As the end of the semester begins to approach, I decided that this week would be a good time to revisit some of the free inquiry questions that I created at the beginning of my free inquiry and see what light I may be able to shed on them and what new questions I have.
I started my free inquiry project with the large topic of knitting my first cardigan, however it began to change as the semester rolled forward into an inquiry on creating time for myself through hobbies that I love during a busy school year. As a pre-service teacher, I understand that much of my career will include peaks and valleys of busy times during the school year and I wanted to be mindful of ways to create time for myself through crafts and hobbies that I love. After a semester of trying to practice valuing time for non-school activities, I can see how much small pockets of time filled with self-care fill me back up and allow me to be a better, happier and more motivated student. I found that knitting made up a large protion of this time, however gardening, spending time with family, walking in the woods with my dogs, connecting virtually with friends and crafting in new ways also allowed me to practice self-care. The feature image is a picture taken on one of these walks in the woods with the two dogs and my mom.
Before I dive into my inquiry questions, I would like to preface this by saying that I am still growing. I chose this topic because I know that I have had trouble with prioritizing anything above school in the past. Throughout this semester, I have had difficulty with making time for myself because of the guilt and anxious feeling I have felt. I would not want anyone reading this to think that I have everything figured out and have had a stress free and completely balanced semester. I am still learning to make time for myself and am learning to trust in how I organize my time. I also have not been on this journey alone, I have had so much support from my family throughout this semester who have been cheering me on when I was feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. I also had the community of my cohort, who helped me to not feel alone in the mountain of work that I was trying to climb through. For these people, I am so grateful. It truly takes a village. I look forward to learning more about myself and what creating a balance in my life looks like as a move into classroom setting.
Now Onto The Inquiry Questions!
- How can I balance a busy school life while making time for knitting?
I realize now that this question has less to do with making time for knitting, and more about making time for things that I love outside of the classroom. Knitting of course is included in that, however it is not the sole item. I found that creating balance meant being flexible and listening to what I really needed. That meant that sometimes I needed to sit and knit with my mom and grandma, while other times it meant getting outside in the fresh air and gardening. Because this semester was online and so much of my time was spent in front of a computer, being able to get outside became a real priority for me. Further, I found that creating more of a balance meant also allowing myself not to knit when I wasn’t feeling like it and not associating any guilt to it. I was still allowed to call myself a knitter, even when I needed a moment away from knitting.
2. How does knitting benefit mental health?
I love this question and am still so excited to discover more about it. I have found that knitting has such methodical and repetitive elements to it, that it allows me to calm myself. I am also the type of person that needs to always be doing something with my hands, if I am not knitting then I am most definitely fiddling with something. I find that knitting allows me to feel more settled and helps to ground me into the moment, where ever that may be.
3. What are the essential notions and tools that every knitter should have in their knitting bag?
I answered this question in my blog post – Tools of a Knitter, however I think that it differs from knitter to knitter. I think that this blog post gave the basic tools needed when knitting, however every knitter needs to discover what their perfect knitting bag looks like dependent on their needs and the project they have. It is one of the reason I love knitting, every knitter gets to personalize every element of the craft and what it means to them while also being a part of a huge community of creators!
4. How can I make knitting a large project (like knitting a garment or in this case a cardigan) manageable?
This truly is a question that I am still finding the answer. But I think that one thing that I have learned through this free inquiry project is that keeping an large project manageable means being kind to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up for not knitting every moment available, but rather enjoy the moments when knitting fits into your schedule. Knitting should not be a chore when you do it as a hobby. When you feel like knitting, knit and enjoy what it provides for you, but when you don’t feel like knitting, don’t force yourself. Making a large project like a cardigan takes time, giving yourself the gift of not creating deadlines for yourself when you don’t need to is a luxury.
New Questions to Consider
After revisiting these questions, I started to think about what other questions I may now have that have formed from going through the process of this free inquiry. Here are some of the questions I developed:
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- What are some different ways to integrate mindfulness and a more balanced lifestyle into my routine?
- What are ways to incorporate the values of mindfulness and balance in the classroom so students can gain practice in these?
- What are new ways that I can explore my knowledge of knitting through different technique exploration and project types?
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Feature Image by Kate Barnes licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.