Becca J Norman

Are you stuck on a project and just need some quick tips? Do you not even know what you need to know? Book this free consultation to get a little more guidance and see how I can custom-tailor a way to meet your needs.

If you are a total beginner, please contact me prior to scheduling so I can steer you toward the right yarn and knitting needles for your needs. For beginner children's and pre-teen's lessons, I highly recommend that a parent/guardian learn along with the child. Not only will this enable you to help them at home, but learning alongside your child is a great opportunity to strengthen your bond and build trust in the relationship. If you already know how to knit but need some help with a specific technique or work-in-progress, this is for you too! You can tell me a little about your experience and needs in the booking form, which will help me prepare for your lesson. When you're really lost or just starting out knitting, it's hard to get very far in just one hour. With a longer lesson, we can make a lot of progress. I will work with you to determine what your goals are and tailor a plan to guide you toward it. Select your desired duration when booking. The default meeting place will be set to Ediya Coffee in Asan Techno Valley, but if you have somewhere else that works better for you (still in the Pyeongtaek/Asan area) let me know. The address of Ediya is: 충남 아산시 둔포면 아산밸리남로 77 (You can paste it into Naver)

Yarn stores near Camp Humphreys? There seems to be an endless number of amazing yarn stores in Seoul, but for those of us in Korea who live outside of Seoul, there are less options. People are always asking if there are any yarn stores near Camp Humphreys. There aren't many. Still, we do have some that are closer. One of the good ones is Good Wool in Cheonan, which is a 40-minute drive from Camp Humphreys. When I ran out of yarn halfway through a project and couldn't find it on Coupang, I knew just where to go. Know before you go: Small businesses in Korea are often run by one single person, and sometimes that person is running other businesses simultaneously, or simply has things they need to do outside the store. This means that sometimes you'll go into a store that has been left unsupervised, or simply find it locked up during business hours. I was aware that Good Wool falls into this category, but decided to chance it. Sure enough, when I got there an hour after the posted opening time, It was closed. The phone number (041-555-9287) is prominently displayed on the window, so I took a deep breath and dialed it. My Korean isn't very good these days, and the traffic whizzing by me was loud, but the owner managed to get me to understand that he could be there in 30 minutes. Key takeaway: Call before you go, and if you don't speak any Korean, ask a friend to help you. What's it like inside? It's a fairly small space that is packed full. There are a wide variety of yarns in all kinds of textures. I found my lace weight wool blend right where I remembered it. To list some of the other yarn types you can find there: cotton crochet thread faux fur macrame cord jumbo tee shirt yarn gradient colorways Korean paper yarn all weights of yarns big spools of ribbon so many colors! The brands YarnArt and Kartopou are featured heavily. The yarn is kept in the plastic sleeves on the shelves to keep it clean, and all the prices are clearly displayed. You just might need to sound out the names in Hangeul. Behind the counter are a lot of knitting needles and crochet hooks and other tools. You can also find jars of buttons by the checkout. Location details: Store address [NAVER Maps] Good Ul 32 Daeheung-dong Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si Chungcheongnam-do https://naver.me/xgTnyIXv Phone number: 041-555-9287 (calling to make sure they're open is recommended) Closest parking lot [NAVER Maps] Cheonan Station Parking Lot Electronic Vehicles Charge Center 57-1 Daeheung-dong Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si Chungcheongnam-do https://naver.me/FVBQzmc1 Parking lot pricing as of June 2026 Translation: under 10 minutes is free, 10-minute increments are ₩400, 30 minutes is ₩1,000, and the maximum for a whole day is ₩10,000. I can't guarantee every foreign credit card will be accepted, but I did succesfully use my Robinhood Gold Visa card. (Sign up for Robinhood with my link and we'll both pick our own gift stock.) If you are trying to exit and none of your cards will work, there should be a button you press to call for help. We've all gotten stuck at least once without Korean payment methods at unmanned kiosks, but most of the time they will just let you out. (Please make an effort to pay, though) Subway travel The store is a short walk from Cheonan Station on Line 1, which makes this very easy to get to if you live near a subway station. From the station, you'll go out Exit 1. Summary In short, I consider this to be a workhorse of a yarn shop - no frills, but it delivers by always having what I need. Let's keep it in business!

I knitted English style for a really long time before switching to continental. I have another blog post about that where I go into all the details about how to hold the yarn that you can check out, but today we are focusing on PURLING. It was awkward at first. For a while after I switched to knitting continental, I still struggled to find a comfortable and efficient way to purl. I devised a method where I would kind of pinch the yarn for each stitch, but I didn’t really love it. It wore my hand out faster and I didn’t feel like my stitches were even. New and Improved Method I kept trying and once again had to slow down to try some new things. Finally I found a method that I like! It’s easier on my hands, gives me more even stitches, and works a lot better when I’m switching back and forth between knit and purl, like for seed stitch and ribbing. I hold the needle same way as I do for knitting continental, with my hand kind of closed. Some people, use an open hand. I don't like; it if you like, it cool. For each purl stitch, my right needle is coming out under the working yarn. As my right needle comes back up around, my left index finger is kind of pulling it down gently to guide it into place. My whole hand is controlling the tension and my pinky is letting in more slack as needed. Purls looser than knits? It's really common for your purling to be a little looser. Mine is, actually, but if you think it's a too big of a difference, you can try to push down a little more on the yarn as you're purling. If it stays a pretty big problem, there’s an easy solution, at least for when you’re working flat in stockinette stitch. You can just use a size smaller needle for your purl rows. An example would be using a size 9 needle for the knit rows and size 8 for the purl rows. I don’t find that it’s a problem for stitch patterns that use a combination of knits and purls within each row. Find what works best for you. Like I always say, experiment with a few different ways of holding the yarn. I hope that this gives you a few more options. Play around with it; try not to collapse through your wrists too much; don't hold your hands too tight. When you find that sweet spot, you'll know!

