Craftsy Class Review

I like to call myself a knitter, but let's be honest, I barely qualify as one. I can make a pretty mean scarf, but that's about it. Reading patterns, increasing, decreasing... yeah, not so much. So when Craftsy extended the opportunity to take one of their online classes, I jumped at the chance to improve my knitting knowledge. 
I chose to take a class called "Knit Lab". Taught by Stephanie Japel, this class is perfect for beginners. It teaches the very basics, such as casting on and basic knit and purl stitches, so it's ideal for someone who has never picked up a pair of needles before. However, it also goes beyond that; the class also teaches increasing, decreasing, buttonholes, seaming, and more. This is great for someone like me who has basic knitting skills but wants to know more. 
The class is taught in a video format, divided into 16 lessons. Some lessons are fairly short, such as the casting on lesson, while other lessons can take over an hour. However, because it's a video, you can stop and playback as many times as you like. There's even a nifty "30 second playback" feature that rewinds the last 30 seconds of the video; this is great when you have a pair of needles and yarn in your hands and you don't want to scroll back through the video to catch that last little bit!
There were lots of things that I really enjoyed about taking this class. The instructor, Stephanie Japel, is fantastic. She has a fun and easygoing personality that really comes through in the lessons. She is very knowledgeable and gives lots of great tips. The videos themselves are super-clear and the close-ups of the work are outstanding. You can really watch how Stephanie makes her stitches. For a visual learner like me, this is key.
Another thing I liked is the opportunity for interaction. You can type in your own notes about the video. You can ask questions about the video and the instructor and other people who take the class can reply. You can also upload pictures of your finished projects to the class gallery!   My only problem with the class is that it's almost too much information! It is a little intimidating at first, especially when you see that some of the lessons are an hour long. However, I just had to keep reminding myself that I could start and stop at any time. I will definitely have to watch some of the lessons several times to get it all to sink in.    I would definitely recommend this or any of the Craftsy classes. There are so many to choose from, including paper crafts, food crafting, sewing, and quilting, that there's bound to be one that you are interested in!

Click here for Craftsy's extensive catalog of classes! Happy learning!

 

Disclosure: This class was provided free of charge by Craftsy for the purposes of a review.