How To
Boost Your Knitting: Another Year of Techniques!
Dear everybody,
We have been itching to share this news with you.
Jen and Jim Arnall-Culliford are back!
The creators of A Year of Techniques have been busy developing a brand-new program, Boost Your Knitting: Another Year of Techniques.
A Year of Techniques showed us a fascinating way to learn. And this new program, Boost Your Knitting, explores a brand-new set of techniques that will give you even more ways to have fun with your knitting.
Each month, Boost Your Knitting will feature a new project by a supertalented designer as the focus for learning something new about knitting.
Twelve months, a dozen projects, a year of learning with free online video tutorials from Jen, a ton of tips and instruction in each pattern. And beautiful yarns, clever designs, and a Ravelry conversation with a brain trust of smart knitters helping each other.
The Designers
These are some of the brightest lights in the knitwear world.
The cleverness of these folks cannot be overstated. These designs are specifically created for Boost Your Knitting, so that the highlighted technique is central to what you’re making.
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Ella Austin
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Thea Colman
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Julia Farwell-Clay
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Carol Feller
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Felicity (Felix) Ford
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Sarah Hatton
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Wendy Johnson
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Joji Locatelli
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Anna Maltz
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Nancy Marchant
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Tori Seierstad
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Jen Arnall-Culliford
The Techniques
With A Year of Techniques, we found that even if we had some understanding of a technique, these tutorials gave us so much new knowledge and insight. Boost Your Knitting will provide the same sort of next-level teaching.
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Tubular cast on.
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Marlisle.
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Dip stitches.
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Gusset heel for toe-up socks.
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Choosing colors for stranded colorwork.
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Joining in new yarns.
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Brioche knitting.
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Intarsia in the round.
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Toy finishing techniques.
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Dropping and correcting errors in lace.
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Double knitting.
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Tuck stitches.
The Video Tutorials
As with A Year of Techniques, we will feature each month’s free video tutorial here on MDK. We find that Jen’s calm manner and direct, straightforward explanations are among the best in the knitting world. We refer to the tutorials from A Year of Techniques often. (Here are the video tutorials for their previous books, so you can see what we’re talking about.)
The Conversation
The Arnall-Culliford Knitwear Ravelry group for Boost Your Knitting will be in session all year long—so much wisdom and help given and received.
How to Get in on Boost Your Knitting?
This is an innovative, clever way to learn.
Sign up to be a part of Boost Your Knitting at Jen and Jim’s website, AC Knitwear, right here.
Are There Yarns Available?
Absolutely! Jen and Jim have pulled together kits for the projects, and you can order them directly from AC Knitwear, right here. We are firm believers that new yarn makes a new technique all the more fun, so we encourage you to get over there and set yourself up with the beautiful yarns they have paired with these designs.
We frankly encourage you to go all in on this and order up the Ultimate Boost Your Knitting offer: the digital program, the print book, and all four seasonal kits. Details are here. You’ll be set for all the yarns with only one order, and the pricing is the best.
(To be clear, we won’t be carrying the yarns in the MDK Shop. We will have the print book available in September, but honestly, we really hope you’ll jump in now and support Jen and Jim. We are simply the biggest Jen and Jim fans imaginable, and we want you to discover them, too.)
When Does It All Start?
March 1 will be the glorious launch of the first project. When you sign up now and order yarns, you’ll be ready to go when the first pattern is released.
We love this way of learning. We’re grateful to Jen and Jim for letting us be a part of it, and we hope you’ll join in as Boost Your Knitting gets under way come March 1.
Love,
Ann and Kay
This looks great! I checked out the website. Does anyone know the difference between the 2 colorway choices? The names don’t really indicate what colors are included in them? Thanks!
The Ravelry thread has a question about there so check it for a response later.
Hi Liz!
Part of the fun of the programme is the revealing of designers, techniques and projects each month, so we try not to spoil that surprise by keeping the kits mysterious as well. For the Spring Kits the Designers’ Choice option is a selection of cool greys and blues, and my choice could be described as stronger jewel-like colours. Once kits start to arrive around the world there will be a spoilers thread in our Ravelry group. I hope that helps, Jen
This sounds great…. would you be able to do this properly if you haven’t done the first one? I’ve been knitting for about 4 – 4.5 yrs.
Jen said these are not dependent on having done the first one.
Hi Jenn!
Boost Your Knitting will provide you with the tutorials you require for all the projects. You don’t need to have worked through A Year of Techniques first. That said, a couple of the techniques we featured last time may come in useful, and we will include links to those video tutorials as it’s relevant. You could just as easily work through A Year of Techniques after Boost Your Knitting, or at the same time, or never. It’s all good!
I hope that helps! Jen
Hi Jen,
Thank you for the info…. 1 last question though…..how much of a time commitment? I’ve already signed up for a mystery blanket this year and wondering if that, plus the usual b-day socks for family and Christmas knitting would be too much to actually do, lol.
Jenn
Hi Jenn! The projects are of similar sizes to the projects in A Year of Techniques. If you have a look over on Ravelry you’ll get a good idea of what’s involved. I get a small amount of knitting time each day and I would manage the projects each month. 🙂 Best wishes, Jen
Just wanted to add a comment to say how exciting this is. I loved the first year of techniques and it improved my knitting immensely and gave me lots of confidence to try new things, Jen and Jim’s Ravelry group is a very welcoming one and there is so much knowledge, support and fun in doing new projects alongside online friends. As I understand it, this is a free-standing book so you don’t need to have done the previous year of techniques.
