Knitting as an Effort-Based Reward System

I’ve heard many knitters say that they use their hobby/craft as a type of therapy. I often joke that yarn is cheaper than Prozac, though I’m not so sure about that now. Fewer side effects, certainly! I have recently read a book called Lifting Depression by Kelly Lambert, who proposes the idea that our current social context is contributing to an increased incidence of depression because we don’t use our hands enough. She supports this idea by describing how the motor system has evolved to specialize in fine motor and sensory processing for the hands, first as our primary form of communication and then as the main tool for the tasks of daily living. She believes that a person can avoid depression by managing stress effectively and by establishing regular, daily effort-based reward experiences. So what is effort-based reward?

The idea is that completing a task that requires some effort, especially tasks that use the hands, provides a person with a sense of accomplishment. The regular experience of such accomplishment encourages the person to continue the behavior. The continued behavior strengthens circuits in the brain that counteract the processes that lead to negative mood states.

She gives a personal example of recovering from a bout of depression that was prompted by the death of her mother. She didn’t feel better until she rediscovered the joys of vacuuming. Her experience was that the manual labor led to the very obvious improvement in the appearance of her surroundings, a clear reward for her efforts. She was DOING something, taking control of her immediate situation (dirty house) and making a noticeable difference (clean house). Her experience was in keeping with the findings of her research program in which she explores the impact of stress on behavior in rats.

I find this idea very appealing. I have often noted that if I feel stressed at work the best remedy is to get in the lab and clean the glassware, or clear off the lab bench, or wash some rat cages. I realize as I’m performing these tasks that I should be leaving it for a work-study student, but I just feel like doing the work myself. I also find doing the dishes and laundry at home appealing (sometimes). Mostly, though, this idea relates to my long-standing focus on all things fiber.

Lambert actually uses knitting multiple times in her book as an example of an effort-based reward activity. This makes total sense. It involves fine motor control and sensation of the hands. The results of one’s efforts are easy to see, even when you are just learning. It is easy to learn and can be performed in many contexts.

I like to think that we can enjoy the conveniences of modern living (I’m in no hurry to use a washboard or to raise my own cows; sheep maybe…) and still use our brains as they were intended by incorporating effort-based rewarding behavior into our routines. So, next time you get a twinge of guilt for choosing to knit instead of applying harsh chemicals to your kitchen floor, remember that you need to flex the muscle between your ears: keep knitting!

shepherd's hat

This hat was made for the shepherd who gave my colleague the wool pictured below. 

Left-overs wristlets

Here is a pair of wristlets I made for SIL, using left-over sock yarn. I'm making myself a pair now, less ornate and colorful with some hand-dyed sock yarn. They are rather useful when it's cold and there's lots of typing to do.

weekend dye job

The oily pile has acquired some color! I left a few skeins blank, but now that they are washed they have turned a few shades lighter. I made the rust skeins progressively lighter by adding them to the pot in 10-minute intervals. The dark blue ones are actually a mistake. I added too much dye to the pot, so they were much darker than I had hoped for. I took them out and added another set of skeins, which turned out the "right" color.
Here they are, close-up.

I have a striped sweater planned for them.

2009 Pledge

No New Twine in 2009!
As you can see, I don't need any new yarn. Here is the pile of skeins from the big wheel of yarn (see Dec 08 post below). It hasn't been washed yet, so this is the weighed-down oily pile.
Oogyknitter says No New Twine, Or Its Kind, in 2009. I'm still contemplating that extreme stance...

Tree topper

This is our Flying Spaghetti Monster tree topper. My husband asked me to make it for our multiple-belief holiday tree. You can read about the FSM here and the pattern (for a smaller ornament is here. His eyes are Oobi eyes, which are used for hand puppets.
Happy Holidays!

ready to felt

Wabenshal

Here is the progress I've made on the KAL that oogyknitter and I are doing. My version of Tequila Sunrise is more like Tequila Noonday. Lots of YELLOW. I like working this pattern because I can do a full pattern repeat (14 rows) in one sitting. Oogyknitter chose the pattern and I dyed the yarn. The pattern is at www.die-wollust.de

A mammothy wool

Winter break is here, and there's time to blog! Well, not really, but the alternative is grading, so I'll blog for a distraction from that.

This great wheel of wool was recently bestowed upon me. Woo hoo! Long story, but one of my colleagues is neighbors with a sheep herder (herd of 2, I believe), who gave him this wool for helping care for the sheep. My colleague is not interested in learning to knit, so instead handed over the wool to me.