Right Hand or Left There are many different ways that knitters hold their yarn while they're knitting. The two most common being Continental and English style. (sometimes referred to as picking or throwing) I'm going to show you today how they both work, and why continental ended up working a lot better for me. English Style When I first learned how to knit, I held the yarn in my right hand, which is called 'throwing' or 'English style.' I recently heard someone call this American style, which was new for me. I want to say: I've seen plenty of Knitters knit very gracefully with English style, but I personally was never able to get the hang of the fancy stranding without having to let go of the right needle. That honestly was the biggest problem for me; in letting go of the needle every time I wrapped the yarn around to make a new stitch, either the needle would fall out, or I had to have it propped up on my legs or a pillow or something and it was just really really awkward. An example of English style knitting I made English style work for me and I knitted plenty of really cool things, but the more I knitted, and the faster I got, and then when I started using circular needles more often, I wasn't able to use my leg to hold up those needles and I got a lot less graceful. So finally, I decided to slow down a little bit and learn how to knit with the yarn in my left hand. Crossing Over I switched over in the middle of a project -- I don't know why. I was pregnant; who knows. At first it made my stitches super tight, then looser, and then they finally evened out, but my gauge was all over the place during this pattern. It looked terrible when it got done, so I do not recommend switching from one to the other mid-project. Finish one thing and then just do a couple of swatches like you did when you were first knitting, and practice that way. It was awkward at first, just like everything when you're learning, but once I finally got the hang of it, I was hooked! (I flubbed at the very beginning of the video and said English style is called “picking.” I meant to say throwing but didn’t even catch my mistake until it was too late to change it. I also messed up the graphics that pop up at the beginning of each section. Oh my, so embarrassing! How I Hold the Yarn This is how I situate the yarn around my fingers for Continental knitting, I played around with a lot of different ways to hold the yarn and wrap it around various fingers before I finally landed on the right method for me. I put my hand over the yarn and then I scoop my pinky under it and wind it around; once if it's a roughish yarn and twice if it's really slippery. Then I flip my hand back over palm down, get my index finger under it, and just grasp the needle. Knitting Continental When I do a stitch, rather than throwing the yarn around like I was doing before, I just pick it. That's why this is called picking. It's a much smaller motion of the hands, which will cause less fatigue and strain, which is always a good thing. Insert into the stitch - I do kind of bring the left index finger around, but it's a really slight motion. Then the right needle is actually grabbing the yarn. I use my thumbs a lot to hold the stitches in place while I'm knitting, to keep them all from sliding off. Then whenever I need a little more slack in the yarn, I just stretch out my left pinky, and that helps me to keep a more even tension on the yarn, which in turn creates neater looking stitches. I'm dying to know how you were taught! Leave me a comment and let me know if you were taught English or Continental, or something else; there are a lot of other interesting ways to hold the yarn too. Taking Good Care of Those Wrists and Hands When I was in cosmetology school, they ground into us from the very beginning not to work with your hands balled up and your wrists turned under. So, say you're cutting someone's hair and your hands are turned under all day, that's not very kind to your wrists; you're gonna set yourself up for carpal tunnel syndrome and then you won't be able to work anymore. Well, it's the same risk for knitting. If you're knitting and you're holding your needles under, and your wrists are collapsed the carpal tunnel area is going to get crowded and possibly inflamed, and then if you start getting pain and tingling in your arm, that's no good! The Importance of Posture In my early 20s, when I was still doing hair full time and knitting every night, like any wild 20 year old, I started having those symptoms. So I had to really slow down and not worry about knitting so fast. Relax your wrists and lean back; you want to make sure your shoulders are back and your chest is open. A lot of the time I'll find myself hunching over, just because, I don't know. I'm a huncher. So shoulders back, chest open so you can breathe, cross your legs if you need to, whatever. You want your whole upper half of your arms to be relaxed. I could knit much longer this way before my hands wore out than I could when I was throwing. You'll notice I didn't cover purling continental style, but I've got a whole other blog on that right here.

Meet the dedicated team that takes care of business at Becca J Norman. Team Members Becca Norman CEO Becca Norman is the head honcho. She works hard to keep the business in line with the company values. Read More Becca Norman Customer Service Becca Norman is wholeheartedly committed to providing you with the best experience possible. Read More Becca Norman Creative Director Becca Norman's imagination is responsible for everything you see around here. You're welcome? Read More Becca Norman Knitting Teacher Becca Norman heads up the tutorials you see on the blog and is the instructor in our classes. Read More Becca Norman Web Designer Becca Norman worked way too hard building this site. She's pretty proud of herself. Read More Becca Norman Pattern Designer Becca Norman started designing knitting patterns a long time before publishing any. Read More The Skin Care Team

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Schedule a private knitting lesson with Becca J Norman near Camp Humphreys, South Korea. Available in Pyeongtaek or Asan. In-Person Lessons In-person lessons with a teacher are the best way to start knitting. I offer lessons in the Camp Humphreys area (Pyeongtaek and Asan, South Korea). For group class requests or if my schedule doesn't suit you, please contact me via the form below, and I'll do my best to accommodate! Private Knitting Lesson Customized help, for one or two hours Read More 1 hr - 2 hr From 30 US dollars From $30 Request to Book Contact me * First name Last name Phone * Email Write a message Submit Things you need to get started knitting: