Knitting Teacher Interview: Angela Davis (alittlebird from Ravelry)

As an add-on to my series of posts about getting started as a local needlecrafts teacher, I’m virtually interviewing some teachers I’ve met online.

Today’s interview is with Angela Davis, also know as alittlebird on Ravelry.  Angela is based in Portland, Oregon, and we are in several groups together on Ravelry.

Angela’s bio is pretty interesting (and impressive).  She has a background in the music business and has taught rock stars to knit.  (Here is where my imagination runs wild, thinking of all the rock stars whose bad boy/bad girl images could be damaged by Angela’s pictures of them knitting booties in the back of a tour bus.)  She also established a knitting for charity club at a Los Angeles high school and has knitted props for AMC’s Mad Men.  It doesn’t hurt that she shares a name with one of America’s most awesome feminist activists.

This summer Angela will be keeping busy teaching three classes at Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene and four classes at the Sock Summit in Portland.  If you are in Oregon in June or July, you owe it to yourself to check out one of her classes!

UC: What first inspired you to teach knitting?

Angela: I suppose that my inspiration to teach knitting comes from being the oldest child in my family and having always loved bossing people around! Seriously, I have always loved teaching my friends and family any new craft that I have learned. I have worked in the music business for many years, so that has meant a lot of national and international travel — being in very close quarters with people for long, long periods of time. Eventually the most desperately bored ask me to teach them how to knit! So initially I taught a lot of people one-on-one. Right about the time that my travel schedule slowed down, my friend Samantha asked me to teach classes at her shop, Abuelita’s Knitting and Needlepoint in South Pasadena (Los Angeles), CA. I immediately panicked and decided that I needed some sort of teacher training and credential, so I signed up for the CYCA Certified Hand Knitting Instructor course.

UC: Has teaching knitting impacted your own personal crafting? If so, how?

Angela: Teaching knitting has definitely impacted my personal crafting, and in a good way. Rather than it taking up all of my precious crafting time, it has helped expand it! I really do make time to craft every day. In addition to knitting I like to crochet, spin, weave, sew, embroider, and hook rugs, and I am an aspiring quilter. I am going to need to live for a long, long time to master all these other things, but I think that teaching knitting has enabled me to meet and make friends with crafters who are very talented in all of these areas and more. They are all inspiring and great resources. An extra hour or two in each day would be helpful…

(UC comment: I could use about an extra five hours a day, but will happily share the two extra with Angela.)

UC: Do you have plans for expanding your teaching? What goals do you have for the next year (if any)?

Angela: I do have plans to expand my teaching. My goal for the next year is to get my website finished and to figure out a way to reach and teach teens and young adults. I love teaching that demographic how to knit-to-fit and how to enjoy some freedom with their own fashion sense through knitting. Plus, I see them having such a great interest in the whole DIY movement. While I can’t quite imagine the Jersey Shore girls participating in a Sheep-To-Sweater contest, I do think that many of the new generation of knitters are very adventurous and will not be content to only knit cookie cutter projects from commercial yarn. I am also interested in teaching in more non-traditional settings. There are so many possibilities.

UC: You are CYC certified. What would you say about CYC certification (pro or con) to someone deciding if they should get certified?

Angela: I found the CYCA certification very helpful for several reasons. The instruction is geared toward helping us understand different teaching and learning styles, how to adapt our teaching in a variety of settings, and to the nuts and bolts of lesson planning and professionalism. The notebook and samples required in the course are a handy reference tool for teaching. The completion of the course and having the credential gave me the confidence to move from teaching private lessons and yarn shop classes to teaching at fiber festivals and conferences. There are so many resources to help us become more skilled knitters, but this is the one resource that I have found that is specifically designed to help us become good knitting teachers.

(UC comment: Angela did a great job of summing up the advantages of the CYC knit or crochet teacher certification program.  If you are considering certification, check out my post about needlecraft teaching credentials.)

UC: What is your favorite thing to teach?

Angela: I love teaching beginners! There is just something so exciting about helping someone learn to knit and then watching them take the ball and run with it. My First Sock is a great class too because knitting a sock is kind of a rite of passage for beginning knitters.

UC: What are you hoping no one will ask to learn?

Angela: Hmmm. I can’t think of anything that I hope that no one will ask me to teach them. If we have the time, comfortable chairs, good lighting, and the right materials, I will give just about anything a go. Oh, except for nupps! I knit continental (German) style, and trying to teach nupps to throwers (English) style knitters will be the death of me. I just can’t get my own head and hands around how to do that without “picking.”

UC: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Angela: I love being with or being in touch with other knitting teachers. It is kind of like being in a great international sorority. Anyone who teaches someone else to knit is already a teacher. And there is so much room for all of us to be as ambitious – or not – as we like.

(UC comment: So true!  I love meeting up with other teachers on Ravelry.  Some great groups for this are CYC Certified Instructors Program, Crochet Instructors Lounge, and Knitting Teachers.)

Angela was also kind enough to share a picture of her knitting journal.

Pretty fancy.  It definitely puts my scrap paper notes to shame.  But it also inspires me to write a post about project journals – coming soon!

Tags: alittlebird, angela davis, black sheep gathering, interview, knitting, mad men, nupps, ravelry, sock knitting, sock summit