Shirley Paden
You may know Shirley Paden from her designs which are a regular feature in Vogue Knitting & Interweave Knits, or you may know Shirley Paden from her exclusive Design Masterclass which is currently taught at her New York studio (and now Knit Nation along with a Colourwork Masterclass for Fair Isle & Intarsia). Or you may have seen/heard of Shirley’s new book Knitwear Design Workshop recently published as a partner to her Design Masterclass.
However you may know Shirley, we are totally over the moon that she is coming to Knit Nation to teach her knitwear Design Masterclasses. Her knowledge of custom fitted knitwear is incredible (you just need to flick through her book to see the depth of knowledge and her talent of being able to take you through design complexities with clarity and ease) and she has been teaching her skills for the past 18 years.
Shirley’s designs have an architectural purity of precise measurements and a ’2T’ approach – Trend with Tradition – using traditional stitch patterns overlaid onto fashionable shapes. As with cloth designers, Shirley follows the various trend reporting agencies and reviews the reprints from the 5 major worldwide runway shows for Fall and Spring. She tracks both color and shaping forecasts 1 to 2 years ahead. Shirley tells us, “From what I have seen, I think the trend is going to continue toward more structured, form fitting garments. I also think we will continue to see dresses and skirts in hand knitwear.”
It has been 18 years since Shirley’s last visit to the UK, having visited many times previously (including spending her honeymoon here), and she is looking forward to seeing how the city has changed. The V & A, the Tate, Kensington Palace, the Tower, and a tour along the river are all on her sightseeing list, including the requisite visit to a yarn shop! As a a vegetarian Shirley remembers having some of the best vegetarian Indian cuisine here in London and is looking forward to trying more.
Class Spotlight
Shirley has always loved garments and has been fascinated by garment construction techniques for many years. As a young girl she loved to sew and also learned to knit the basic stitches. Shirley put down her knitting needles for many years and was not reacquainted with them until she was an adult whereupon she promptly developed a passion for it and began to knit every chance she got.
Her interest from the very beginning was always garments. After feeling comfortable with understanding patterns and schematics she progressed to designing, taking a year to practice and learn various construction techniques (knitting 30 garments in the year!) before launching her own line of custom knitwear. After 4 years of constantly designing patterns for her clients, Shirley began working with the American Knitting magazines. She also developed her Design Masterclass, essentially a couture knitwear class, sharing Shirley’s in depth knowledge of hand-knitwear garment construction and tailoring.
Shirley’s full day Design Masterclass is being offered on Thursday and Friday. This class is designed to walk you through all of the various elements involved in constructing a garment based on body measurements, ease and a pattern stitch. Using a series of worksheets, Shirley walks the students through the 2 most common garment shapes, i.e., the “Classic Body” (worked straight to underarm) and Double Tapered (hour glass) body. For both the students plan a round neckline and a set-in sleeve. Everyone leaves the class with a profound knowledge of how to use the design techniques to alter parts of commercial patterns or to design their own garments.
Favourite Technique
Shirley’s favorite knitting technique is the sloped bind off technique. It is a simple matter of slipping (not working) the last stitch of the row before a bind off row and the first stitch from the LHN on the bind off row. The stitch from the previous row is then bound off over the stitch slipped on the bind off row. Because the slipped stitches are edge stitches the columns of rows draw up close to one another. This really neatens the edges of your work giving it a more professional finish. This technique can be used when binding off at the neck or armholes or when shaping a sleeve cap or V neck. This eliminates stair-steps and the visible shaping elements caused by the decrease stitches as one is placed on top of the other when the decrease is formed.
Fly On the Wall
I’m really curious as to what classes our teachers would take if they had the time. Shirley wanted to take them all!
A Little Story…
Shirley shared with us a story about lessons learned through knitting.
I never visit any city anywhere in the world without looking for a yarn shop. It can be located in the most remote area. That would never stop me from planning a visit. Once when my husband and I were traveling in the south of France my husband saw beautiful hanks of yarn billowing in the wind from what appeared to be a shop at the top of a rather steep hill in a small town. Only minutes earlier I had been asking to return to our hotel after walking up and down the hilly terrain all morning. However, the moment I saw the yarn my energy was instantly replenished. There was no way we were not going to scale that hill. When we reached the top and entered the shop we found ourselves surrounded by the most beautiful, elegant hand knit clothing I had every seen.
The shop had 2 very nice owners. They were knitting those beautiful garments on old plastic needles in pastel colors. I was amazed. They were clearly experts. I thought, “where are their Addis?” While browsing, I spotted a beautiful, very heavy antique book. As I turned the pages I saw one beautiful pattern stitch after another. I appeared so captivated until they directed me to the bookstore down the hill to make copies of any of the pages. It was a long since out-of-print book that had been handed down; a real treasure. When I declined, they insisted. As my husband lugged the book down, then back up the hill in the hot sun with me walking beside him, he grumbled about what had ever possessed him to bring the yarn shop to my attention.
I was so happy that he had pointed out the shop because my life lessons were many that day. First, if you really are an expert knitter it doesn’t matter what needles you are making your stitches with. It is the skill that will be reflected in the final piece. Those women had such confidence, incredible skill and a total lack of pretense on every level. Second, the kind and giving nature of most who are involved in needle arts is not simply legend.
I have pondered many times how they could have trusted me so completely after a few minutes of conversation to encourage me to walk out of their store with such a treasure. They trusted that I would care for it and return it. The answer has to be that they recognized a kindred spirit. Whenever I recall that story I always think of the famous XRX poster that said, “Knitting spoken here. Ours is a universal language.”
Our next teacher to be featured is Merike Saarnit on Tuesday 20 April.
