Knitting club. Communities of practice

Week 2

I write on 2 blogs, this. the friends and family blog and my school blog, modeling good practice for the students. I haven’t written a post about knitting club for the last 2 weeks on either blog and some of the ladies who come to my knitting class also read my school blog and have commented on the absences of the knitting post after taking their photos.

Week 3

Knitting club is gaining in popularity, I now have 15 ladies. I’m almost tempted to have my brother send out more wool. Over the last 2 weeks I have noticed an improvement all round in the knitting skills. Most of the girls are knitting scarves, except Cindy in Year 6, who is knitting mittens. I think suggesting to the girls we knitt mittens was a bit ambitious, in that I should have got everyone knitting a scarf. Knitting a scarf gives each knitter an opportunity to practice the basic stitches of knit and purl. This week the girls knitted along happily for the hour of club time. They are becoming a lot more confident with the basic stitches and a lot more confident with their knitting ability and therefore getting faster. Knitting club has a really great feel to it as the girls gather in small group, help each other and chat as they knit. I’m reminded of the papers I wrote based on Eitenne Wenger and his Communities of Practice. “Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” Knitting club certainly ticks the box, knits the stitch.