sallyknits

In defense of knitting when times are tough, part ten

2012-02-23T07:18:00.000-08:00

When I did an interview for a podcast (http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110911/BLOGS2601/110909628), I told her there were ten parts to this series. But then I truly thought i was done with nine--much as that's rather an odd number with which to end--until I read an article in Oprah magazine while staying at a B&B in Atlanta. The issue was dedicted to intuition, and so I found my tenth piece of the puzzle.

We all have intuitive thinking that serves us in emergencies, when we have decisions to make, during tough times. And it's important to both access and trust what our intition tells us. But how to do both?

One thing Oprah says--something by which she lives--is "If you don't know what to do, do nothing." Stop working, be calm, sit quietly, and listen for that inner voice. And you might well imagine that that inner voice comes from the right brain . . . which is active when we are knitting. While knitting, we are calm, we are at peace, we are in our right brain, and we can hear our inner voice.

But just in case you think "I'm not exactly doing nothing when I am knitting," here is some other research that supports what I suggest. Research says that we don't need to sit perfectly quiet (in a state of meditation) to hear that inner voice--although that works too. Researchers found that we are also able to hear that voice when we are distracted. If knitting for you is "busy work," then when you are knitting, the busy-ness of it can distract your logical brain--in which intuition does not reside--so the intuitive brain can rise up and speak.

Actually, it's not a rise up and speak kinda voice: it's more like that whisper we hear that just kinda comes to us and to which we need to listen. My experience is that it comes when I am listening very carefully, which knitting allows me to do.

And my experience is also that I must trust it. If I don't, lessons are learned. Remembering some of those lessons (and their regrets) reminds me to trust the voice and act upon it. And perhaps this is just something that comes with experience.

But when times are tough, isn't this the voice we need to listen to--the voice that will help us make the right, the authenthic, the creative decision?

In defense of knitting when times are tough, part nine

2012-02-19T09:01:00.000-08:00

So, despite everything I've said before, this might be my favourite response to this topic--probably because it challenges some basic assuptions and makes us think deeply about what matters.

Some research was done on "happiness." How happy are you? Obvious results were about family income. If your family income was below a particular level (and I don't remember what it was, but it wasn't huge--something like $80,000 per household, but please don't quote me), you were less happy than those at that level: in fact, the further below this level you were, the less happy you were. All to be expected.

But here was the part that challenges our assumptions: for folks above that level, the researchers saw the flattest results they had ever seen. No matter whether you earned $100 more or $1, 000, 000 more, you were no happier. So, research supports what we've always tried to tell ourselves (even if we never quite believed it): money does not make us happy. (When I saw this information, the moderator asked if this would be used to direct taxation policy: it's an interesting question . . . . )

And then the recession of 2008 hit . . . which drove the researchers back into the field. Would these results hold when incomes went down and life became less certain? Here's what they found over the recession and the year following.

People's levels of happiness went down with their incomes (paralleling the stock exchange).
When some measure of recovery appeared, people's levels of happiness went up (paralleling the stock exchange).
At the end of the year, even though their incomes were lower than before and their job security was less than before, they were happier than they had been before.

The researchers assumed something they called the adaptation principle: when times are tough, we find out how resilient we are, we find out who we can count on , and we find out what really matters. In other words, we find out what it takes to make us happy.
For all the reasons listed in all the posts below, knitting makes me happy! So, no matter how tough times are, I will knit. And I am comforted in this choice by the words of Neitsze:

For happiness . . . how little suffices for happiness. The littlest thing precisely, the gentlest thing, the lightest thing, little makes up the best happiness.

In defense of knitting when times are tough, part eight

2012-02-16T07:31:00.000-08:00

We've heard forever that life is best in balance. We can't play all the time, nor can we work all the time. We need a little of everything in good measure. No matter how tough times are, we need some fun--some escape from it. So it's not surprising that the movie industry has always done well in trying times. And so should KNITTING!

For all the reasons listed below, knitting is good for us--our brain, our psyche, our closet, our economy. But it's also FUN! Kinda like going to the movies, it's an escape. (If you've read the second post then you know that that escape is to a very positive place--the right brain.)
But let's take a moment to think of the cost of escape--in terms of hours of entertainment against dollars spent. Knitting, while initially expensive, rates very well within this analysis--much higher than a movie and even higher than a good book! This may be all the thought we need give before making that yarn purchase. It's your form of escape, it brings balance to your life, and it's less costly than most any other way to have FUN! So go have some!!!

