Julie's Knit Knacks

 

I was so happy to see my friend Julie Esterlin today at her studio in Beavercreek, Ohio today.  I have known her since I began machine knitting in the 1980's.  She is one of the most gracious people I know, and a beautiful machine knitter.  I could easily accept her as a role model.  

Although I have known her for just ages, I have never been to her studio before. 

 

This knitted sign hangs above the entrance.

She loves teaching machine knitting and continues to hold club meetings at her studio on the first Thursday every month.  She is a very talented designer.  She shared with me that she had to choose between sewing and typing class in school, and she chose sewing.  

She showed me some of the samples the club discussed at the last meeting.  One garment had the club members guessing as to technique. 

 The camera does not do this garment justice, but it is a fairisle using Rayon chenille and an acrylic yarn in the same color.  The light is picked up differently by the two fibers.  You would never guess that this stitch pattern is one of the built-in Stitch World patterns. 

Julie is a consummate designer and showed me a few of the garments she had designed "a la St. John Knits".  St. John has a store in the ultra-toney Somerset Mall in Troy,  Michigan.  I once visited the store to window-shop.  I could not afford $1500 for a sweater.  But with instructors like Julie, we can make our own.

This skirt and sleeves are knitted on garter carriage and the body is knit in knit-weave.

This garment was has knitted sleeves and skirt, while the body of the vest is made of Ultrasuede.

Detail of the jacket above.

Julie has a range of sample garments on display at her shop, from Aran-style sweater, bias-knit vest, to intarsia and garter stitch, and finally center stage,  knit woven technique. 

This swatch is lace made on a Singer knitting machine.  We talked about the pros and cons of Singer versus Brother for knitting lace. 

Julie encourages knitters to experiment.  This stitch pattern was designed for punch lace.  Julie used it in Fairisle with a variegated yarn as the contrast color. 

The vest above is made from fabric worn right-side in.  Usually when knit-weaving, the thicker yarn is carried across the surface of the fabric, but Julie found that she like the "back" side of the fabric better.  This technique used rug yarn in six-foot lengths for the weaving yarn. 

Weaving yarn showing. 

Reverse side of fabric.

Julie has a whole rack of sample garments that illustrate various techniques and patterns. 

An example of a custom-knit baby blanket featuring double-bed jacquard. 

Julie still has several MK acrylic yarns in stock, she also has some back issues of machine knitting magazines and many patterns and instruction books. 

Pattern books

and more pattern books.

We discussed the current lack of knitting machine seminars in the Midwest.  I shared with her that the Techknitters in Chicago are still meeting via Zoom, and we both lamented the Monroe and Grand Rapids Seminars are no longer taking place. 

Julie's business card. She does not sell by mail order If you would like to visit her studio, just call for an appointment or stop by for the knit club meeting at 7 on the first Tuesday of the month.