My Genius Hour Reflection: A Growth Mindset

Yesterday was an exciting day as I began knitting my scarf!

Unfortunately, the pattern that I chose did not include very detailed instructions with regards to the steps of knitting. The instructions were as follows:"Cast on 20 stitches. Row 1: Knit. Continue repeating this one row until the scarf is the desired length. Bind off, cut yarn, and weave in yarn ends using a tapestry needle." While these instructions may work for more experienced knitters, such minimal instructions are not the most helpful for someone who has never knit before and therefore doesn't know what "cast on" means or how to go about knitting one row.

Thankfully, there are a lot of great tutorials on the Internet. Two web sites that I found particularly helpful were  New Stitch a Day and Envato Tuts+. Both websites offer step-by-step video tutorials for the various knitting stitches. For example, here is the video tutorial from New Stitch a Day for how to knit the basic cast on which is the first step to beginning a scarf.

New Stitch a Day: Knitting and Crochet Video Tutorials. Knitting 101: How to Cast on for Beginners. 

Retrieved from https://youtu.be/-_WddlKqUUw

I found it helpful to watch both web sites’ video tutorial about how to cast on as this gave me two different explanations or perspectives. While both videos were essentially showing the same thing, sometimes the angle of the camera, the verbal explanation, or the speed of one video was more helpful than another. Also, watching two videos rather than just one helped to reinforce the steps. When watching the first video, there was a lot to take in as this was a completely new skill to learn. Thus, watching the second video reinforced the steps and helped me to develop a better understanding of how to do the stitch.

Once I completed casting on the stitches of the first row, the next step was to learn how to do the garter stitch. Once again, I watched both websites’ step-by-step tutorials on how to make a garter stitch. Here is the tutorial from New Stitch a Day that I watched.

New Stitch a Day: Knitting and Crochet Video Tutorials. Knitting 101: The Garter Stitch for Beginners.
Retreived from https://youtu.be/AKRAJEj7lcI. 

While the video tutorials were certainly helpful, it is a very different experience once you need to do the stitch yourself! Thankfully, I was at my grandmother’s house when I began the project so she was able to give some extra guidance as I completed the first few rows of stitches.

Here are the results of my first night of stitching!

Olij, B. © 2016
[Photo from personal collection]

I must admit, knitting is much more challenging than I thought. It took over an hour and a half to knit that small piece of fabric. My fingers and hands are not used to doing such intricate movements and thus I have been knitting very, very slowly. While I am a little disheartened as I thought I would be much further than I am after an hour and a half of work, it is still exciting to see the progress that I have made. So far, this has been a good lesson in patience for me.  I need to remind myself that this is a learning process and that I chose knitting because I wanted to challenge myself. Thus, as I reflect on this project, I am realizing more and more the importance of having a growth mindset. Rather than viewing setbacks or mistakes as failures, I need to see them as a necessary and valuable part of growing and developing new skills. This project will take effort and dedication, but it is an exciting challenge! Thus, I will stay positive and remember that, regardless of my speed, my scarf is taking shape, one stitch at a time!