The Problem with Experts...

The Problem with Experts...is that they are often expected to answer complex nuanced questions with simple short answers. We drive this by our insistence on listening and responding to sound bites. Where it fails us is when it limits discussion and closes the door to further learning opportunities and potential solutions. The answer to the question why does stocking stitch roll, is often "it's just the nature of the fabric".

Last week in my interview with Nathalie Vasilieva she spoke about this indirectly. It was such an interesting response to the question below that I wanted to draw your attention to it again.



Where do you find inspiration?

Another source of inspiration I appreciate is allegedly “stupid” questions asked by allegedly less experienced knitters who apparently don’t know as much “don’t”s as more experienced of us have faced already. In fact that leaves less experienced knitters unsatisfied about some solid knitting axioms the more experienced ones just don’t question anymore. Like, stockinette curls, left-leaning decrease jags, last (or first) stitch of a wide ribbing or a cable is always loose, etc. I see such questions as an opportunity to maybe change something, to the good of the whole knitting community. At least, to try.

Let's all keep asking the dumb questions, they can lead to the biggest breakthroughs of understanding.

 

You're Doing It Wrong!

"You're Doing It Wrong!"

Arrggggg! For some reason I've heard one knitter say this to another knitter at least five times in the last month. I'm becoming very irked by this comment. So far I've managed to bite my tongue and stay out of these discussions, unless someone asks for my opinion.

Why does this bother me?

Well it bothers me because there are so many different techniques, traditions, approaches, new un-inventions and cultural things happening in the knitting world that to label anything as wrong is just misguided. (I wanted to say wrong there but I had to avoid that phrase for obvious reasons didn't I?)

I want to tell knitters to try everything out and decide for yourself. Using different techniques can give you different results or equal results or better results. Experts don’t always agree on which techniques are best but it’s clear that there are benefits to each one. 

A student recently told me she thought it was very funny when one of my other teaching friends gasped in horror about something I teach in my classes. My friend is an excellent knitter and teacher but she falls into the school of "one best way" while I am most definitely not in agreement with that approach. I can see merit in it however, especially for novice knitters as it is less confusing for them. 

For my other hated phrase, you can read my post on Row Gauge doesn't Matter here.

If you enjoy reading my blog, I'd really appreciate it if you would tell your knitting friends or share links to your favourite posts online with Twitter, Ravelry or Facebook. Word of mouth is really helping to grow my business as knitters respect the views of other members of our community. Thanks!