Learning

 

Another Zoom meeting under our belts.  Numbers attending the live presentations have fallen off, but that's ok.  I just loaded the recording to You Tube where people can view at their convenience.

And that's the thing.  We don't have to miss out when live events either don't or can't happen when it suits us.  Because Life Happens, and despite best intentions, sometimes you just can't get there in person, on the day, at the time.

As a teacher, I find doing on line a bit challenging.  I don't get that immediate feedback that I get when I'm there in person, doing it live.  But I've done this for a while now, and while at least one friendly face makes things easier, I have been known to do on line seminars before they became popular, due to pandemic interference in our lives.  So I'm not a stranger to talking into a microphone.  Hell, one of my first jobs out of high school was long distance operator for the telephone company.  I spent my entire day interacting with people by talking with them, trying to puzzle out what they wanted with only verbal cues.  

Teaching takes it up a notch, however.  When I came up with the on line study group idea, I figured I'd done enough Power Point presentations, both live and on line, I could manage.  

Just like weaving itself, giving a presentation on how to understand weaving is much the same.  Where do I want to end up?  What path should I take to get myself AND my students at the same place?  What visual aids should I have to illustrate my point?

Intellectual understanding is probably the easiest to deal with - physical engagement the most difficult.

But if someone really wants to learn, there are ways.  Books, of course.  I know a number of people who decided to learn how to weave, picked up a copy of Mary Black and stubbornly followed the text until they got it.

Other authors have done much the same - Mary Atwater, Elmer Hickman, S. A. Zielinski, and so many more.  

Today the group looked at lace weaves.  It warmed the cockles of my heart when several said they finally understood the difference between huck, Swedish and Bronson.

It may seem like hair splitting, but sometimes to really understand something you need to take it apart as much as possible, then build it back up again.

I'm still learning.  The samples I wove for the Next Big Project added to my foundation of knowledge as I worked with yarns I had never worked with before.  I won't say I learned something 'new' but what I learned confirmed my analysis.  Sometimes what I expected was even truer than anticipated - a thick 3 ply yarn really doesn't want to flatten, even when given a good hard press, for instance.  That cloth is thicker than I anticipated when I wove and wet finished it.  Doesn't make it bad, just slightly different than anticipated.

Since I seldom weave with a 3 ply yarn, that was 'new' information to me and a kernel of knowledge to add to my database.

It is a long weekend here, so a number of pots on the simmer will have to continue to simmer for a few days.  In the meantime, I have another silk scarf warp to wind and get into the loom