JCCFS: Tell us about your class, “A Feast of Reversible Knitting” on May 19-25? Any specific technique or process?

JE: Reversible knitting encompasses many different techniques and knitting styles. The first technique that comes to mind is double-knitting, which has a reputation for being difficult, but is actually a simple process. Many stitches require only one color of yarn, including using ribbing and garter stitch to create an illusion of reversible stockinette.

Alternatively, there are some amazing stunt-knitting techniques with exciting outcomes. Knitters can use three or four colors, stranding the unused colors in the middle of the fabric, to create reversible designs, including words that read on both sides of the fabric. Reversible shadow or illusion knitting can produce a piece with completely different patterns on each side. Brioche knitting also creates reversible fabrics. Ultimately, there are many ways to use reversible knitting that can be suited to both the look and the functionality of your project.

JCCFS: What can students expect to leave with? 

JE: Students will achieve things in knitting they did not know were possible! You will leave class with a stack of amazing swatches and thorough handouts, including multiple projects  to practice their new skills, enabling you to sit at home and recreate everything we did in class even years from now. If you bring ideas about what patterns you want to knit reversibly, you can leave class with a plan to achieve your visions. Blankets, scarves, shawls, collars, cuffs, edgings — students in this class will attain mastery in these knitting situations

JCCFS: What do you enjoy most about teaching?

JE: Few things are as exciting as helping someone achieve a vision or helping someone realize something they thought could not be done is attainable. I have a swatch that looks like double knitting, but isn’t. The image is the same color on both sides, not inverse. I love passing it around the room. Even experienced knitters are puzzled.

Knitting is often an act of love. Helping someone make a beautiful baby blanket for a precious grandchild or the perfect scarf to send the new graduate out into the world is a privilege.

JCCFS: What attracted you to the Folk School? What are you most excited about for your first time teaching here?

JE: I have heard the experience of the Folk School is unlike any other. Spending a week immersing ourselves in creative acts is rejuvenating. I look forward to sharing many obscure knitting techniques, and I am excited to see what students will do with those techniques. One of the best experiences you can have as a teacher is to see a student take an idea in a direction you never imagined.

JCCFS: Where do you draw inspiration from for your work?

JE: My inspiration often comes from other knitters. I see an interesting technique or project and am immediately curious how it was made. Few things are as inspiring to me as show and tell at a knitting guild meeting.

JCCFS: What’s one piece or craft object you’ve made recently that you are proud of, and why?

JE: My proudest moment was with versa lace was at a fiber festival. I encountered Alasdair Post Quinn, who is a master of double-knitting, in one of the vendor booths. I was wearing the scarf I use as the project in my basic class. Alasdair examined it, then tried to pull the two sides apart, the way it would if double-knit. I stumped Alasdair!

JCCFS: What tips would you give an aspiring craftsperson? Anything you wish you knew as a student? 

JE: My advice to other crafters is to experiment. The more you craft, the more you learn. Don’t be afraid to find out why someone says do something this way not that way. I worked a sock toe by turning it inside-out and working three-needle bind-off across it to show why grafting the toe would be much better. That’s what all the books say. The reality is a sock toe done this way is pretty good. If you hate the grafting stitch, three-needle bind-off on the inside will work just fine! Trust but verify.

JCCFS: Where can folks find you if they want to stay up to date on your work? 

JE: I post my experiments and projects at jolieaelder.blogspot.com. On Ravelry I am “Jolie”.

JCCFS: Anything else we should know about your, your class, or your practice?

JE: Crafting is a spiritual practice in that it feeds our souls. In an increasingly digital world, it is rejuvenating to manipulate atoms. It is an excuse for joyful play, something we sometimes forget to do as adults. You enjoy the process, the relationship between yourself and the physical world. Sometimes the final object is what we envision. Sometimes it is something else. Crafting imbues a flicker of our energy in the physical world. Often what we knit is given to others. It is our love made manifest.