Try not to have a good time...this is supposed to be educational.
~ Charles M. Schulz
I've signed up for 3 Craftsy classes, but, I am a bit embarrassed to admit, I've only started one of them - this one for weaving on a floor loom.
I taught myself to weave from a book (albeit, a good book) and so I thought I'd try "taking" a class and see how much it helped to have an instructor - to be able to watch her and to be able to ask questions.
Right off the bat, it appears that, when I was reading the book, I chose to learn the wrong method for preparing the loom. The book shows 2 methods - working from the front to the back and working from the back to the front. I picked "a" - front to back.
My Craftsy instructor, Janet Dawson, teaches the back to front method - and one of the main advantages is that you can measure out the lengths of yarn in batches of multiple threads at the same time!
Here is a photo of my throw-together "equipment" for measuring out the yarns, 3 lengths at a time:
Then, you do start with the yarns at the front, but you bring them through to the back and get them wrapped around the back beam, before passing them through the heddles (hanging needles) and the reed...
Here I'm setting up the yarns in a "raddle" (like a big, upside-down comb) so that, when I bring them to the back beam, they will be appropriately spaced out for the width of my next project.
Not surprisingly, it was much harder to do this for the first time than it would have been to use the method that I already know and have used many times... And I'm not done yet - so the jury is still out. But, hopefully, with practice this method will become as "easy" as the old one is for me. ;)
Regarding my Craftsy experience, I have to say that I'm liking it. The teacher is really good - she goes slowly and explains everything clearly. The camera angles are usually excellent. I like being able to re-play sections of the video over again and, the couple of times that I've left a question (tied to a spot on a video), the teacher got back to me very quickly.
Have you taken a class on Craftsy? Or some other video-based class? What did you think about it?
I really like the Craftsy format. I've signed up for several classes on there, though I've only completed two (the jeans and the couture dress, which I used as a reference while making my wedding dress instead of making the class project.) I'm sloooooowly working through a beginner knitting class, to make sure I taught myself right, and I've signed up for one on artisan breadmaking and one on bust adjustments in sewing, which I'm hoping to work on in the winter when I have a little more time. I love that there's no set start or end date to the class, so I can take it at my own pace--I've taken classes on Pattern Review before, and it was often hard for me to keep up with multiple jobs and other commitments getting in the way! And so far, the teachers have all been great.
ReplyDeleteHi Becky - I agree - the Craftsy format works much better than the Pattern Review format with fixed hours... And I'm taking this weaving one for much the same reason as your knitting one - to see if I taught myself right. :)
DeleteI signed up for the couture dress class too, but haven't started it yet - so many classes, so little time! ;)
Take care,
Gwen