A challenge of 20 minutes and 6 hours of reflection, observation, and respect.
Above is my mini PowerPoint that I used as a guide for my micro-session, I finished within 17 minutes and 30 seconds, which gave my peers two minutes to reflect and followed by a 10-minute discussion about my teaching methods, the information provided, and my interaction with the room.
Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication around the event today, and I only had 4 peer members (Alix, Bo, Lucy, and Diego – Later followed by Nabil, who had been concerned for his family in Syria over the massive earthquakes that happened extremely strong character and professionalism to show up to class and engage fully, and Emil who also arrived late. A couple of others showed up after lunch as well).
We also had our personal tutor Linda in the session with us as well, an observation from the day, it was peculiar to see many of the academics exclude Linda from the participating activities.
Below is an image of the activity part of my presentation, I gave this out first as a personal observation, knitters or yarn folk have an addiction we need to feed, we love yarn and we love touching it, it was interesting to see that it was only Linda who touched and played with the yarn before any instructions, this showed me a desire/interest in the medium and inquisitive nature around my micro-session.
I went first, slightly nervous, but as a technical staff member, it meant that I had no one to compare myself to yet and my day could be spent learning and observing the academics. The class didn’t see my presentation, (some parts yes) but it was built for me, a guide to keep in check within 20 minutes, as I picked a topic that is extremely challenging for students to learn mostly because it doesn’t have a global language. This also gave me a chance to test a ‘practical’ engagement lesson that I don’t always get to do, I have no input in the lessons but a select few that are ‘Technical workshops’ the heavy stuff, also to point out I don’t see any academic in my course teach about yarns, counts, twists and the mathematics behind it. This is why I wanted to do this topic, I wanted to show that it is fun and easy and it takes visual observations to understand the minute detail of yarn making.
I led the story of yarn, which is fundamentally a part of everyone’s life. My first engagement / ‘activity’ was to get them to understand what I meant, that the below image of a cone of yarn is the pre-stage of the clothes on their backs.
From this queue, I engaged with the properties of yarn, the systems and the direct and indirect counts of these systems, mainly pointing out that:
Indirect system = Fixed weight system
Direct system = Fixed length system
It depends on the yarn composition of which system is used, generally, the indirect system is, which was the focus of the session, but I did point out that Cotton was a part of the indirect system and that other plant fibers are included in the direct system. This led me to the Question:
What do you think would be the difference between cotton and the likes of Jute, Flax (linen), and Hemp?
Answer: Cotton’s flower is the raw material that makes cotton yarn and is more fibrous like that of wool whereas the other raw material comes from the stalk of the plant which creates a much harder, dryer staple to work with.
Not many students get this either, it’s more a nerdy question for my own benefit, but sometimes we do get a rare correct answer when I’ve asked this previously in my other jobs. After the count system or the maths, as someone put it, we moved on to the activities which I talked about twists.
Activity 1:
1/30 NM (1 end/strand over 30,000 meters) is represented in the mustard yarn you have in your hands, it measures 3m long! Naturally while spinning from raw material we use a Z twist which is clockwise, I would like you to take a section of this material and slowly twist it clockwise to form its first twist.
Z twist – Untwist – S twist – Play for a moment between both twists to recognize the directions you are manipulating the yarn to go in.
Activity 2:
In the natural progression of the first activity, I want you to buddy up, and we are going to make an example of the cone I have brought with me today.
We have 3m of yarn, which represents 1/30 NM, now we need to make a 2/30 NM, to do this, one participant will be the ‘Anchor’ and the other will be the end holder. Split your 3 meters of yarn into equal parts and let the ‘Anchor’ hold the middle while the other participant holds both ends.
We are assuming from the previous activity we have twisted this single length of yarn into a Z twist, now we have 2 ends that are spun in a clockwise direction. For 2 ends to be stable which direction do you think we should twist in? (Answer – Counter-Clockwise). It is the participant that is holding the two ends, to twist these in a counter-clockwise direction while the ‘Anchor’ holds stability and force to create an even twist.
