In the future, once I am done with the projects I am currently working on, I would like to work on some other patterns. I think that making socks would be really cool, but I’ve been told that the heel is really hard to do. Also, in order for the socks to be useful I would need to use a very thin yarn which would then take a long time to knit up.
I think something like this “Cool Mist” sock pattern from Ravelry would be really great to do someday. I know that there are other skills needed for this type of knitting, such as knitting in the round, where you knit with 4 needles instead of two.
Also, I would like to try hats and mitts sometime as well. I know that there are some patterns out there that are not too difficult. That might be a good project to tackle next.
This week we had another Ed Camp. I spend most of the time in the curating information session. I learned about an application called One Note which you can apparently use to store and organize all of your notes. I would like to try this because I often have trouble staying organized. I think that when I am a teacher I will need to have a better system for organising documents. I was told that One Note is part of Office which we have access to as UVic students so I would like to try it.
We also discussed the possibility of curating all of the resources we find and make in our cohort so that everyone can use them. I like this idea a lot since I am worried about the lack of time we will have to create lesson plans and find resources. While doing my assignments for my courses in this program I have created lesson plans and unit plans. However, they all took a long time to create and I am worried about having to prepare for four classes a day, every day. I think that by sharing and curating resources we can make this at least a little bit more possible.
This week we had a guest speaker who came and spoke to us about assistive technology. I thought that this was a really great topic to discuss because it is important from a moral and legal standpoint but I did not have a lot of knowledge about it. Since so many people have some form of disability it is really important that we know how to use or refer the technology that could help them.
One type of assistive technology that I thought was really interesting was the pen you showed us in class where you highlight words and it will read it out loud. I was impressed with how well and how quickly it worked.
I also think its interesting that an iPad can be used as a piece of assistive technology. I wonder if there would be issues with other students getting jealous that only one student can use an iPad and not the others. I wonder if the student would feel like there is a lot of attention on them and possibly feel self-conscience.
My mother refuses to listen to me when I want to tell her about my knitting project because she thinks that it is too feminine and so she doesn’t care about it. She thinks that because in the recent past it has been an activity mainly done by women, it is anti-feminist. However, I, and many other people, think that knitting is a feminist activity.
As I mentioned in a previous blog, centuries ago knitting was well respected and there were prestigious knitters guilds comprised entirely of men. It only became less prestigious and well respected when it was done domestically by women. The issue is not women knitting, it’s the way the world sees women labor. I think this is true for a lot of women dominated activities/ professions.
Knitting is cool and useful. You can make entire garments out of fibers. It’s a way of artistic expression and it’s also practical. Why would I not do something I like just because it was something that women were expected to do in the past?
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the class on this day because this was the week where the class was at a different time and it was later than normal. I was going camping that weekend and so I couldn’t go to the class at 4(?) pm because we left too early. We went to Cowichan River and had a lot of fun.
This week in class we discussed the benefits and drawbacks of distance learning. We used a strategy called MAD TEA, where we stood in pairs in a circle. The pairs faced each other and discussed the questions on the board and then when the bell rang they moved to the next partner. I liked this strategy because it ensured that everyone in the class got a chance to speak their thoughts which might not have happened in a regular class discussion. Also, it would be good because students who are shy and don’t want to speak in front of the whole class can still have a chance to share their ideas. I think I would use this strategy in my classroom in the future.
I believe that there are a lot of benefits to online and distance learning, but there are a lot of drawbacks as well. In some situations, I think it has its place but I don’t think it should be the norm. For example, I think that during the pandemic it has been invaluable as a way for students to keep going to school and interacting with peers when they otherwise wouldn’t be able to. On the other hand, I don’t think that it is an adequate substitute for in-person learning and social interaction.
I think that google classroom can be a good resource for curating all of the PowerPoint and resources in a class, but I do worry a little bit about the lack of separation between school and home when school is always available on google classroom.
Knitting is one of many fiber arts that have been practiced for centuries. Knitting is thought to have originated in the fifth century in the middle east. There are other methods of creating fabrics with yarns that predated knitting such as nalebinding. Knitting has remained popular to the present day (Ross, 2017). There are many different styles of knitting that originated in different regions of the world.
Beginning in the 14th century, knitting guilds were established that were entirely made up of men and they focused on creating and selling knitted goods of very good quality. These guilds were very prestigious and took many years of training to join (The Crafty Gentleman, 2015).
By the 16th century, knitting machines were created which meant that not all knitting needed to be done by hand (Ross, 2017). Knitting production increased.
During wars, knitting was often seen as a patriotic activity. For example, during the Revolutionary War, American women knit clothing to avoid having to buy British goods (Makers Mercantile, n.d.).
References.
Makers Mercantile. n.d. A History of Knitting: A resource demystifying the origins of knitting. https://www.makersmercantile.com/history-of-knitting-a-resource-guide.htm.
Ross. 2017. What is knitting? A brief history of knitting and its uses. https://www.the-sustainable-fashion-collective.com/2017/05/04/knitting-brief-history-knitting-uses.
The Crafty Gentleman. 2015. The History of Knitting: the history of knitting guilds. https://www.thecraftygentleman.net/2015/08/16/history-of-knitting-guilds/.
