socks, but I would be wrong! ... Lara's tips and tricks are priceless..."

P.S. - People of Yarnover: She's teaching Saami Mittens in 2015!

Beth Brown-Reinsel's Kickstarter

You should donate to Beth Brown-Reinsel's Kickstarter campaign because her patterns need great photos (and good photography needs $) and there should be more of her ebooks/videos in the world.

I mean LOOK at that knitting. So pretty.

But, you could also consider that a signed copy of her book "Knitting Ganseys:"

1) Is awesome.
2) Was out of print for a while, so you may not have seen how awesome it is.
3) Pretty much costs $30 anyway.

There are a bunch of other things you can choose as your reward for helping her out, but I'm going with the book...