Raw wool, spun with the oils intact, is not always an impressive sight, but once it gets washed, and dyed (!) it really comes to life.
I've wasted no time in starting a project--a bag (or 2?) to be felted. I think I'll make a hat for the sheep herder as a thank you. The wool is not itchy at all.

More later...

Camel Beach Knitters

So now you know I hang out with beautiful people.

The pink tube

Here is oogyknitter's tube-making machine with the first inch of pink alpaca yarn on its way to tube-ville. This is yarn that I purchased in bulk from Webs, when I thought I liked the color and before I discovered that it is not exactly soft. It's great for felting, though!
4 skeins later...I weaved in a nylon clothesline cord to make some holes in the felted fabric for later.

ready for the dye.
Dyed and felted...you can see the notches where the nylon cord was removed.

happy felines

This post has nothing to do with either knitting or brain function...

Barney likes his new window perch.


And "Saddle bags" likes the catnip. He/she visits our yard occasionally to sample it. I grew it for Barney though he seems insensitive to it.

This summer's FOs

The projects this summer have mostly been multi-step ones: dyeing, felting and knitting, not necessarily in that order.

Here is a pair of socks made from Knit Picks sock flats, dyed with 2 blues and a green. I made concentric circles of green and the 2 blues on the flat, but they didn't really translate that way on the actual socks. It was great fun anyway, and a great way to make hand-dyed matching socks.

Another dyeing project eventually became a shawl.
Oogyknitter gave me a machine-knitted tube of shetland wool meant to be dyed and then made into something. It took me several months to decide what to do with it. I dyed the tube with 2 reds and black, then chose to use the Syrian shawl pattern from Victorian Lace to make best use of the colors.

I got so intrigued by the tube possibilities that I asked dear oogyknitter to lend me her machine. I have lots of wool in the stash that I have discovered isn't what I hoped it would be when I bought it. It's perfect fodder for the machine. I made this purse by first making a tube of alpaca/wool blend pink yarn, then dyeing it blue, purple and black. I felted the dyed tube and then cut it up and pieced together the purse. I'm now in the process of making another tube and hope to make a larger bag with it.
This last project did not involve dyeing, but I did design it myself. It's a simple poncho made with 2 equal-sized rectangles and some edging. My friend Heather was swatching the linen stitch and reminded me how much I like that stitch.

Here is a pair of socks that I made for Dad. He likes other socks I've made for him, but I discovered that he's not into the random stripe style. "They don't match" says he. These may look boring, but they feel nice and they definitely match!
Happy Father's Day!

Poor neglected blog. I always promise to be more attentive, and then 2+ months goes by...
My excuse this time is that I decided to buy a house and move in to it during a busy semester. The boys and I are happy in our new home and we have vowed never to move again.

Meanwhile, the knitting has continued. Here is the latest community knitting project that the Camel Knitters have begun. It will be a blanket that we hope will be given to a family that is starting over. Each of us is making some rectangles, any dimension and any pattern, using any of a selection of colors in the same yarn. I periodically lay it out to see how it's looking. Mr. Rubble thinks of this as an invitation to test drive the blanket-in-progress.

Following another pattern?

Here's another project made from a pattern. I have been ogling the sweaters in Knitting out of Africa, by Marianne Isager for a few years now. I finally decided to make one, called Asante. The little square design at the top of the back captured my interest. So I followed the pattern, for the most part. Even with different yarn and a slight variation of the instructions for making multiple squares on the front (uh, a few other things were done differently...), it was looking just like pictures in the book. That was until husband suggested that another little square on one sleeve would be cool. I believe he was totally right.
I can't wait to wear it--as you can see I couldn't wait to take a picture of it, either.

Small Shawl 2

Here is another shadow knitting shawl, worked as instructed in the pattern, but with a slight variation, a stripe along the top edge. I find that I have been drawn to using other people's patterns of late. But, I can't seem to leave the patterns intact. I guess that's what is cool about knitting--you can go along with most of what someone else believes to be ideal, but there is always room to add your own elements.

Matching socks

Enough neuroscience for one day--it's back to knitting for this post. Here are the socks, which you can see are fairly well-matched for ones that are made from hand-dyed yarn.

Neuroscience of blogging?

It’s common knowledge that each side of the brain has some unique functions. For example, it is well-established that language functions are housed in the left hemisphere in most people. There is some evidence that the left side processes positive emotions. In a book about depression Andrew Solomon¹ describes the idea that the pleasure of communicating is diminished by depression. He points out that depressed people avoid communication and that the opposite pattern occurs in mania, when a person can’t seem to stop talking.

