Wervel Colorwork Workshop x Maaike van Geijn - 1.6.24

Dieser Workshop findet im Rahmen des Events WEDDING WOOL WEEKEND statt. Mit der Buchung des Workshops bekommst du freien Eintritt für den Minimarkt sowie Sondereinlass ab 10 Uhr! Falls du schon ein Ticket für den Minimarkt gekauft hast, schicken wir dir kostenfrei ein Ticket für ein weiteren Tag.

WERVEL WORKSHOP

The Wervel sweater is Maaike’s contribution to the book Neons & Neutrals by La Bien Aimée & Laine Magazine. In the Wervel workshop we will make colour cards to try out palettes for the Wervel yoke and work on the Fast Forward Fix (FFF) technique, which Maaike developed and is used in the Wervel sweater. 

Maaike was mesmerized by the idea of a sweater design in different gauges, since she likes to knit & design colourwork yokes in a finer gauge, but tends to get impatient when having to knit plain body and sleeves in similar fine gauge. So she came up with the FFF technique, a fun yet simple way to connect two gauges together offering an inspiring yoke knitting experience with a speedy road to the end! No sleeve island! No procrastinating! In the workshop we will practice the FFF technique from smaller to larger gauge and vice versa.

While practicing the FFF technique participants get a glimpse into the creative thought process behind her designs. Maaike tells more about Wervel’s design process (a.o. inspiration & development of the colourwork) and how to choose yarns & colour palettes for the Wervel sweater. With 10 colours in the yoke, there’s quite some colour interaction going on

You discover what works in terms of yarns & colours, how much contrast you need and how you can play with colours, tones & contrast. Maaike also gives many tips & tricks to knit stranded colourwork as smoothly and beautifully as possible. The Wervel sweater is the starting point here, but you can apply this information to any colourwork. 

You’ll also learn tools and techniques to test out colour combinations before starting your swatch/sweater. We will practice one of these techniques in the workshop: making a colour card for the Wervel sweater. This is a fun and quick way to test out the colours for the yoke.

Maaike brings many swatches that she made during the design process plus her Wervel sweater samples, so you can see, feel and try them on.

You should bring with you:

• 2 small (15-20 gr) balls of light, airy and preferably a bit fluffy Sport or heavy Fingering weight yarn.
• (circular) needles in 3.5 mm and 4.5 mm (and 5 mm to be sure, because some people knit tightly). Circular cables of circa 40 cm.
• 3 colours of leftover yarn from stash if you have some  to share (50 meters)

About Maaike van Geijn

Maaike van Geijn was born in the Netherlands and grew up between the US and Haarlem. She now lives with her family in Schoorl, a small town by the sea, dunes and woods. Maaike studied theatre costumes and did her master's degree in Theatre Studies. She opted for a career as a curator in the theatre and enjoyed doing that work for many years. 

When Maaike was pregnant with her daughter, she picked up her knitting needles again and hasn't stopped since. In her designs Maaike looks for elegance but also likes her work to be playful, either in shape or colour. Her starting point is always the yarn: it’s structure, colour and composition. Above all, Maaike wants her designs to be a pleasant knitting experience, so that knitters can really enjoy the process.

Maaike’s work has been published by Laine, La Bien Aimée & Kate Davies and in the future will be published by John Arbon, Erika Knight yarns, Laine and PRU yarns. 

Instagram handle: @breielaar

Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/designers/maaike-van-geijn