We All Have Our Own Ways of Learning

A few weeks ago, I posted a photo on my Instagram account of a book I just got that day and was really excited about. It was a book on sweater design that had been on my wish list for literally YEARS. I was at that time taking a class on grading sweaters and that class confirmed that I needed to bite the bullet and order the book. (And I can tell you I page through it almost every day! I am finding so much good info that reinforces what I learned in that class)

Shortly after I posted that photo with a comment about how excited I was, another designer told me that it was a waste of money, that the (late) author was wrong, and that they would have discussions where the author would concede to her. She mentioned another book that I should have spent my money on (which I already had)

I was taken aback by this negative comment – by a fellow designer no less. While I can agree that as years go by, we all learn and grow and find new ways of doing things. But the comment that made me pause and think about how I teach and how I learn was that “she is old school”.

As most of you know, I learned to crochet from my Nonna. She learned to crochet from her Nonna in Italy. My Nonna was born in 1903. Her Nonna was born in the mid-1800s. Since we were both taught in word-of-mouth fashion, I would argue that I was taught to crochet “old-school”.

Because Nonna only spoke Italian, I am self-taught in reading and writing patterns. I learned from Leisure Arts Leaflets from the 1960s and 70s. I expanded my knowledge through many of the original Annie’s Attic magazines from the 1980s, and finally, through the internet age, I learned even more from blogs and video, more modern books, taking classes, and just my nature of trial and error in everything I do.

Every one of us has our way of learning. Some are visual learners and need either a person or video to show them the way. Others are auditory learners and listen to someone speaking and do what is being said without looking at what is being taught. Others like books- digital or physical- because they can digest the information easily.

As a teacher, I tend to share how I do things. I have many students like myself who take many classes on the same subject because there is always new and different information to glean from each instructor. I have never said to any student that my way is the “best way”, “the only way” or “the right way”. I share what I feel works the best for me and my style of crochet, but many times I will pull other ways of doing things out of my arsenal to help a student who is struggling.

I hope that as we go forward as a community, you never feel that I think my way is the only way to do things. I do hope, however, that you take what I teach and maybe pull a couple of ideas or new thoughts (which might be old school thoughts) and add them to your arsenal of tools you can pull out when you need to. My hope in every class I teach, every video I create, and in every blog post I share, is that you will gain new knowledge about something or even find a tidbit of information you may have never known before.

It’s all about growing in our crochet knowledge, and I hope that is what I am fostering here at Karen Whooley Designs.

How do you learn? Do you combine what you learn from multiple people?