Ep. 014 Knitting Right or Left Brain

Posted in Brain Function, Crochet, Knitting by teachingyourbraintoknit

Welcome to Episode 14: Is Knitting right or left brained?

Brainy Stuff starts at: 17:50

Behind the Redwood Curtain begins at: 32:20

What we’re learning from our knitting:

Margaret talks about her (right brained) knitting for the Crazy Triangle Crochet Shawl. She verrrrry loosely adapted the Sweet November Shawl by Guylaine Godin. The goal was a wide triangle with less open mesh but in fact, the shawl turned out deeper and less wide. Well, maybe next time. She used Crazy Zauberball in some unknown colorway.

After the podcast was recorded and after Margaret took photos of both shawls together, it seems clear that the two shawls are pretty much the same in width. However, the Sweet November is much more stretchy and uses about half the amount of yarn.

The Sweet November shawl (on top) compared to Margaret’s adaptation on bottom.

Catherine’s progress on her Meadowlark as of April 18, 2015

Catherine is making progress on her Sock Yarn Blanket by Shelley Kang and her Meadowlark Shibori Jacket (by Gina Wilde with Alchemy Yarns.) She also mentions her Rockefeller shawl by Stephen West.

Brainy Thing: Right and Left Brain

Most scientists dispute the older theories of the right and left brain (that the right hemisphere is creative, free-flowing, big picture and the left hemisphere is linear, logical and temporal) but think they might be useful metaphors. Margaret explains what they are and how they relate to our knitting. Some knitters identify as Left-brained knitters and delight in the math and the linear process. Others see themselves as Right-brained and enjoy spontaneity and free-form patterns or else something that allows them to be more in the flow mode. Even though everyone is using both sides of their brains, one mode may be more dominant than the other. Catherine mentions The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron as a seminal book on creativity and Right-brained function.

Also note, that in observance of National Stress Awareness Month, the Yarn Council of America has some special features on their website and a pattern for a Lemon stress ball by Twinkie Chan. Follow the action on #StichAwayStress.

Behind the Redwood Curtain: Blue Ox Millworks

640px-Eureka_CA_Blue_Ox_Millworks_Museum

Blue Ox Millworks in Eureka, CA

Blue Ox Millworks at number 1 “X” street in Eureka, CA is more than a place that uses 19th century tools to create authentic millwork for historic houses and business. It has a school for artisans, a program for veterans, and a community gathering place for special events and theatre. Recently it replicated the main carriage for Abraham Lincoln’s funeral hearse.

Photo of the original hearse used for Abraham Lincoln

Check out the Blue Ox here

and a video about it here.

A Knitting Tip

Catherine advises us to build a library of cast-ons and bind-offs that we can draw from for different projects: maybe a general medium stretch, a very stretchy and a firm version of each. She offers some ideas.

A Little Podcast Business

Our incentive for joining our Group on Ravelry continues. For the second 100 people we offer this skein of Venezia sport weight 70% merino and 30% mulberry silk, 307.5 yards from Cascade Yarns in Colorway 178 in a dusky teal. And don’t forget to put in your nomination for the date for “Take Your Knitting to Work Day” (and we’ll figure out something special for people who work at home.) Should it be Ravelry’s Birthday? Perry Klass’ birthday? (EZ’s birthday is in the summer when most students and teachers are off.)

Incentive for second 100 members who sign up in the group

2Apr2015

Ep. 013 Knitting and Brain Lobes and Waves

Posted in Brain anatomy & physiology, Knitting, Meditation by teachingyourbraintoknit

Welcome to Episode 13: Knitting and the Mechanical Brain or Brain waves on knitting, meditation, TV, reading and listening to audio books

Brainy stuff starts at:

Behind the Redwood Curtain starts at:

What we’re learning from our knitting:

Margaret shares that she’s learned a lot about following a chart and doing patterned knitting with knits, purls, twisted and cable stitches with two of Barbara Walker’s Treasury of Knitting patterns that were featured on Webs’ Ready, Set, Knit Charity KAL back in 2008. Margaret has knit two of the four squares (in seven years!) : Twin Trees and Candle tree. Find them on Ravelry here. Margaret used Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Copper and Squirrel.

Catherine finished her cowl made of Great Adirondack Yarn Company’s Well Dressed Sheep (cotton/rayon/metallic in chunky weight) in the Beach House colorway. She adapted a border design “Cabled Lace” from Leisure Arts’s 50 Fabulous Borders by Rita Weiss that she found at the Foggy Bottoms Yarn Store in Ferndale.