Upon reflection on our finished twisted 2/30 NM, I asked the following question:
Depending on the weight of the count, how many meters of yarn do we think we have in this cone (as the yarn represented the 2/30 NM Black polo yarn – above image)?
This question is based on observation skills and the purpose of those who noticed that we still have 30,000 meters of yarn, but to transition from 1/30 to 2/30 we had to split the 3m length of yarn in half to be able to twist it together (start of activity 2). By splitting the yarn, we need to divide the length of the meterage of 30,000 by 2 to equal 15,000m in a cone of the indirect count system = 2/30 NM. The 30 NM is still labeled because of the ‘indirect count system’ we use that resembles 1 kilo to equal 1000m so technically there is still 30 x 1000m in this cone just split into two ends/strands.
Math, what can we say, it’s a fun subject to play with, but sometimes a very confusing one in art school programs. Since we had some extra time, it provided the best opportunity to end in a design challenge.
Challenge 1:
Unravel your twist, and pick up the RED yarn that was provided, at this stage you can still hold the same roles or you can swap and let your buddy be the twister etc.
I challenge you as creatives, to think about your upbringing, your culture or your daily lifes and design a process that could twist these two yarns together.
Team 1 – have two equal lengths split in two giving them 4 ends to work with. (Bo and Diego)
Team 2 and 3 – has 1 yarn split into 2 ends and another half the length (1.5m) (Alix and Lucy and Linda and myself).
Queues – are a great way to open a student’s mind and to be more inclusive, this gave me the opportunity to mention heritage, African culture of twists and plaits, and Asian methods of yarn binding and wrapping. For those with long hair consider methods you use to decorate or style as hair is also yarn.
The results were interesting, Team 1 provided the most ‘traditional’ method of twisting and that was just repeating activity 2, providing that all strands are Z twisted they twisted all 4 ends in a counter-clockwise motion. Allowing me to point out that this would be the most common method in the industry.
Team 2 & 3 both provided plaits – industry lingo would be a cable twist, it was also very interesting to hear that Linda was getting competitive as Alix’s plaits were uninformative and even. Although both methods are twists, I was able to mention that having different tensions or uneven twists allows for more novelty-based yarns called Slubs or Boucle. Securing the idea that both types are right and are acceptable design methods in twisting yarns.
Reflection and Peer observations.
I personally felt that my object presentation went well, I played within my comfort zone but I did test new ideas on how to present and be interactive in the process of understanding those harder subjects within my practice. I was lively and allowed interaction with peers and questions to be answered. I feel like I provided enough time for those to digest the counts and systems before moving onto the activity and reliving the count system through active learning methods.
Peer Observations:
From the notes, that I took, I was given feedback, that I led the heavy information with a tactile sensibility that allowed the ‘students’ to touch and play while digesting the content. I provided time and space for students to practice what they were taught and learn the content in their own way and pace.
That as a practitioner, I was accessible and I showed my expertise in my field bridging trust between the learning material and my answers showing a depth of knowledge. Using and allocating a focus on industry language and vocabulary gives students the understanding and opportunity to use it in their work while discussing ideas etc.
Some opportunities were missed, I could’ve provided some examples of the different types of materials to really engorge my tactile environment and enrich a student’s opportunity to be curious about different types of twists, unfortunately I thought it was led by a single object, I did how ever get the participants to reflect on what they were wearing, so maybe I could’ve finished on this as well, after the teaching sessions on a reflective/realisation moment.
Another mention was to always try and include and build sustainable practice into each session, falling in line with UAL’s policy and also giving the students something to consider in their research. Although I do believe in sustainable practice, the word sustainable is no longer viable in my eyes as a designer/practitioner, and more reliable terms such as circular, regenerative, end life, and social responsibility can provide easier routes for students to learn about sustainability.
Linda awarded me, with a compliment on the area that Sustainability should be a subject in its own right at university, either academically or vocationally, that the word sustainability is just a title, while the modules would be the real substance behind the movement. Allowing students to practice and create new discoveries or policies around the future of sustainable integration into society and education.
Over all, I felt respected, and it was extremely rewarding for me to share my passion with creatives outside of my world. I thank them for participating and providing me with feedback on my practice.