At our May meeting, Heather Ordover impressed us with her theory of “cognitive anchoring,” or the power of repetitive, learned physical movements to improve intellectual involvement and soothe emotions.
Heather’s talk led to a lively discussion.
For the first time, she presented her preliminary literature review which spanned more than 150 years. Her research synthesis covered realms of psychology, education, physiology and spirituality, lending concrete evidence to something all knitters know:
We work better when we knit
Unfortunately, no scientific studies about concentration and knitting have been done. However, Heather did present research she found on fidgeting, and doodling, and how both of those activities also act as “cognitive anchoring.” Cognitive anchoring allows people to remain in the moment by giving them an easy task to keep their minds from wandering away. Many Codders said that they knit during work meetings and it helps them focus better.
So while the complicated lace pattern may pose an exception, knitting (or any small motor, repetitive, learned motion) at meetings, classes, or lectures doesn’t signify that we are bored or uninterested in the subject matter. Rather, it keeps our bodies occupied while our minds can concentrate on the material or issues at hand.
We look forward to what Heather does with this paradigm. She reminded us as the last slide projected above her head that “ Know that what you do is good. All because minds knit and knitting matters.”
So take that stockinette stitch with you no matter where you go!
A worker owned business in Putney Vermont, the Spinnery started more than 30 years ago. They make high quality natural fiber yarns sold under their own label and are a custom spinner for fiber farmers nationwide. They also specialize in Certified organic and petroleum- free fiber processing.
Join us for a slide show about life creating yarns and patterns at the Spinnery, as well as a trunk show. They plan to bring yarns to fondle as well as for sale, so come prepared.
If you’ve made things with Green Mountain Spinnery yarns or patterns, it would be fun to bring them for show and tell.
This is the last meeting of the 2012-2013 programming year. As always, guests are welcome for $5, and if you decide to join the Guild, the $5 goes toward a 2013-2014 membership if purchased on July 12.
We are happy to share some more videos from Ignite Craft Boston 3. It was a great evening full of fun talks and here are three more for you to check out below. If you would like to see the whole playlist of videos released to this point please visit the playlist page.
The following videos show a pretty amazing range in craft, from dyeing great huge hanks of yarns, to builsing a canvas using yarn, to really expensive amaxing uses of textiles within the bio-medical community. Hope you enjoy this, and if you do please share it with your friends.
Dyeing Self-Patterning Yarn or Attack of the Giant Skein
Please join us at 7pm on Friday, May 10th, at the Stata Center at MIT as we welcome CraftLit podcaster and author of the What Would Madame DeFarge Knit series of books, Heather Ordover. She’ll be giving us a TED-styled talk, and will be on hand afterward to sell and sign her books, the newest [...]
IgniteCraft Boston 2013 happened in January, and we are excited to show you the videos from the talks! You can subscribe to the entire playlist so that you are notified when we add more videos. You can also give it a Facebook “like” or a Google plus “+1″ if you want. We are very thankful [...]
We are looking for volunteers and nominations for the 2013-2014 season’s Board of Directors. If you think the Common Cod Fiber Guild is great, please consider running! For more information, including more detailed descriptions of position responsibilities, see here. The basics: Board Responsibilities Time commitment: About 5 hours per month (including monthly Board meetings and semi-monthly Guild [...]
Just a quick note to let everyone know we are still planning on holding tonight’s meeting. There’s a fair amount of snow out there, so please be careful! That said, we think most people will be able to make it safely, so we hope to see you tonight.
Tatyana Yanishevsky’s knitted plants, flowers, and other elegant creations range from an amazingly realistic lily to mysterious and alien sea creatures. Familiar fiber craft materials (her favorite yarn is mohair) merge with electric lights, resin, steel armatures, and various electronic elements to create striking works by this artist, who taught herself to knit at age [...]
Hi, everyone! Sadly, we’re going to have to postpone today’s event: The MBTA is still not running, and MIT is officially closed so that they can clear parking lots and streets. We will keep you posted about when we can get together instead, but in the meantime, because we were dying to see what you’re [...]
Hi, all! Just a note to say we’re keeping an eye on the weather and will let you know Sunday morning whether we’re still able to hold the Sunday Guild Social at MIT from 4-7PM. Our fingers are crossed (even though that makes the fibercrafting a little more challenging) that everything is clear and the roads and [...]
Heather’s talk led to a lively discussion.