Catherine is working on Meadowlark Shibori Jacket by Gina Wilde in Alchemy Yarns Pagoda, Silken Straw and Sanctuary.

Brainy Thing: Brain lobes, brain waves and knitting

Catherine focuses on the mechanical aspects of the brain while knitting and reviews the different kind of knitting (from focused to meditation) and then she goes over some of the different lobes of the brain that are activated while knitting. She lists different brain waves that are activated during different activities including knitting, watching TV, meditation, reading and listening to audio books. Lots of fascinating material here and it raises many questions but we just need more research to answer them. Here are some links to look at: here and here.

http://www.eruptingmind.com/effects-of-tv-on-brain

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-neuroscience-of-your-brain-on-fiction.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Behind the Redwood Curtain: where the Arts are Alive

One evening a month, the businesses of Eureka, CA (First Saturdays of the month) and Arcata, CA (Second Fridays of the month) hold an open house featuring the arts — mostly visual and musical. Some places have bands or other music, snacks and wine. These celebrations are on different nights of the week so you can go to both each month.

Arts Alive in Eureka has a Facebook Page

and Arts! Arcata does too.

Knitting Tip

Catherine shares with us designer Josh Bennet’s tip that seams make good structured garments that will last. Also, 1×1 ribbing is more long wearing for heirlooms projects.

A Little Podcast Business

Catherine and Margaret want to start a campaign for a Bring Your Knitting to Work Day, complete with a “permission slip” that will explain to bosses and co-workers the benefits of knitting. Please go to the Ravelry Teaching Your Brain to Knit group page to nominate your suggestion for a good day to make it (preferably during when school is in session.)

Also, as an incentive to join the group, we are giving away a skein of Cephalopod Bugga! hand-dyed, sport weight 4 oz (400 yards) 70% superwash merino/20% cashmere/10% nylon yarn randomly to one of the first 100 members, randomly selected.

19Mar2015

Ep. 012 Knitting Fights Dementia

Posted in Brain health, Crochet, Knitting by teachingyourbraintoknit

Welcome to Episode 12: Knitting Fights Age-related Dementia

Brainy Stuff starts at:15:40

Behind the Redwood Curtain starts at:26:55

What we’re learning from our knitting:

Catherine found what she wanted to do with her Great Adirondack Yarn Company’s Well Dressed Sheep (cotton/rayon/metallic in chunky weight) in the Beach House colorway. She’s adapting a border design “Cabled Lace” from Leisure Arts’s 50 Fabulous Borders by Rita Weiss that she found at the Foggy Bottoms Yarn Store in Ferndale.

She also talks about making the Humboldt Squid, mythically known as the Kracken.

Inspired by that project, she finished up a jellyfish she’s been working on for awhile.

Both are from Hansi Singh’s Amigurumi Knits .

Catherine found the largest real jellyfish she’s seen around here recently on one of our beaches.

Margaret has gone crazy for the Lucci Yarns DK cotton tape yarn in luminescent colors and the Washcloth Wrapped Soaps (washcloth, border, and “ribbon”) created by Stitch Diva Jennifer Hansen who owns Stitch Diva Studios.

Margaret was wearing her Gallatin Scarf by Kris Basta in Hanelei Hand dyed yarn.

Brainy Stuff:

Studies are showing that knitting and other similar activities can cut the risk of age related dementia and Alzheimer’s disease although most reports are anecdotal and scientists say more studies need to be done.

You can hear Dr. Yonas Geda on this You Tube explanation.

Central Kentucky University publishes the Successful Aging Resource Guide and Greg Jicha MD and Sarah Tarrort MD discuss similar studies in the 2013 issue on page 6.

Even magazine reading and computer activities seem to help according to this article.

Behind the Redwood Curtain: Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Reserve

Located on an estuary, the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge is a stop on the International Pacific Flyway, which shelters and feeds birds as they migrate.

Knitting Tip:

Margaret suggests that on challenging projects, you chart out knitting or crochet instructions either formally (with the “official” symbols) or informally (with your own marks.)

2Mar2015

Metacognition and how it helps you knit

Posted in Knitting, Learning by teachingyourbraintoknit

Welcome to Episode 11

Brainy Stuff starts at:22:40

Behind the Redwood Curtain starts at: 32:05

What we’re learning from our knitting:

Margaret contrasts two scarf patterns –both of them beautiful and well written but one that was her perfect low concentration knitting and the other requiring high concentration. The one she completed was the free pattern Gallatin Scarf by Kris Basta whose company is KrisKrafter. She used Hanalei Hand Dyed Merino/bamboo worsted.