In defense of knitting when times are tough, part seven

2012-02-09T05:17:00.001-08:00

People who don't knit look at us in wonderment, that we can spend so many hours working towards a result we're not even sure of. (Actually, they don't know about the uncertainly: that's our well-kept secret.) They see hours and hours of work, that's all they see, and they don't get it.

What they don't appreciate is the lesson we learn about commitment--the commitment learned from setting goals and working patiently towards their completion. And isn't that skill something we complain about the lack of in our world?

We complain about those who show little understanding of the motivation it takes to do a job well. We can blame the whole financial mess on a debt crisis precipitated by those who wanted something without putting in the work to achieve it. We understand how teachers suffer in classrooms filled with students so expectant of instant gratification. Even of government, whose wheels are purported to gind slowly, we are impatient for results.

Knitting has a valuable lesson to teach--of choosing a task and working patiently towards its finish . . . again, an essential skill for challenging times.

In defense of knitting when times are tough, part six

2012-02-05T11:23:00.000-08:00

I, like everyone else, am aware of reports of slow economic growth. And while the causes are many, when asked for the solution the pundits usually say consumer demand. People need to buy.

What I don't understand is why they don't see that consumer demand--at least as we knew it before the recession--will probably never return. People are scared: consumer confidence is low (for very good reasons), and this is something that probably can and maybe should change. But at the same time, people--from their experiences of the past 3 years--have learned to both want and live with less. I do think learning what we can live without--learning what is really important--is a good thing, and I wish the pundits would acknowledge and address this new reality . . . because I am not sure this will readily change.

But what I have learned is that while I can live without a new car or another pair of shoes or the newest tech gadget, I choose not to live without yarn! My part in the economy's turnaround will be to continue to buy yarn. In this arena, my confidence is high! I know what good every dollar spent will do for my closet, my brain, my well-being. They want me to spend, and I will. If that's my duty as a citizen, I will happily oblige.

See come join me at our LYS! Good times to be had by all!

In defense of knitting when times are tough, part five

2012-02-02T05:54:00.000-08:00

For this portion, I am offering you information that was discovered by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. It is results of a study done in Cambridge.

The study set up 3 groups of people and asked them to watch the film of a traumatic event.

One group was to do nothing while it watched.
One group was to talk to each other while it watched.
One group was to do a simple, repetitive task (like keyboarding) while it watched.

They then measured which group was least or most traumitized. What we usually get right is that the group least traumitized was the group working through the repetive task. What we don't usually get is that the group most traumitized was the group talking to each other. And then, of course, we might wonder what the science is behind these results. Here's what the scientists theorized.

We have two brains--not the right and left but the reptilian brain (known as the brain stem) and the cerebral cortex (what we think of when we picture the brain). The reptilian brain's job is survival: I will live or I will die. The cerebral cortex's job is reasoning: it thinks its way through situations.

Repetive tasks calm the reptilian brain. So the panicky brains were kept busy with the keyboarding, and those folk could use their reasoning brains to realize that this was a horrible thing but that they were not personally theatened by it.

Talking to each other uses the cerebral cortex. So those talking had their reasoning brains engaged while their reptitlian brains were reacting in panic (which they likely exacrbated by talking to each other).

So . . . the reseachers decided that people who use worry beads or rosaries or who knit have always known what they were doing--calming themselves through stress with a repetitive task. My conclusion is that we should never watch the news without knitting in hand--especially if we feel inclined to discus it.

Your conclusion might be to keep knitting through tough times!

In defense of knitting when times are tough, part four

2012-01-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

When I KIP (knit in public), one of the things I most often hear is "I don't have the patience for that." If I am in a less-than-charitable mood, I might say "Then you are precisely the person who should learn to knit!" Because doesn't knitting teach patience? We spend many long hours working--with not often much assurance that the result will be worth all those hours. Not only patience but interminable optimism are within the skill set of knitters.

What does it mean to travel through life with patience? It means that we're the ones in the doctor's office who are happy when the nurse reports that the doctor has been held up in surgery--as long as we have our knitting. It means that we don't mind getting stuck in traffic--as long as we are truly stopped . . . and have our knitting. It means that we are the ones to wait in line or hold seats for some family event--as long as we have our knitting. It means that we stay calm through the passage of time.

