The Final Stitches

I headed home for the first half of March break, and with me, I took my homework, which included my knitting. Without having places I needed to be, and actually having time to really sit down and work, my dishcloth came together in no time!

The Nearly-Done Dishcloth

I felt my experience with following an actual pattern, to create a project was the one which I feel I gained the most skill/knowledge about knitting. By following the pattern, I was able to pick-up the differences between the way knits and purls look on the needle. Catching onto this was helpful, as it made it easier to tell which stitch I needed to do next without recounting every previous stitch. It also allowed me to notice if I was doing the pattern wrong early, thus cutting back on the number of stitches I had to take out, to redo. That being said, there were still several instances where I had to back track.

Knitting the dishcloth did not often bring a lot of struggle, or frustration. I enjoyed seeing my project progress with every new row. Having finished my dishcloth, I am excited to start something new. I hope to continue my knitting, picking up new skills, such as being able to switch yarn, so I can use multiple colors in one project. Below you will see my final product!

Finished Dishcloth

If you are interested in making this dishcloth follow this link for the pattern: http://bit.ly/2n1Rrrk

Canva, a Visual Creation Tool

During our technology class, we had a blending jigsaw activity where we explored several different tools. We were split up into colour groups, and number groups. With our colour groups, we explored online tools, which we discussed using an online chat tool called TodaysMeet. This tool only requires the teacher (or leader) to have an account, in which they can open a chat, choose how long it is open, and share the link, where others can join. After exploring and discussing our colour group tools, we met in person with our number groups. In our number groups, we discussed the tools we explored, what we liked, and what we didn't like. This allowed us to get a snapshot at a bunch of different tools, in a small time frame. The blended learning aspect was unique as we were provided the opportunity to meet in both person and online. This helps open some opportunities with learning. For instance, the online component could be done at home. Another bonus with the blended learning jigsaw is that it also reduced "travel time" where students would have to meet in their groups, then switch to their new groups. It also works well for a school computer lab, where students would not have to sit with their group members in order to discuss.

Canva is an easy to use tool, which can be used to create a wide variety of visually appealing projects. This tool offers several customizable templates students can use to display information. Some project templates include: posters, advertisements, cards, brochures, magazine covers, infographics, and photo collages. Students can choose from free photos, backgrounds, text fonts, and clip-art, or they can choose to upload some of their own.

Below is a poster I created using Canva.  

Stitched by Skye Ford

Stitching Things Together

It has been a while since I have given any updates on my genius hour project. As intended, I have learned the long-tail cast-on. This type of cast-on was very easy to pick up! It also made knitting the first row a breeze. Below you will see a video I took showing the long-tail cast-on.



While exploring different types of stitched, I figured out what I was doing that caused me to increase the number of stitches in my rows. When switching between knitting, and purling, I would have my working yarn on the wrong side. Below, I have posted photos with the proper working yarn positioning.

When knitting, working yarn should be behind the needle.

I caught this error while experimenting with two new stitch patterns. This first stitch I tried out was the seed stitch. This stitch requires you to knit one, the purl one until the end of the row to complete the first row. It then requires to you purl one, then knit one until the end of the row. This stitch was good practice to teach me to remember to ensure the yarn is on its proper side.
The second stitch I experimented with was the moss stitch. With this stitch, you do two rows of knit one, purl one, then switch to two rows of purl one, knit one. Although I did not try it, you can also create a double moss stitch by increasing the number of knits and purls to two. If you would like to see what these patterns look like check out http://www.simple-knitting.com/seed-stitch.html !

When purling, working yarn should be in front of the need

                                                                      Another thing I accomplished was successfully binding off! After the last attempts frustrations, I feel very relieved to have been able to do this successfully.

 I think I have found a dishcloth pattern I would like to try! But first, I will need to head back to the store for smaller sized needles!