Heartland Community College Classes

Hi all,

I’m teaching four (!) knitting classes at Heartland Community College this fall. They are:

• Learn to Knit
• Sweater Class
• Chart Reading
• Basic Brioche

Each course will have its own password protected post. The posts will be available only to registered students. I’ve had to assure the HCC Continuing Education Office that I won’t share class-specific information with people who aren’t registered for the course, and that seems fair. Both the community college and I want people to continue to want, need, and enroll in these types of classes. As far as I know (I asked), the continuing education office doesn’t have course-specific server space, so for now, I’m using this site as that platform.

I’m still planning to have posts about general techniques available without a password. I’m working on a public post about circular knitting and another about blocking. This information is also (or will be) available through the pattern-specific posts. I’ve been working on many posts simultaneously and I feel like my progress is frustratingly slow.

If you are helping edit or with the content/organization of the Steventon Shrug Pattern post (thank you!), that password is still the same. I’ve been adding all the updates to the Steventon Shrug to the post titled “Project Notes for the Steventon Shrug” so it is super long now. There are just a few more additions to that post and it will be complete. Eventually, all of that information for the Steventon Shrug pattern will be available on that one page, but I’m still trying to figure out the best way to copy, convert, and format while I’m trying to finish adding all of the information to the post. (It’s been so much work! Fun work, but really, I did not know what I was getting myself into!) If your password to THAT post, linked above, no longer works, please let me know, because I’m hoping that I can divide up the posts into public (no password), pattern-related and class related, each with a different set of passwords.

As an additional note, right now, the HCC classes are scheduled to be in person, however, they might be converted to remote learning via Zoom if (when??) the county slips back into Phase 3 or Phase 2. I’ve been working hard to make this possible (probable?) transition to remote learning easier on myself and still effective for the students. Part of my strategy is use this site as a resource in addition to the live Zoom meetings.

If that works well, I hope to offer my own patterns, content, and classes through this site and generate another revenue stream for this post-chemistry-career experiment that I’m doing. I’m still trying to figure out how I can make this knitting experiment profitable (well, at this point, I would settle for breaking even). It’s been a tough year for everyone I know in the fiber community. My community college classes were canceled. Stitches Midwest was cancelled/moved on-line. Stitches Midwest provided an important venue to sell my patterns. In the past, pattern sales from that venue were enough to support many of the costs associated with this new adventure (including the cost of this site subscription). Right now, everything about this experiment is unsustainable, but I’m hoping that it will turn around in the next 6-9 months.

In short, I value your continued support through comments on these posts, feedback on the pattern-specific pages, and your continued enrollment (in person or remotely) in the community college classes, and of course through pattern sales via my Ravelry store.

Stay healthy my friends!

Melinda