My favorite evening of the year is the Capstone Graduation ceremony, held at the Delaney House a few miles down the road from WEBS. It’s a chance to congratulate and praise the students who have made their way through the 19 required classes and electives, and then used the knowledge they’ve acquired to design and knit a sweater that fits them to a T. This year’s graduation was held on June 21, a beautiful summer evening, and our group gathered to socialize, see old and new friends and fellow students and teachers, and celebrate our newest group of 9 graduates.

We began with a tribute to a dear friend and colleague, Liz Wrobleski. Liz passed away very unexpectedly in late December–we’d already met and I had approved her proposal for her Capstone sweater, but she never got to start it. Her family gave one of her exquisite sweaters to us, and we awarded her certificate to her husband and son in her honor. It was a beautiful and sad moment, but her family was supportive and we are so grateful that we were able to recognize her talent. Here is her Sweater Construction sweater–and it’s flawless.

Susan Drew is a seamstress as well as a phenomenal knitter, and her sweater design was an interpretation of a classic Chanel jacket, with i-cord trim standing in for Coco’s famous braided edging. She used a 3-color slip stitch pattern, and painstakingly reviewed each step of her process with her mentor, Stephanie Gibbs, for technical accuracy. I think you’ll agree that the effort she expended shows to great advantage in her iconic design.

Kim Lier chose to do a cabled aran sweater, but proportionally correct for her small size and shape. She researched cables, twists, crossings, ribbing, twisted stitches, and finally steeled herself to do a saddle shoulder (without EVER having done one before!) so that her cables would truly shine, uninterrupted by a shoulder seam. At one of our “support group” meetings, she worried that perhaps her sweater was going to be smaller than she wanted–and she ended up ripping out a month’s worth of stitches to re-do her design to more closely mirror her ideal fit. Her cabled cardigan is really a work of art, and her mentor, Leslie Ann, agrees.

When I first met Salin Low, she was caring for a very ill spouse. Although I knew she had a long drive to WEBS and had a lot on her plate with work,in-home care for her husband, and a lot of complicated knitting, she was always warm and took time to talk with me and her fellow students. Sadly, her husband passed away a few months ago. Salin created a Capstone love letter to her husband by adapting the design on her wedding ring, whichwas a glass seal used for sealing letters with wax. The design was a sun and a flower with the words “I turn for you” in French. With mentor Erin’s help, Salin’s sweater incorporated an intarsia sunflower and sun, and embroidered sun rays on the shoulder. The sunflower was supported by an i-cord stem and the border of her hem was stranded in different colors to resemble grass. The entire effect is clean and simple, with texture on the flower adding a visual pop to the background of the stockinette stitch.

Angie Tierney had an ambitious plan for her sweater–using two different yarn weights, she wanted to make a sweater that looked like a sleeveless vest over a lighter long-sleeved shirt. I had no idea how she was going to make that work, but of course she did, beautifully. Using Valley Yarns Colrain for the body of the sweater, she designed numerous cable patterns to accentuate the shaping and fit of her “vest,” and then chose Valley Yarns Huntington to knit the sleeves, collar, and hem. By choosing tonal variations rather than stark contrasting colors, she softened the visual effect of the two different parts of the design and truly made a unique sweater that will certainly be an attention-getter once the weather moves into winter temps.

Michal Lumsden and I share a former workplace–she’s there now, and I was there for several years before her. I knew her colleagues would be supportive of her knitting in meetings, for which I was pretty envious! Michal’s sweater is a simple, elegant, form-flattering light cardigan with an intriguing eyelet at the hem, giving it an airy feel and a sophisticated look. I told her that if I didn’t know she had knit it, I would have picked it out of a lineup for her to wear. It just says “Michal” to me! The genius of having 3 top buttons leaves the options for accessorizing open–in the summer, it can layer over a tank, and in the winter, a turtleneck wouldn’t look out of place underneath it. Cyndi Shepard, her mentor, is incredibly proud.