And what does it mean to travel through life with optimism? It means that we will not be deterred by one bad result. It means that we start problem-solving to fix what has gone wrong. It means that we learn from mistakes and know that we are made better by the experience. It means that we will not be defeated!

I cannot think of many skills more essential when the going gets rough.

In defense of knitting when times are tough, part three

2012-01-26T04:40:00.000-08:00

Rudolf Steiner was a very brilliant man, and if interested you could research to see the width and depth of his involvement in thought and culture of the 19th and early 20th centuries. What he is most known for is his establishment of the Waldorf Schools. And what makes him so very very brilliant is that his curriculum teaches every 6-yr old to knit . . . because he thought it the perfect human activity!

He knew that knitting put us into the right brain where we would be more receptive to new ideas (and what educator doesn't want that?). But he also knew that knitting developed

hand-eye coordination
spatial relations
the math skills of arithmetic, algebra, and geometry.

We probably know about the hand-eye coordination. And we may even know that we are developing spatial relations (as we hold that sock up to see if it will fit). But many of us knitters--women of a particular demograpic--are resistant to the third because we are a little math phobic. Yes, knitting is math--from simple addition and subtraction through multiplication and (if you write your own patterns or adapt existing ones) blazing right on through what we might call "higher" math skills (the stuff we loved to hate in high school).

But here's the deal: if you don't use a part of your brain, it atrophies. Okay, we know that. Some of us might have let our math-brains run a little low . . . and are not even sure why we ought to care? But here's why we ought to care.There were some scholarly nuns in Pennsylvania who lived a very long time with no evidence of Alzheimers. Because they were scholars, they dedicated their brains to science so we could learn from them. And the results were astonishing! There did have Alzheimers--in pretty much the same proportion of the rest of the population: it just did not manifest!

Because they studied all sorts of things--and kept all parts of their brains alive and firing--when one part of the brain was affected, another healthy, well-developed part of the brain took over the work of the affected part. They did have Alzheimers, just no evidence of it!

If we put Steiner together with the research on nun's brains, it suggests we should knit more, and stuff that is even more challenging than when life is easy! Isn't it obvious that tough times warrant healthy, fully-functioning brains to deal with all that life presents?

In defense of knitting when times are tough, part two

2012-01-24T05:09:00.000-08:00

When I ask people why they knit, the first thing I usually hear is that they like the "meditative state" they go to. So what's that all about?

Where they go is to the right brain, because activities that are

physically repetitive
intellectually undemanding (which knitting isn't always, but perhaps we love it best when it is?)
and visually stimulating (although this one is optional)

put us in the right brain.

As we all know, we have two sides of the brain that specialize in different tasks. Here's what they are.

The left brain is the linear-thinking, pattern-recognizing side of the brain which works with the stuff of verbal, logical, analytic thinking. It loves language because it is a familiar, well-used pattern. It looks for clarity and logic in situations full of ambiguity and paradox. It loves rules and regulations because they are familiar patterns that simplify complex situations. It likes to separate things and place them into recognizable pidgeon-holes. This side of the brain holds our judge, our critic, our skeptic, our rule-follower. It does not like what it has not seen before so does not entertain new ideas. And it is very much aware of the passage of time. Much of our lives is dedicated to left-brain activity.

The right brain is the lateral-thinking, anything-is-possible side of the brain which works with the stuff of visual, relational, intuitive thinking. It loves non-verbal communication because it can process much incoming stimuli at once. It welcomes ambiguity and paradox, looking for relationships between things that don't normally go together. It prefers the truth of perception to the truth of rules. It likes everything and everyone to come together and be happy. This side of the brain holds our imagination, says "yes" to the universe, loves to imagine what it has never seen, happily entertains new ideas, and is unfailingly optimistic. It is also unaware of the passage of time. Not much of our lives is dedicated to right-brain activity.

But to the right brain is where our craft takes us--and we love it. The right brain is a wonderfully positive and--yes--addictive place to which we go when we work with our hands.

