Learnin’ the Loom
For my personal learning project, I decided to learn how to knit a scarf on a loom. Back in the third grade, my teacher taught me and my fellow classmates how to do this. So, when I was eight, I knitted a rather rough scarf. I was very proud of myself and presented it to my sister as a Christmas present. Now that I reflect back on this, I can’t recall ever seeing her wear it and I know there was a reason! When I was eight, I did not truly learn the process of knitting the scarf, nor did I create a very successful or good-looking product. When I decided to learn how to do this, completely from scratch because I had absolutely no memory of how I did it in the third grade, I was excited! I wasn’t successful at age eight and while I have a slight memory of what the scarf looked like, I was hopeful that at age 21 I would have better luck. I started this project with high hopes and unfortunately, they were quickly dashed.
I am still in contact with my third grade teacher, Kathy. I had Kathy send me a loom and she included some yarn to go with it. She’s been knitting scarves on looms for many years, so I assumed that this amount of yarn would be enough for the scarf I would create. That was my first mistake. My second mistake came when I tried to teach myself how to start the scarf. I had Kathy email me instructions and I attempted to follow them. The first step is to tie a slip knot. I didn’t know how to tie a slip knot, so I called my dad and asked him to walk me through it. This proved to be a frustrating process and I finally just researched step-by-step directions to tying a slip knot online. I successfully tied my slip knot and then attempted to follow the written directions. Learning to knit by reading written directions was very confusing and I was completely lost! I called my mom and asked her to schedule a knitting session with Kathy before she came down to see me one weekend. She and Kathy spent some time knitting on the loom together and my mom brought her fresh experience down to help me. My mom finally helped teach me how to start the scarf. Once I got started, I was on fire! I was able to get the hang of making the yarn zigzags, pulling the loops over the zig-zags, pushing that row down and repeating. I enjoyed knitting and had a lot of fun until one day I realized that I had missed a loop and there was a small, but noticeable hole in my scarf. I ended up taking off a lot of knitted rows in order to go back to fix it. I then continued on without any other major setbacks. I was back to the point of having fun and then the thought crossed my mind that I might not have enough yarn for a whole scarf. I didn’t think my concern was valid because Kathy, the expert, had given me the amount of yarn and I trusted that it would be enough. But, it turns out I was right and I ran out of red yarn. Not knowing what to do, but wanting to keep my knitting that I had worked so hard on, I carefully pried it off the loom and started again with blue yarn. The second start was a bit rocky at first, but once I got started, I was really going—faster than a speeding bullet! I actually finished more knitting on the blue scarf in about four hours than I did on the red one in six hours. Because of the many set-backs I encountered along the way, I was not able to finish a complete scarf. However, I’ve made considerable progress on the blue scarf and hope to finish it soon.
Overall, I enjoyed learning how to knit a scarf on the loom. At times the process was completely frustrating. I found that it was very difficult to learn such a complicated task by following written directions. I appreciated the first-hand experience my mom brought with her to actually teach me how to knit on the loom. It was a lot easier to have someone teach me and help me through the process on my first round because I had no idea what I was doing. As I was knitting, the process was, at times, very mindless, but I still had to concentrate because I didn’t want to mess up again. By the end of my ten hours, I was disappointed that I didn’t finish a complete scarf, but I’m excited to keep going. So, at age 21, I really was able to learn how to knit a scarf on a loom and it looks pretty good so far. Learning how do to this was a frustrating, yet fun project and I’m glad that I was able to accomplish the feat of actually learning how to knit a scarf on a loom!
Personal Learning Log—Loom Hours
Date Duration Description
2/16................ 20 minutes................... Loom Directions
3/1.................. 30 minutes................... Loom Directions
3/2.................. 1 hour......................... Slip knot; Starting on loom
3/7.................. 30 minutes................... Looming; making mistakes—starting over
3/28................ 1 hour......................... Looming
4/4.................. 2 hours........................ Looming
4/5.................. 1 hour 40 minutes........ Taking red off loom; slip knot; starting blue
4/5.................. 2 hours........................ Looming
4/9.................. 1 hour......................... Looming
Total: 10 hours
this was a thoroughly enjoyable story to read, Emily. I'm glad to know that you'll be warmly bundled up come next winter and hope your looming continues far beyond this class.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it's interesting to see the learning connections in your experience. For example, does the teaching style need to match the type of skill being learned (e.g., performance-based)? what about assessment?
A final question I'd have for you is what you learned about yourself as a learner in this experience and how does that relate to the different concepts you've learned about in class this semester?