Creative Course 1
Alice Starmore’s Creative Course 1 subscription is designed to develop your creativity and crafting skills by means of KNITTING, FELTING & EMBROIDERING two types of hat – one with ear flaps and one with a round brim. As you follow the course you will also create numerous swatches that are miniature artworks in themselves. This course will show you –
• How to knit and felt both flat and three-dimensional pieces.
• How to use embroidery stitches creatively to achieve a wide variety of effects for your own original artworks.
• How to use a three-dimensional piece as a canvas for embroidery.
• How to make all of the six embroidered hats featured.
• How to make felted buttons, beads, spirals and twirls.
• How to make pompoms and cords.
• How to apply decorations to a hat tail.
The Creative Course 1 subscription is £48 and is open to you for a full year from purchase date so that you can learn at your own pace. To give an idea of timeline making a Fern Hat can easily be achieved within 7 days. All example hats can be comfortably made within the course of a year.It contains 9 hours of comprehensive video tutorials. You do not have to watch them all at once – they are presented in small sections, allowing you to easily find and watch the videos relevant to whichever aspect you are working on. This means that you can focus your attention before moving on to the next stage.
This course is suitable for all abilities, from beginner to expert. However, if you are a beginner knitter then you should first go to the free Video Tutorials section on the Virtual Yarns website for some basic knitting preparations. You will need to study the Long Tail Cast-on in the Cast-on Methods tutorial; the Knit & Purl tutorial; the Casting Off tutorial and the Tension tutorial for how to make and measure a Stocking Stitch swatch. Once you are comfortable and confident making a swatch and achieving an even tension you are ready to begin.
Depending on your personal objectives you can use this course in different ways. You can choose any, or all, of the following:
The Full Creative Experience The Felting Experience Make Any Specific Example Hat
After completing the course your felting and embroidery skills can be applied in many different artistic directions.
This course is entirely digital and contains no physical content. All course content is accessed online via our steek dot scot website so a computer and internet connection are essential to access the course. The workbook and worksheets can be viewed online, but are also provided in a form that is suitable for printing on a home printer.
The Creative Course is £48 for a year long subscription (1 year giving ample time to make all example hats, develop skills and experiment creatively). You can find the product by clicking below.
Creative Course 1 Prospectus
Flip through the prospectus above to see the final pieces that you can make using the skills learned in Creative Course 1. Use the fullscreen arrows to see the prospectus at fullscreen size.
Creative Course Yarn Pack
The Creative Course Yarn pack contains no instructions and is yarn only. It is designed to work alongside Creative Course 1.
The felted hat designs in Creative Course 1 have been made with Alice Starmore™ Hebridean 2 Ply pure new wool yarn. It is a unique artisan yarn which has been designed and made to ensure that it can be felted to perfection so that the correct sizes, shapes and effects can be achieved using the processes demonstrated in the video course. The yarn has also been designed to produce high definition and glowing results in embroidery stitches, as shown in the sample hats.
The Creative Course 1 yarn pack has been designed to give you a base from which to begin your creative journey. It contains the following –
100g of Alice Starmore™ Hebridean 2 Ply yarn in a main colour for making 1 hat and a swatch.
25g each of 6 colours of your choice of Alice Starmore™ Hebridean 2 Ply yarn. These colours can be used for a contrast brim (10g), embroidery and hat decorations such as buttons, beads, spirals, twirls and hanging cords.
All embroidery and hat decorations have been made using small amounts of Alice Starmore™ Hebridean 2 Ply. The following is a guide for planning your yarn pack colour choices –
For the very colourful hats such as the Croft Hat, which is embroidered with 11 colours, and the Moorland Hat, embroidered with 13 colours, use very small amounts of each shade – as little as 1 or 2 grams of each colour – so colour can be added to your yarn pack choices using leftover yarns from other projects. Other hats use fewer colours to great effect – for example the Fern Hat (which is shown below) uses 4 shades and the Sunburst Hat (shown above) uses just 3 shades.
The amount of yarn you will require will depend on how much embroidery and what type of stitches you use. As a guide, extensive embroidery in high relief stitches such as the Whin Sunburst Hat uses a total of 25g for the embroidery and bead and cord decorations, whereas the Moorland Hat which is extensively embroidered in lighter stitches uses a total embroidery amount of 11g. Small scraps and leftovers from other projects are ideal if you are planning to work embroidery using many colours. Aim to build a collection of colours to practise stitches and to work out images and colour combinations on swatches.
The Creative Course Yarn Pack is £39 and can be found by clicking below.
What do I need to complete this course?
Do I need a computer and internet access to use this course?
Yes, you will need a computer and internet connection, and also a printer, or access to a printer, if you wish to print out your workbook and worksheets (which is recommended).
What materials will I need to have ready at home to complete this online course?
1 Set of double-pointed 5mm needles or a circular 50cm-long 5mm needle.
1 Set of double-pointed 4.5mm needles.
1 Pair of 3.25mm needles for button and bead casings.
1 Pair of 3.75mm needles for spirals and twirls.
1 pair of 4mm needles.
A 3mm needle.
A 2.5mm needle.
A 5.5mm knitting needle.
A Size 18 tapestry needle.
A Size 20 tapestry needle.
Bodkin.
1mm diameter rubber cord (for making felted beads).
1 Pair of household gloves.
1 Bamboo Felting Mat – Minimum width 40cm and minimum length 50cm.
1 Polystyrene female head form.
1 bowl or basin (or 2 if you are not using a sink).
1 Block of pure unscented soap (preferably olive).
2 Hand towels.
1 Small dish cloth.
1 Small cylindrical glass or smooth plastic jar.
Tape Measure.
What yarn will I need for this course?
Alice Starmore™ Hebridean 2 Ply pure new wool yarn has been used for all the felted designs and swatches in this course. It is a unique artisan yarn which has been designed and made to ensure it can be felted to perfection using the processes demonstrated in the video class. No other yarns have been used for this course and no responsibilty can be taken if other yarns are used unsuccessfuly. Please note that highly processed yarns, superwash yarns, worsted yarns and any yarns containing fibre other than pure new wool will not felt successfully. Some woollen spun yarns may felt but the results can be coarse and unpleasant to the touch and there is no guarantee that the correct sizes, shapes and effects can be achieved.
Can I buy a yarn pack for this course?
Yes, you can buy a yarn pack in a choice of your own colours which includes 100g of Alice Starmore™ Hebridean 2 Ply yarn in a main colour, and 25g each of 6 other colours of Alice Starmore™ Hebridean 2 Ply yarn.
Purchase Information
Creative Course 1 is a digital online course containing video tutorials, imagery, a workbook and online learning support. If you buy Creative Course 1 an account will be created for you on our steek dot scot website and you will be able to access Creative Course 1 for one year. You can only use this course if you have a computer and internet access.
Customers have a statutory right to cancel an order up to 14 calendar days after ordering, provided the online content has not been accessed via account login. Once the course content is accessed the return period is automatically waived. You can find our Terms & Conditions here.
