Jackie Willard at Spring City Knitters/Machine Knitting Guild of PA Seminar, June 6 & 7, 2008

Jackie Willard - A few years ago at a Spring City Knitters club meeting we had a group project where everyone was asked to knit the same garment except in their size. We selected a garment from a popular hand-knitting magazine that included a lace pattern. Jackie volunteered to convert the lace pattern into Design-A-Knit. At the next meeting, a month later, Jackie showed everyone how to knit the pattern using their Brother knitting machine K-carriage, G-carriage, and three downloaded patterns from DAK. Everyone was in awe of how proficient she was at DAK version 6, since it doesn’t have a lace tool like DAK version 7. That's when everyone realized Jackie had the talent to teach DAK to others.

A master at hand knitting, her interest in knitting started after she finished college about 20 years ago. For the past 12 years she’s been involved with machine knitting. As a stay a home mom, she became a production knitter working exclusively on the Passap E-6000 for local knitwear designer Fern Wayne. She uses DAK on a daily basis not only for Fern Wayne designs, but also for her own design work. To see the kind of knitwear Jackie’s involved with, I invite you to visit Fern’s website http://www.fernwayne.com/.

Jackie’s knitwear designs were featured in the now out-of-print Machine Knitter Source/N Knitters magazine. Her objective in teaching Practical DAK is to get you from a cone of yarn to a finished garment using DAK. Her intent is to go over the steps involved and the thought processes and decision making needed when making your own patterns, plus go over the tools and features of DAK which will include downloading to both Brother and Passap and actual print outs of the DAK pattern. Join her as she explores this exciting software program. Details of her sessions are listed below.

• Practical Design-A-Knit for Beginners. This session will go from what to do with that cone of yarn to a simple pullover using DAK to design the shape. We will discuss the basics of swatch measurement, body measurement and use Standard garment styler to design your sweater. The session is designed to get you with making your own designs by focusing on Standard Garment Styler tools and techniques. To get the most benefit from this session we highly encourage participants to bring their laptops with DAK pre-installed, but it is not mandatory to attend this session. DAK Version 7 will be used for demonstration. Session 1 Friday morning.
• Practical Design-A-Knit More Advanced I - More Than One Color. This session will discuss integrating a pattern you have drawn in Stitch Designer with a shape you have designed in Standard Garment Styler. The goal of this session is to design a Fair Isle cardigan with bands. The focus of this session will be on using Standard Garment Styler and Stitch Designer tools and techniques. To get the most benefit from this session we highly encourage participants to bring their laptops with DAK pre-installed, but it is not mandatory to attend this session. DAK Version 7 will be used for demonstration. Session 2 Friday afternoon.
• Practical Design-A-Knit More Advanced II - Original Shapes. This session will discuss beginning a shape in Standard Garment Styler and transferring it to Original Pattern Drafting to add details. We will also discuss free form shapes. The goal of this session is to design a fitted jacquard jacket with a shawl collar. The focus of this session will be on using Original Pattern Drafting tools and techniques. We highly encourage participants to bring their laptops with DAK pre-installed, but it is not mandatory to attend this session. DAK Version 7 will be used for demonstration. Session 3 Saturday morning.
• Modules and Tools of DAK. In this session you won’t be designing specific garments but we will go over the modules and tools of DAK. This session is a recap of what you learned in other sessions or to learn something new about a module you haven't used yet. Focus on all modules and tool of DAK including the lace tool, graphics studio, printing and downloading. We will show how to download a DAK file to the Passap console and Brother knitting machine. We highly encourage participants to bring their laptops with DAK pre-installed, but it is not mandatory to attend this session. DAK Version 7 will be used for demonstration. Session 4 Saturday afternoon.

To registar for the seminar go to http://www.geocities.com/springcityknitters and look for the registration form. From now until March 31, 2008 2 days are $100 which includes a buffet lunch; One day is $50 which includes a buffet lunch.

For information, contact Tammy Noble at 484-684-6154 (cell) or email her at knitandsew44@yahoo.com

Regards,

Donna