The Distinguished Designer Franklin Habit

The Distinguished Designer Franklin Habit spent a little time with us at the Yarn Thing Podcast with Marly Bird and for that we are always grateful, because he is a very busy fellow.

Franklin says he started knitting in college early 90’s and when the big revival happened where Julia Roberts put a popular face to the craft and the Stitch and Bitch books came out. About that time he began his blog. He named it Panopticon, because he writes from his view, and had initially posted also about his love of photography.

While he is thought of as a designer, he doesn’t consider himself a designer, his passion about knitting really comes through in his teaching and his presentations. He puts a lot of thought into the classes and presentations, making them fun and adventurous as well as informative and challenging. He is stunned to have students who are well-versed in Lace Knitting come to his classes on that subject because they heard and are interested in the history he’s gathered. His presentation list includes The History of the Knitting Pattern (which is a relatively new invention), Weldon’s Impractical Magic (the cool and silly look at a 19th craft publisher) and 5 Women, 5 Shawls (which is a personal sharing of the women that impacted his creative journey).

You can follow his blog also he has an active teaching schedule, and he’s active in Facebook. Here also is his designer page in Ravelry.  He will be teaching at STITCHES Midwest (they are almost full!) and will be doing the 5 Women, 5 Shawls presentation. (Note from Tammy: if you register for anything at Stitches, you are eligible without cost to attend the presentation, but it’s handy for making sure there are enough chairs if you register!) He will also be at Camp STITCHES in November, which takes place in Albuquerque, NM.

If you can’t possibly travel to where he’s teaching, he does have a Craftsy class (this is Marly’s link) and another one will be filmed soon! The current class shares techniques in knitting lace, both the knitted on and the edges that are knit as part of your work. He did give us the hint that the next class is NOT Knitting.  He has taught on cruises, the last one with Melissa Leapman, the next in just a few weeks from Seattle and into Alaska with Barry Klien, mentioned as something to watch for!

Another place to find Franklin is his articles with Lion Brand Yarn blog (this link is to the most recent, it happens about once a month) and in Knitty (I don’t think this was mentioned today, but it is something I watch for). He also has a project with Skacel, which sounds like a wonderful adventure. He is going to take their products and show you what happens, good or bad, when he works with it.

If you’d like to hear his previous visit from April 2013, CLICK HERE.

If you missed hearing this live it is still available as an archive: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/yarnthing/2015/05/26/the-distinguished-designer-franklin-habit or in iTunes!

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