Knitting: The end of The Road or What I Learn from and by knitting

The title is a inside joke (not that funny) between me and myself for the novel )The Road) that I have an in-class write on tomorrow morning that I may or may not have read.

Today I have at last finished my Gryffindor House scarf.

I’m pretty excited. I also will never take it off. No big deal.

But on a more serious note, I did learned one thing from this project: I have a hard time sitting still and I’m easily bored.

This particular knitting project, though extremely time consuming, was pretty mindless. I am “good” enough at knitting that I can do it by feel and muscle memory. This means that I am free to occupy my mind with other things. Going back to the original point, I usually operate with a certain level of distraction – clicking pens, doodling, twirling pens, playing with my phone… – in class. I just can’t sit still that long. Especially not for 75 minute blocks. What this means is I need something to do that occupies my hands so I don’t fiddle with everything around me, but still enables me to listen at the same time. This was a perfect project for doing this.

History class is a class where we are mostly listening because we discuss events in a much more “storytelling way”, which doesn’t really lend itself to notes. We also watch a lot of videos. I noticed that once I started knitting in class I actually listened a lot better. For two reasons, one I feel slightly guilty that it looks like I’m not paying attention so I pay extra attention to prove myself by answering a lot of questions. And two, I am fully awake because I’m constantly moving. This is a big deal when half the class passes out the moment the lights go out for a movie.

In Geography class, I was asked to put my knitting away. And I proceeded to be restless for the rest of class. I personally notice these differences in myself, but the teacher did not permit it even when I explained that it helped me listen. On one hand, yeah, it’s perfectly understandable that he asked me to put it away because he thinks I’m not paying attention. But on the otherhand, super annoying because I proceeded to be bored for the rest of class and twirling and twitching my pen, whereas the knitting would have kept me reasonably entertained while still being able to listen.

But still. It wasn’t that unreasonable to ask me to put it away.

I’m just saying that I learned more in the last two weeks through knitting and listening to history podcasts than I usually do having to sit still for 75 minutes straight.

Also, I have a hypothesis that the rhythm or pattern that I fall into while knitting that later helps in recalling knowledge that I’ve gained while knitting. Like learning through association. Here is a summary of a study that I found.

Perhaps it works in the same way music works in this article.

Well, as much as I say that it has benefits, again, can’t blame teachers when they ask me to stop.

Although I am a bit annoyed by the fact that this particular teacher did not take me seriously when I tried to explain that knitting helps me listen. He acted like I was just making up an excuse to keep doing what I want.

More annoying is the fact that oftentimes people are on Facebook, texting, or even gaming and I am the one that gets told off when I make an effort to listen by finding something that allows me to focus.

But you know, perfectly understandable that he asked me to stop.

Here are two great history podcasts that I love and have learned tons from as I knit and listen:

The History Chicks

Stuff You Missed in History Class

Oh and I’ve been getting a lot of reading done for history class because the textbooks are heavy enough that I don’t have to hold it down with my hands allowing me to read and knit at the same time.

I’m currently finishing another project though. It’s the 4th Doctor’s scarf:

It needs 3 more stripes.

There’s a rather long story behind why I knitted this scarf. The most important part you need to know is:

I don’t actually watch Doctor Who. I am not a fan. (But I might be in future, if I ever decide to watch it) I have a friend who is a crazy fan and she freaks out when people are ignorant about the franchise. So long story short, I made this scarf to er… Troll someone, to use a Internet term. Because it would be funny to see how she would react when someone who is not a real fan (and will still call the title character “Doctor Who” rather than “the doctor” and the scarf “The Doctor Who Scarf” rather than a “4th doctor scarf”) parades a icon like that around.