Growing up, Amy was exposed to just about every craft that one can accomplish with yarn, thread, needles, and hooks. For many years, cross-stitch was her creative outlet of choice...until Spring 2004 when she found herself surrounded by knitters at a crafty get together. This sweater-loving woman realized that she could make her own sweaters and discovered some of the amazing yarns that were available – and the obsession began!

After a few years of learning many knitting techniques, crochet became the next frontier to be conquered. Motifs, lace and interesting stitch patterns are her current passion, as well as trying to figure out which
tasks are best suited to crochet vs. knitting. And each year, hope remains that she will finally finish the Babette Blanket that she started in 2008 in Cascade 220 from the Natural Stitches wall...

Amy continues to learn new techniques in addition to her love of fair isle knitting, making sweaters and crocheting motifs. She looks forward to sharing her favorite techniques with the crocheters and knitters that frequent Natural Stitches! If there is a technique, pattern or skill that you would like to learn, please put in a class request!

Contact Amy

Please make certain you are aware of our class policies before signing up for a class.

Crochet: Lace Scarf — $25 2 Hours

Experience Level: Advanced or Adventurous Beginner

Are you confident in your ability to single, half-double and double crochet but want help moving on to lace crochet? Do you love looking at lace crochet patterns but don't think you can do something so complicated? Are you tired of making rows and rows of the same stitch?

Don't be intimidated by crochet lace! Bring your own lace pattern that you are dying to make or work on the class pattern.

Attendees should know how to chain, single crochet, half-double crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet. You will learn how to use these stitches to make a lace pattern, how to read a lace chart, how to work a lace edging and about finishing lace. The class pattern will be an unpublished, original design.

Crochet: Hat Basics — $25 2 Hours

Experience Level: Advanced or Adventurous Beginner

Are you ready to move beyond squares and rectangles? Have you given scarves to everyone you know and want to make them coordinating hats? Are you ready to learn to crochet in the round?

Hats are a great way to move beyond the square. They are fun, fast and full of ways to make them unique. Best of all, even if the hat doesn't fit you...it will fit someone! Bring your own hat pattern that you are dying to make or work on the class pattern.

Attendees should know how to chain, single crochet, half-double crochet, and double crochet. You will learn to make crochet ribbing, crochet along an edge, crochet in the round and decrease. The class pattern will be an unpublished, original design.

Pattern & Chart Reading (Knit/Crochet) — $25 2 Hours

Experience Level: All Levels

Just as young children learn to read, it is important for knitters & crocheters to learn to read written patterns and follow charts. This class will talk about the abbreviations and symbols used in patterns, techniques for keeping your place and things to look for when browsing for patterns to make. Examples of patterns will be provided, but students are also encouraged to bring patterns they would like to decipher.

There will not be extensive knitting/crochet done in class, but you will get the most out of your time if you know how to knit, purl, increase and decrease.

Crochet: Baby Blanket: A stitch pattern sampler — $35 3 Hours

Experience Level: Intermediate

There is homework for this class that you must have prepared before class.

Are you ready to try some new stitch patterns and end up with an adorable baby blanket? Do you want to learn how to crochet your squares together to avoid the pesky sewing up usually involved with a blanket? This is your chance to try a variety of stitch patterns and a granny square or two. Once you learn spike stitches, granny construction and how to follow a crochet chart, the possibilities are endless.

The class pattern will be an unpublished, original design.

Crochet: Motif Sampler & Chart Reading — $25 2 Hours

Experience Level: Advanced or Adventurous Beginner

Motifs can be as simple as a basic, double crocheted granny square or complex as a lace or 3-dimensional object. This class will provide an understanding of motif construction, several practice patterns to try and information about chart reading. This class will talk about the abbreviations and symbols used in patterns, typical motif construction and ways of connecting motifs together. Examples of patterns will be provided, but students are also encouraged to bring patterns they would like to decipher.

Attendees should know how to chain, single crochet, half-double crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet.