Our left brains would like to tell us that this place is lazy, non-productive, and a waste of time. And so we feel guilty when we scrounge for time to knit. But the left brain is wrong!!! The right side of the brain is essential to the survival of humanity and should be regularly exercised and lovingly cherished! It entertains new ideas--and where would we be without those? It feeds the imagination--and where would we be without that? It is unfailingly otimistic--and how would life be without that?

We might well conclude that when times are tough we need the work of the right brain even more than we do when life is a smooth sail. And it is knitting--and acitivities like it--that take us there.

In defense of knitting when times are tough, part one

2012-01-22T05:11:00.001-08:00

I posted this on my website long ago, but now that I have a real blog I am repeating it--and it's nine companions--here.

It's hard not to think about growing economic uncertainty. Whatever the outcome, we will probably face changes that mean examining how we spend. And what will happen when we have fewer dollars to spend on our knitting--this activity that calms, inspires, and sustains us? How do we justify knitting in tough times?

But it does seem that knitting has always been with us through tough times: during the depression; during previous centuries when the concept of disposable income was unheard of for most; during the early days of our country's settlement, when leisure time was equally incomprehensible.

So why has knitting survived? And why must we continue to knit?

I have many more reasons, which I will explore over successive posts. But here's part one.

Knitting clothes us.

When I was young, knitting was cheaper than buying. If I wanted a sweater, I went to the local yarn shop and bought the yarn to make the sweater I wanted. This was the less expensive option. And if I bought a sweater, someone might ask "Why would you buy that when you could knit it?" Good question! Most of what we wore was simple and easily knit.

What happened in the intervening years, as we all know, was globalization. Sweaters became cheap (based upon cheap labour and cheap oil), yarn became expensive (because it could). Knitting became something women with disposable income could afford . . . with little concern as to how the garment fit because she could easily buy what she wore. In the last 50 years, someone might ask "Why are you knitting that when you could buy it?"

What we gained in those years was an appreciation for knitting as process. (A Norwegian woman saw me knitting socks and said "I used to do that: I don't have to do that anymore." She clearly never learned a love for knitting-as-process!) It was a glorious time, and I'll certainly speak about knitting as process in subsequent posts.

But what we lost was knitting for product. Some of us are perceive as having lost the ability to make our garments fit. (A woman I met made The Gray Cardigan from MOTHER-DAUGHTER KNITS and had the following reaction: "What a beautiful sweater! I thought it looked hand knit but then realized it couldn't be because it fits you so well!") And some of us lost the sense of knitting that simply clothed our families. (I also met another woman who said she wanted to knit her son a sweater--so asked what he wanted. His answer was a red crew neck sweater. She said "If you only want a red crew neck sweater, you just go buy one!")

We can, and should, re-gain knitting for product. We should take every pattern-drafting class we can. We should look at our closets--at what we wear often and well--and knit versions of it. We should learn to fit our families. We should re-join women from the depression, from previous centuries, and from our country's birth who clothed themselves and their families.

Our disposable income will go to the knitting of sweaters we will wear. At the same time, we'll stop buying. We might produce 3 garments that we cherish rather than 8 that fill our closet without giving us the same satisfaction.

last book to bed

2012-01-21T05:04:00.000-08:00

I recently put what I describe as my "last book" (which will be launched spring 2013) to bed! For the first time in 15 years, I am not on a book deadline! Yippee!

But that also means housekeeping! Things I have neglected for--let's hope not 15 years--are being attended to (like cleaning out the bathroom cupboards). One of the bigger things was to make my BLOG into a real BLOG (that you could subscribe to)!

In the past, my BLOG was just a document I wrote and posted on my website. But now I have subscribed to blogspot.com (and how easy what THAT?!?!), so people can subscribe. I will eventually transfer all those old posts. But you may always visit my website--www.sallymelvilleknits.com--for lots of free patterns, an offer of free knitters' graph paper, knitting tips, my schedule, etc. Hope to see you there, hope to see you here, hope to see you somewhere!

PS The subject of the book is pattern drafting. I am very excited about it: it's wonderfully comprehensive, and it's probably the material I love to teach most.

Some call this work "design," but there is a difference. Design is finding the vision of the garment you want to make: drafting is turning the vision into a garment.

My first suggestion to anyone approaching this material is to

go to your closet
find something you love that you did not knit
use the material of the book to measure, draft, knit it!

This way we create something we will wear and love! And we will honour our craft by doing so.