The scarf pattern that she is saving for another day when she has lots of high concentration time is the Silk Curved Scarf by Iris Schreier which was a Craftsy knit-a-long. Catherine loved the charts on this pattern.

Catherine is swatching (!) for her Meadowlark Shibori Jacket by Gina Wilde in Alchemy Pagoda and Silk Straw yarns. And she’s trying out different knitting stitches that will work with her vision of the ideal cowl for the Great Adirondack yarn. She’s also working on her Sock Yarn Blanket,

a free pattern by Shelley Kang, the Heathen Housewife. She has used leftovers and swapped for scraps including Knit in Color Smooshy, Socks that Rock, Opal,and Zauberball.

Brainy Thing: Metacognition

Metacognition is defined as thinking about thinking and when you use what you know about your learning process then you can learn new things more easily — like kitchnering lace or doing intarsia. Jennifer Livingston wrote about it in this paper and of course, Wikipedia always has something to say on everything including metacognition.

Behind the Redwood Curtain: The First Street Gallery

If it’s raining (and it often does here) or you want to take a break from spectacular natural vistas, then Margaret recommends the First Street Gallery in Eureka located on — First Street. The most recent time she visited she saw two exhibitions: small painting from the Cheech Marin collection, Chicanitas and Arte para la raza collected by the Royal Chicano Air Force.

Of course, you can’t get far from beautiful vistas. Across the street is the Eureka boardwalk, along Humboldt Bay.

Knitting Tip:

Catherine offers a knitting tip: when wet blocking your knitting, allow it to soak a full 20 minutes first.

Podcast Business:

As an incentive to join our Ravelry group, we are randomly selecting one of the first 100 members to win a skein of 400 yards of Cephalopod Bugga! sport weight 70/20/10 superwash merino/cashmere/nylon in Fishing Spider Colorway.

20Feb2015

Ep. 010 Reviewing your Knitting

Posted in Knitting, Learning by teachingyourbraintoknit

Welcome to Episode 10: Why is it worthwhile to review and categorize your knitting learning?

Brainy Stuff starts at: 25:40

Redwood Curtain starts at: 37:40

What we’re learning from our knitting:

Catherine learned a lot (and had fun) knitting Josh Ryks’ Scarfy Shenanigans. She got more of a sense of the sculptural understanding of knitting. She used two colors of Sanguine Gryphon (one was Cotton Stainer colorway) and some Becoming Art in the Twilight colorway

She also knocked out a pair of Magic 28 socks by Norma that she made for charity. She used scraps.

And she completed a second knitalong — Laura Aylor’s mystery knitalong that is now name Outlier . She used Noro yarn.

Margaret made a black and white striped hat for her grandson to coordinate with the pair of zebra socks she made for him earlier. She attached fringe along the back with a crochet hook and then un-plyed the fringe to make it more fluffy. She used Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick and Quick.

She also made him a pair of Morehouse Farms owl mittens.

And she made an irregular ribbed scarf out of Lion Brand cashmere. She learned that at least in cashmere, the trick of picking up and weaving up a dropped stitch has its limits. The pattern was inspired by the Professor’s Scarf by Gina Waters but don’t blame her for the results. Margaret was riding an exercise bike while knitting and early on lost track of the pattern.

Brainy Stuff:

We talked about the Review and Categorization aspects of learning and how that applies to knitting. We re-categorized and reviewed the Brainy segments in our past episodes.

Behind the Redwood Curtain:Arcata Waste Management and Wildlife Sanctuary

Photo from Wikipedia

People from all over the world come to see and study the Arcata Waste Management Plant and Wildlife Sanctuary. It is a great place to walk, bike ride or bird. (P.S. it’s healthy and doesn’t smell bad.)

Photo from Friends of Arcata Marsh website

Also check out the Friends of the Arcata Marsh, a local group who are very involved in the marsh. The site has lots of beautiful photos.

Knitting Tip:

You can get your paperback books spiral bound at Kinko’s (now FedEx Office) — Particularly useful for technique heavy books like Lara Neel‘s wonderful Sock Architecture.

Teaching Your Brain to Knit

A podcast about knitting, learning and your brain

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