Monthly Archives: December 2016

Ep. 052 How Gratitude Impacts Your Brain

Posted in Knitting by

Welcome to Episode 52:  How practice of gratitude not only affects your mood but also changes your brain

Brainy Thing:   11:37  Behind the Redwood Curtain:  24:21

What We’re Learning from our Knitting:

Catherine has declared “Hat Day” by knitting Marsha McCormack’s “Easy Watch Cap With A Twist” http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/easy-watch-cap-with-a-twist.  Marsha designs under the name of Lena’s Legacy Hand Knits, honoring her grandmother who taught her to knit.   The pattern is free.  watch-cap-with-twistCatherine also knit the “Countless Baby Hat”  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/countless-baby-hata free top down pattern by Cindy Davies that features a little i-chord twist at the top.

countless-baby-hat

Margaret practiced working with double pointed needles on a free eyeball pattern http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Eyeballs__D55679220.html  featured on the Knit Picks site and designed by Stana D. Sortor. eyeballs

Brainy Thing:  Gratitude Changes Your Brain

For some time people have recognized that actively practicing gratitude can improve our moods but Catherine has found research that shows that gratitude practice can change our brains for the better.     Research by Glenn R Fox et al reports their research:  http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01491/full.  Also cited by Catherine is this research:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4588123/

Behind the Redwood Curtain:  Bull Kelp  aka Bull Whip Kelp etc.

bull-kelpMargaret tells the tale about how sharing her grandson’s “screen time” of the Octonauts, she learned more about the plant life behind the Redwood Curtain.  Giant Kelp Forest episode on the children’s TV show Octonauts:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szJd0rGJUTA  and source on what it looks like when it washes up on shore:  http://www.seaweedsofalaska.com/species.asp?SeaweedID=47

Knitting Tip:

kelly-mosquitoYou can stuff tiny places in your knitting with a mosquito clamp.  http://www.surgical-instrument-pictures.com/instrument-index-kelly-mosquito.html 

A Little Podcast Business:

Learn-along 2016
bamboo-yarn

Links:

Website (you’re on it)   https://teachingyourbraintoknit.com/ for show notes, photos of our knitting and crochet projects, Behind the Redwood Curtain places and things and anything else we decide to post.
Today in Teaching Your Brain to Knit how gratitude not only changes your attitude but changes your brain, Catherine declares Hat Day, Margaret learns knitting techniques by knitting eyeballs, how a children’s television show can lead to understanding your own environment, and re-purposing surgical instruments into knitting tools.

Ep. 051 Exercise and the Brain

Posted in Knitting by

Welcome to Episode 51:  What exercise can do for the Brain

Brainy Thing:  27:30     Behind the Redwood Curtain: 32:45

What We Are Learning from Our Knitting:

Margaret was inspired by the  Maya hat and mittens  designed by Theresa Schabes
Viking Norway Nordlys which is a thick fingering weight 75% superwash wool 25% nylon single loosely plied yarn.  What is striking about the yarn is the intense colors.   They have long irregular stripes that are what I call a true gradient  — they seem to blend into each other unlike some gradients that just seem to strop abruptly and switch to a different color.maya-hat
Catherine finished her small projects and started another  Bunnymuff’s Mystery Knit-along for September  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sept-mkal-2016.   She’s using Wolle’s Yarn Creations gradient yarn in peach and sand color which she finds easier to knit than she did before.   Practice makes better!sept-mkal

 

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Brainy Thing:

In addition to increasing oxygen to the brain, exercise bolsters brain health in a number of ways.  Margaret reports on this.  http://qz.com/592569/a-neuroscientist-says-theres-a-power…

Behind the Redwood Curtain

The city of Arcata in 2012 taxed excessive utility use as a measure to reduce illegal marijuana grows in residential houses.

Knitting Tip:

Rolenstone on our Ravelry group says that you can use recycled bleach wipes container to hold yarn (be sure to rinse out thoroughly.)

Links:

Ravelry Teaching Your Brain to Knit Group  http://www.ravelry.com/groups/teaching-your-brain-to-knit
website https://teachingyourbraintoknit.com/ for show notes, photos of our knitting and crochet projects, Behind the Redwood Curtain places and things and anything else we decide to post.
Today on Teaching Your Brain to Knit: Learn how Exercise can improve your brain in many ways, Do you always need a class or a tutorial  to learn new techniques, will repeated practice with a challenging yarn can increase your skill, How the city of Arcata found an innovative way to increase the availability of housing, and a tip on how you can upcycle a wipes contain to become a useful yarn tool
ETA