Nihon Amimono (knitting) Culture Association, also known as Japanese Knitting Culture Association – what is this you ask? Japanese NAC is one of the most active knitters organizations and their Nihon Vogue training program and certificates have been recognized by the Japanese Minister of Education since 1961. Currently NAC has approximately 400 branch offices and 30,000 active members in Japan. In 40+ years, NAC has trained over 50,000 knitting instructors.

I am lucky to be one of the 15 students in the very first certification class to be held in the United States. Jean Wong, a certified Nihon knitting instructor, is traveling from her home in Canada for the next year to teach a Level One Certification course (there are 6 levels). Our course is being held every six weeks for a year, 4 lessons each time over a weekend at the beautiful home of Suzanne Pederson, an organizer of the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat. Jean has been a favorite instructor for the last two years at this retreat.

This is a very serious rigorous knitting course. Students will have to attend 100 hours of training and complete 9 sweaters. Our instructor, when going through her training in Taiwan, doubled up on her classes. She actually quit her job to make sure she got everything done. She met twice weekly and finished a 4 year course in 2 years.

We are all so excited to be a part of this unique opportunity.. Our first weekend of classes was fantastic, and we are forming our own chat group to help each other between lessons. I can only speak for myself, but I was unsure of what I would be getting out of this class. I had the classic attitude of do I have to start with level one! I’ve been knitting and teaching for years! The answer is a definite yes. This way of knitting is more detailed oriented. I have already learned quite a few different ways to make my garments more professional looking – and fit!! I never knew in all my years of knitting that the shaping for my front armhole should be different from the shaping in my back armhole.