I agree; the first one was amazing. Ignore my previous responses as I sent them before Jen’s much better responses came through!
Will the monthly projects be easily completed in the month? I am concerned about having 12 partially completed projects at the end of the year.
Hi Marsha! Yes, they are definitely designed to be comfortably completed within the month. If you want to have an idea of the sort of project sizes, then have a look at A Year of Techniques over on Ravelry – the projects this time are on average similar sizes. I hope that helps!
This is probably a silly question, but will the patterns go to my Ravelry library, the way they did last year?
Hi MKG,
You can follow the links from your order confirmation email in order to add your patterns to your Ravelry library. At the moment there is just a Welcome Pack pdf file, and the first pattern will be added on 1st March. This post in our Ravelry group (https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/arnall-culliford-knitwear/3883502/76-100#95) has the full instructions on how to add Boost Your Knitting to your Ravelry library. I hope that helps.
Great! Thanks–I just tried it and it worked!
Awesome! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
This is so exciting. I am chuffed to be included as one of the designers for this series, and (pssst) I’ve seen a peek. You GUYS! This is an amazing collection, and I can’t wait to play along!
What am I doing wrong? I cannot find the link on the AC website to order the book/patterns. I get to the shop page but no link to order it.
Hi Kathy,
I think I’ve already fixed you up, but in case anyone else is having any difficulty…
I’m sorry for the frustration.
When you go on the page for the book, are you seeing the Buy Now button? It does take a little moment longer to load than the rest of the page. And are you then getting the checkout window that opens up when you click on the button?
Which browser are you using? Safari, or Chrome, or something else?
We did have one customer earlier who was struggling with her browser, and when she switched to a different browser, sailed through with no problem.
If you are still stuck, I can send you an email with an invoice which will have a button for you to checkout.
I will make sure you get the book one way or another. 🙂
With all good wishes,
Jen
Looking at the designer lineup, I see its “business as usual” re POC etc. The recent diversity discussions on blogs and IG has made me sit up and take notice of this. Given the abundance of excellent POC designers out there in the knitter-verse (and the recent MDK letter on this subject), was thought given to a more diverse, inclusive lineup?
I agree with Jane and will wait for a more diverse lineup.
I was thinking the same, I’ll be taking a pass on this one.
Thank you for pointing this out, Jane. I was just about to comment on the same thing.
You’re right of course. The fact that Jen and Jim have been working on this for maybe up to a year doesn’t really excuse the lack of diversity (apart from the solitary male, of course – I’m excluding Jim obviously!). The closest we get to POC is Joji Locatelli,, who is Argentinian. With regards to the lack of diversity, I think to some degree it depends on how the book was written – were the topics decided first and then the designer approached?, was there an open call for submissions? Some of the designers, Jen and Jim have used before, so there is a bit of the sense of the usual suspects, and not getting fresh blood in. I think maybe the issue is how POC get to be known in the first place. That said, Jeannette Coleman is a fairly obvious omission, given that she writes a technique page for one of the major knitting mags in the UK and she designs too (though there may be contractual issues here).
Hello – good dialog. Suggestion ; instead of trying to tell others how to run their classes, why not offer a program of your own and select the makers you want.
Hi Jane,
We love A YEAR OF TECHNIQUES, and are excited for another round with BOOST YOUR KNITTING, which our friends Jen and Jim have been working on for many months now. We stand by what we said to our readers a few days ago: we’re committed to expanding the diversity of the writers we feature, the designers we work with, and the yarnmakers whose products we sell.
Ann and Kay
How exciting! I especially love the scarf on the designer(?) in the photo just above Jim’s head. Is that Anna Maltz’s “marlisle” technique, or something else? Thank you!
This looks like a great program! If you purchase just this year now and want to get the rest later, how does that work? My goals for 2019 are improved colorwork, steeking something, and double sided lace!
Purchasing now gets you the full Boost Your Knitting Year that starts in March 2019.
The first year of A Year of Techniques was published in 2017 and is available from Jen and Jim and from the MDK Shop.
Of course we’re hoping for a third year but we’ll have to wait and see!
It’s hard to commit this money not knowing if one will like the patterns.
Hi Mary,
For the first 6 months, a new pattern and technique will launch every month, then in September the full book will be published. So if you’re hesitant you can definitely wait to see the patterns.
I was waiting to see a new physician and knitting when he came in the room. Instead of a sarcastic comment about old people knitting he was curious and I told him that I had been knitting for over 30 years and the best part was that there is always something new to learn
Ain’t it the truth!
I really like this idea. As a graduate student, I can’t always devote the time needed for knitting projects. Will I have access to the videos after the year is up?
Yes, the videos will be up forever, here, on Jen and Jim’s site, and on YouTube. Totally can do it at your own pace.
I paid on Pay Pal but the site never came back to give my shipping information.
Hi Betty, I can’t see your order behind the scenes of our online shop. If you message us via our contact form on our website we will double check for you on Monday: https://www.acknitwear.co.uk/contact/
With all good wishes. Jen
The issue is getting the newer generation exited about something like this. I try to teach my daughter knitting whenever I get time during weekends. She loves to spend time with me but wont take up knitting by herself. Last year she gifted me a craft storage bag which got me thinking why not do start knitting a school bag cover for here. Well all the best for your project and will share the progress soon.
i love knitting but i get very little time to organise my stuff. I organize them now in a storage bag.