Elaine Bloniasz knew she wanted to use Fair Isle colorwork in her sweater. True Fair Isle is knit in the round with no seaming, but the Capstone requirements demand that there be shoulder, sleeve, and side seams on the sweater for their final project. Elaine and her mentor, Erin, came up with a truly genius solution for that, by making a yoke that she seamed into her shoulders. Desperate times call for desperate measures…Her sweater fits her so perfectly that it reminds us all that truly well-fitting garments are within our reach.

Jan Wilson has spent a lot of time in Africa, courtesy of her daughter and son-in-law who moved there to teach. She was entranced by a woven basket she saw during her time there, and had the idea to recreate the look and feel of that basket in her sweater. It is amazing! Knitting a worsted weight yarn at a tighter gauge gave her the tightly coiled texture of woven plant fiber, and her tri-color braids perfectly reflect the braided seam holding the coiled strands together. Working tirelessly with her mentor, Ping Wood, Jan really made this sweater the stand-out for most closely resembling the inspiration for the garment.

Ruth Manna worked with mentor Beth Decker on a drapey open cardigan with intarsia striping that is deceptively simple in appearance. In order to make those stripes she had to do intarsia (color blocking) sections with invisible joins. I know she ripped them out over and over in her quest for perfection, and her garment is the richer for her hard work. Not only that, but the stripes in her hemline align exactly with the striping on her sleeve cuffs–and that is perfectionism I can get behind! Ruth’s sweater is absolutely lovely, fits her perfectly, and would be appropriate year-round.

I’m so proud of this year’s graduates. Their sweaters are on display in our store for a few more days, so come in and see them in person!

Once I graduated from college, I knew I’d never, ever continue my education. I was fed up with writing papers, of all things. It wasn’t the studying, or making it to classes every week, or homework. It was writing papers. Of course, I ended up in the communications field a few years after I graduated and what did I do for a living? Basically, write papers. But when I learned to knit, suddenly I was on fire to learn. I took a Beginning Knitting class at a local community school taught by the wisest and most patient teacher ever, and for the first time, I understood how knitting worked. Once I started working at Webs, a whole new world opened up for me. I took classes in stitch texture, in finishing; I took a felting class, and a weaving class. I learned to crochet and spent an entire summer one year making a garden’s worth of crocheted flowers joined by scalloped edging.

Students + yarn = sweater

The Webs Education Program is one of the most amazing resources that fiberists in our area can take advantage of. There are classes ranging from Knitting I, where you can learn to cast on, knit, and purl, to Advanced Fearless Finishing and Sweater Construction, where the intricacies of design are brought to life in fiber form. Guest teachers are regulars at Webs, and in the time I’ve worked here I’ve met some amazing celebs: Debbie Bliss, Stephen West, Ann Budd, Kristin Nicholas, and of course, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

Webs also has a unique Expert Knitter Certification Program. It’s sort of “knitting college,” a series of classes that take the dedicated student from fiber basics to a Capstone Project, which is a sweater designed and knit by the student. The process usually takes about three years, but can take as long as one needs to bask in the fiber-y glow. It’s a serious commitment, with regular meetings with an advisor of sorts (the Education Manager) who signs off on completed classes and projects, and counsels each member on next steps or answers questions about which classes might fill a requirement. Graduates of the program might go on to teach at Webs or at other schools or community education programs, but they all emerge from the Expert Knitter program with every skill they will ever need to design a garment and knit it to perfection.

I encourage all blog readers (and all your friends) to take a look at the classes offered this Fall. You can make charming holiday gifts, design a Pi shawl in the spirit of Elizabeth Zimmerman, craft a pair of mittens, learn to spin on a wheel, weave a chenille scarf, delve into stitch textures and their derivations from various ethnic traditions, or just learn to cast on and bind off.

And starting right after Labor Day, there’ll be a change…and that’s me. I’m taking the reins of the Education Program as Tina McElmoyl, our current Education Manager, leaves to continue her education. I’m so excited to be inheriting this program, which Tina has made into a rich, expansive, well-oiled machine, and I’m eager to get to know all the students and teachers. Most of all, I’m so satisfied when I see the range of our education options at Webs; from knitting, crochet, weaving, spinning, felting, and dyeing, there’s no place that does more.