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Research
That Matters
Knit One, Purl Two
Knitting’s all over the news. Stories profile punk knitters, corporate knitters, men-who-blog knitters, high-school knitters urged on by teachers who promise that working the needles will exercise the brain. Certainly knitting helps hand-eye coordination and motor skills. One biophysicist uses it to help her university students better understand their brain plasticity — describing how the motor cortex develops as they gain experience and skill.
So it may be no surprise that the University of Washington’s College of Education has its own knitting group — or that one of its most innovative program ideas grew out of a session with pretty yarn and the age-old sound of needles clicking and clacking.
That idea was Studio Days, a program that broke the mold of traditional field placement by taking entire methods courses off-campus and into elementary classrooms. Elementary field coordinator Karen Harris, who had the job of figuring out the logistics of taking 60 UW students back to grade school, says it started with a university supervisor who happened to be an expert knitter. She started helping a faculty member, pregnant with twins, master some knit-and-purl tricks. “Up until then, the faculty and supervisors had been pretty separate,” says Harris. “There was often a real disconnect.”
A friendship bloomed. Before long, more faculty had joined in regular evening sessions, as well as cooperating teachers from partner schools, principals and central office administrators. Connections were made, new relationships formed. And the busy hands — happy hands — freed minds for wide-ranging discussions about program renewal in the UW’s teacher education program.
“We were all excited about it and discussing it, and ideas started to blossom,” says Harris. “One of those ideas was Studio Days, where we use real classrooms as our laboratories.”
The yarn’s still spinning. Faculty have passed out knitting needles — and chopsticks — to students and used them as part of orientation to the teacher education program. The knitting group, now five years old, continues to meet once a month off-campus to master new moves and hash out ideas.
“It’s a wonderful forum for people who care about education,” says Harris, who had never knit before joining the group.
“The concentration, the movement frees up your mind to think more deeply.”
