Vanessa Ives Mystery Shawl | Teaching Your Brain to Knit

Welcome to Episode 31: Knitting, Life-long Learning, Your Brain: Data from the Nun Project

Brainy Thing starts at: Behind the Redwood Curtain:

What we’re learning from our Knitting

Catherine gives an update on the Vanessa Ives Mystery Shawl By Bunny Muff and how even Michael’s Big Box store failed in providing Japanese beads that would work for it.

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While she’s waiting for her delivery of beads, she’s working on Baby Socks by Bianca Boonstra for the Afghan for Afghans project. The socks are made from Treadsoft Yarns that Catherine dyed with Dharma dyed goods._

She’s also been working up some scrubbies for the Dishcloth group she belongs to. The pattern is _Little Scrubbie by Arctic Trails Abstract and made out of leftover Knit Picks Lindy Chain and AllHemp 6 lux.

Margaret tells the “amazing” story of finding a hand dyed indigo boucle cotton at Amazing Yarns in Emerald Hills, CA. She knit the Miami Vice pattern by 3 bags fulled or Hillary Designs and learned of ways to fix the dye from John Marshall of John Marshall Works in Fabric who was at the Natural Fibre Festival in Arcata in September.
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Brainy Thing

Another reason we crafters should continue to learn? Catherine talks about the Nun Study, a longitudinal study of Sisters of Notre Dame which indicates that lifelong learners have a lower rate of symptoms of dementia even if there are pathological signs of it in the brain after death. Also, those with stronger language skills fared better in terms of preventing dementia.

Behind the Redwood Curtain

Margaret shares information about the mission of the Friends of the Dunes’ Humboldt Coastal Nature Center.

Hands-on display at Humboldt Coastal Nature Center

More hands-on opportunities at the Humboldt Coastal Nature Center

Path leading to the trails at the Humboldt Coastal Nature Center

Stamps House at the Humboldt Coastal Nature Center.

Walk outside of Stamps House at the Humboldt Coastal Nature Center.

Knitting Tips (technical problems prevented the recording of this.)

Podcast Business

Welcome to Episode 27: Reading/Writing Learning Preference and Your Knitting

Brainy thing: 25:10 Redwood Curtain: 33:50

What We’re Learning from Our Knitting

Margaret concludes (at least for now) her cotton sock yarn comparison with Feel Good Yarns sock yarn knitted in a generic sock pattern and using the new-to-her Fish Lips Kiss Heel by Sox Therapist in Feel Good Yarn Company sock yarn.

Below, she compares Feel Good Yarn with Cascade Fixation and Cobasi by HiKoo, which is currently her favorite.

Hi Koo CoBaSi	Cascade Fixation	Feel Good Yarn Silver Spun
US 1	US 3	US 3
$7.50 / 50 gm	$5.50 /5o gm	$48 42 /86 gms, 400 yards
Very stretchy	Very stretchy	Very stretchy
Pleasant feel	Bumpy feel, thick	Pleasant feel
Hard to weave in	Okay to weave in	Fine to weave in
After washing, not so hard to weave in	Stays plumb and soft	Strand of silver (don’t see it) conductive, inhibits odors, inhibit bacteria, thermal, suggested for those with diabetes, arthritis, sensitive skin American made

Catherine talks about her painful learning from the Mona8pi or Bunny Muff’s Vanessa Ives Mystery shawl out of Woole’s Yarns Creations Color Changing Cotton.

Brainy Thing: Who put the “R” in VAK?

In earlier episodes, we’ve talked about the VAK learning style – Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic preferences for taking in information. An updated version of that is the VARK system. The “R” stands for the Reading/Writing preference. While many people including educators find these systems useful, other criticize the research that has been done.

http://easychangeworks.com/articles-nlp/markova-quiz.htm

http://teachertools.londongt.org/?page=VAK

http://easychangeworks.com/articles-nlp/markova-1-intro.htm

http://learningstylesevidence.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-meta-analysis-of-vak-pre-vark.html

http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2012/05/fleming-vakuous-learning-styles.html