Marie Wallin is a renowned knitting and crochet designer with an international following. She is also an enthusiastic, sympathetic and inspirational tutor and her courses at the Watermill win universal praise from our guests. Here’s what one of them said about Marie’s knitting week here in 2018: “Thank you for making a brilliant week of knitting even better. As usual, the Watermill was amazing with wonderful food, great room and wall-to-wall sunshine.”

Marie was formerly Head Designer for Rowan and over the eight years she enjoyed joined the Rowan team, she built up a global reputation for her beautiful patterns, colourwork and stitch designs. In 2013, she started her own design company, but continues a close relationship with Rowan. She says: “I love to put colour together to create interesting fabric designs and to create beautiful knitwear that I hope everyone will love to wear.”

For your week at the Watermill Marie will bring two fascinating projects for you to knit and/or crochet.

Carol Meldrum is a renowned textile designer and author of many popular knitting and crochet titles. She says: “I've been passing on my skills and knowledge for more than 20 years, and, just as much as teaching them, I have learnt an awful lot from the workshop participants themselves. To me the most important thing is that folk have a good experience, it can be as hands-on or -off as they want -- I'm there for them!”

Carol’s workshop at the mill will show you to elevate your knits from homemade to handmade, in particular with cable stitch and sequence knitting. She will work with you on a couple of special projects during the week, and also show you how you can adapt patterns to suit your own size and shape.

Praise for Carol's knitting tuition: “Carol's a great tutor, passing on her tips and techniques. She's really helped me improve my knit and crochet skills.”

Debbie Abrahams has been designing and teaching handknitted textiles for more than 20 years and is a specialist in the field of colour work and beading. Throughout her entire career she has worked alongside renowned handknit company Rowan Yarns, both as a Designer and a Design Consultant for the brand. She has tutored workshops across the UK, Europe and USA.

She is best known for her Mystery Blanket and Cushion Clubs which have been become a global success with more than 1,000 knitters from all over the world signed up to her annual projects: "Blanket squares are the perfect vehicle for my designing, giving me the freedom to explore colour, texture and embellishment within a set number of stitches and rows for each block – it’s just pure adventure!"

On her 2019 Watermill course you will be working with Debbie on a specially designed project that will incorporate several different knitting techniques, including intarsia, knitting with beads, surface embroidery and textured stitches. You can find more about Debbie on her website: www.debbieabrahams.com