Crochet: Baby Cardigan — $25 2 Hours

Experience Level: Advanced or Adventurous Beginner

This class is designed to introduce you to sweater construction and assembly by using a baby cardigan as an example. You will learn the skills needed to make an adult sweater on a smaller scale.

Don't be intimidated by sweater patterns. Bring your own baby sweater pattern that you are dying to make or work on the class pattern.

Attendees should know how to chain, single crochet, half-double crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet. You will learn how to increase and decrease in pattern, how to read a sweater pattern, how to work a button band edging and about seaming pieces together. The class pattern will be an unpublished, original design.

Student's Choice — $25 2 Hours

Experience Level: All Levels

Students may get help on a project of their choice or choose to take a 2-hour class that isn't offered at a convenient time, including beginning knitting. Class can cover starting a project, yarn substitution, gauge, finishing, pattern reading or any topic of student interest.

If you are using student's choice class to take a knitting class from the established schedule, please request the information sheet for that class to see what experience level, homework, materials and tools are required.

Knitting: Introduction to Fair Isle Knitting — $25 2 Hours

Experience Level: Advanced Beginner to Intermediate

There is homework for this class that you must have prepared before class.

Are you ready to add some colorful elements to your knitting? Do you want to use color and are bored with striped patterns? Fair Isle knitting (A type of stranded knitting) is probably MUCH easier than you think and it is an amazing way to use color to brighten up your projects.

In this class you will work on a hat pattern, learn to knit with one color in each hand, get experience with chart reading and learn about the best ways to execute your stranded knitting projects.

The class pattern will be an unpublished, original design.

Crochet Edgings for Knitters - Beginner — $25 2 Hours

There is homework for this class that you must have prepared before class.

Have you ever knitted a wonderful blanket and wanted to add an edging without having to pick-up hundreds and hundreds of stitches around the edge? Have you ever found a knitting pattern that called for a crocheted
edge and you were too intimidated to try it?

In the class you will learn how to single crochet around a piece of knitted fabric and receive a brief introduction to crochet terms you may encounter. You will learn how a single crochet edging can stabilize the
edge of your knitted fabric. Gauge, drape and hook sizes will be discussed.

Please note, this class is NOT a replacement for the beginning crochet class with Jack and is intended for knitters with no crochet experience. If you wish to produce more complex or lacy crochet edgings, you are
advised to take both Beginning Crochet with Jack and Crochet Pattern & Chart Reading with Amy.

Color Selection for Knitters and Crocheters — $25 + materials fee 2 Hours

There is homework for this class that you must have completed before class. There is also a materials fee for this class to cover the cost of yarn provided during the class.

Have you ever stared at the rainbow of colors on the wall of Cascade 220 and wanted to make a garment or accessory with colorwork? Have you ever
found a pattern you liked and didn't like the colors chosen by the designer, but felt too intimidated to substitute colors yourself? Do you just want to add stripes to a project and don't know where to begin when picking colors?

Learn about color theory, get advice on picking colors, and try your hand at color selection for your own small project. There will be bit of knitting or crochet to try out the colors you picked before class is over.

(Newsletter Write up about this class)

Top Down Sweater Workshop Part 1, 2, & 3 — $100, 9 hours (three 3-hour classes)

There is homework for this class that you MUST have completed before class.

This custom sweater workshop will be a series of 3 classes held over the course of 5 weeks. Students will learn about taking measurements for sweaters and will use the measurements from their gauge swatches to fill in the stitch counts on their custom sweater pattern. The class will also discuss how to add design elements (cables, lace, colorwork), how to add shaping for a better fit and tips for the best sweater results.

The first session will include swatch and body measurements, help with sweater math and casting on for the sweater yoke. The second session will work on the body knitting, waist shaping and collar edgings. The third session will work on sleeve shaping, cuffs and general finishing/blocking.

This workshop will only be held two times a year (fall and spring), so sign up while you can!

(Newsletter Write up about this class)