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

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.  Catherine 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.

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.

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/

Margaret 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

10 things you can do with Bull Kelp:  https://oceans52.wordpress.com/2015/03/21/10-cool-things-you-can-do-with-bull-kelp/

Monterey Bay Aquarium:https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animal-guide/plants-and-algae/bull-kelp

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

Learn-along 2016

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.