INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED KNITTING at City Knits of Mt. Clemens
Sandie Oden adds new class for intermediate and advanced knitters. Saturdays from 12:30-2:30pm starting on Saturday, April 17, 2010 at the Mt. Clemens store. Skills to be explored include, but are not limited to: Fair Isle, Intarsia, Entrelac, Double knitting, Lace, Modular, and more.
City Knits is very fortunate to have such a wonderful staff and teachers. One of our teachers is Sandie Oden who teaches at the Mt. Clemens store. Sandie is certified as a Master Knitter through the Knitting Guild of America (TKGA). TKGA reports that there are 215 Master Hand Knitters across the country and only 10 Master Knitters in Michigan. City Knits is certainly fortunate to have one of them.
Sandie has been around the knitting community for a number of years but for those who do not know her, allow us to introduce her. Sandie has been teaching for 10 years, the last 2 years as a City Knits teacher. The "Princess Aurora" aran sweater published by Karabella yarns is Sandie's original design. Sandie began knitting at age 18. Sandie's motto is... that you are never too old to try to learn something new. She is living proof of that belief.
"When I started knitting here were no local yarn stores offering knitting lessons. The only knitting class available was a 4-week class offered through the local Continuing Ed. I continued to knit, learning through trial and error. I don't recommend this method of learning. My knitting would have been a lot better a lot sooner if I had a teacher looking over my shoulder guiding me along the way. I have been knitting for 50 years and in 2006 received the Master Knitter certification through The Knitting Guild Association (TKGA).
After graduating from high school, I worked in a law firm for several years before being hired by General Motors. I retired from GM 31 years later. Those 31 years were pretty productive in the learning department.
At 30 years old, I began ballet classes and discovered how much I enjoy dancing. Tap and jazz were natural additions. At age 40, while dancing on my toes, I was teaching ballet and tap in the evenings and weekends. Ballroom Dancing followed some years later. Additional classes include: piano, guitar (what a mistake that was!), archery, decoupage and sewing (an accomplished seamstress).
At age 50 I decided it was time to return to academic classes. I enrolled in the external program at Northwood University (while still working at General Motors) and earned my BS in Business Management in 1994."
Since her certification Sandie has produced numerous knitted and crocheted works, many of which are original designs. Fortunately, she lets us display them at the Mt. Clemens store before giving them to their lucky recipient. 