The literature on brain symmetry and depression is not one I am particularly familiar with, but my initial glance suggests that people who respond to antidepressants have stronger left hemisphere processing in a perceptual task compared to non-responders.^2,3 This observation is consistent with the idea that using language, stimulating the left hemisphere in the act of communicating, can counteract the forces of negative mood. Perhaps this is why people find journal or letter writing to be therapeutic. Could blogging be considered therapeutic, or a beneficial coping mechanism to reduce stress?

Now that the personal and social impact of new media is being explored, it will be interesting to learn more about how various forms of communication relate to mood. In the meantime, I will add blogging to knitting as a form of stress management. This might increase the frequency of posting!

Footnotes

1. Andrew Solomon. (2001). The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression. Scribner, New York. In the chapter on evolution, Solomon is focused on communication on pages 414-419.

2. Bruder, G.E., Stewart, J.W., McGrath, P.D., Deliyannides, D. and Quitkin, F.M. (2004). Dichotic listening tests of functional brain asymmetry predict response to fluoxetine in depressed women and men. Neuropsychopharmacology, 29 (9): 1752-61.

3. Bruder, G.E., Sedoruk, J.P., Stewart, J.W., McGrath, R.J., Quitkin, F.M., and Tenke, C.E. (2007). Electroencephalic alpha measures predict therapeutic response to a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressant: pre- and post-treatment findings. Biological Psychiatry, Epub Nov 29, 2007.

making sock progress

The dyed tube of yarn, folded in half, becomes 2 skeins that are fairly close in color intervals.

striped sock yarn in progress

The experiment continues...
A mile of plastic wrap and 2 colors later, the tube of sock yarn patiently soaks up the dye.

new dyeing adventure

Oogyknitter has done it again: got me started on a new and exciting fiber project. Here is the long tube of yarn she made using Knit Picks Bare wool/nylon blend for socks. The 462 yards of yarn in this tube is destined to be dyed and then unraveled to produce a hank of sock yarn with stripes at regular intervals. I had the foresight to mark the middle of the tube so that I could fold it in half and apply the dye in a similar manner to each side.

back to blogging

Judging from the recent paucity of posts on this blog you might think the author hasn't been knitting. I've been knitting plenty, but not blogging much!
Here are the 9 x-mas hats for the nieces and nephews.

lace trend

This is Falling Leaves scarf, which I started before I learned all that cool stuff about lace. Finishing the blue shawl gave me new motivation to dig out the abandoned scarf and finish it. Perfect timing as the leaves really are starting to fall.

Finished Blue Shawl

Who knew lace was going to be so addictive. All I needed was some education about how lace items are constructed! All of the lace weight yarn languishing in the stash has a renewed lease on life. The blue shawl was labeled "easy" and it really was until I encountered the border. And then I noticed I was going to run out of yarn. So, the border is only on one edge, but folded over it looks pretty good.

Victorian Shawl in Progress

This is the beginning of an "easy" shawl from the book Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby (thank U Oogyknitter!). I've had this yarn, Feza Kid Mohair. for ages and am glad it finally has a known destiny.

Pomatomus attempt 1

This is a the first Pomatomus sock I have made. The pattern is challenging and the end result is beautiful. However, this rendition was too loose and the heel was bigger than I like, so it has been unraveled. I am working up the courage to begin again, with smaller needles. The pattern is free online here.

Small Wing Shawl

It's Day 2 of the short-on-words blog series.
Here is a small wing shawl, based on the pattern in Hoxbro's Shadow Knitting. It is worked with Knit Picks Palette in Bark and Garnet Heather as the main colors and Brindle Heather serving as both contrast colors. The colors appear differently depending on how it is viewed, which is the cool thing about shadow knitting.

Community knitting

Hi Brainknit fans (all 4 of you)!
I have heard your concerns and will be posting a series of SHORT entries for the next few days, mostly without reference to neuroscience.
Here is the Color on Color scarf, from Scarf Style, that members of the Camel Knitters Guild are making. It is near completion and will be raffled off early this Fall. We have each contributed scrap yarn and time and we hope someone will enjoy wearing it soon.

7 stitch itch hat

This hat gets its name from the short rowing process that allows it to have a hat shape. I progressively increased the number of stitches in each turn until I reached 7 and decided I was tired of short rowing. Luckily it worked out well. The hat is reversible, and I'm having trouble deciding which side looks best. It is my swatch to determine the gauge for the licorice twist hand-dyed yarn.

Twisted Dye Job

I have rediscovered the fun of hand dyeing wool! This wool is Henry's Attic Licorice Twist, which is unique because one of the plies takes up the dye more than the others, creating a twisted appearance. Here it is augmented by the space-dyed effect of 3 colors that have intermingled in places. I made 3 like this combination that includes lilac, raspberry and blue-grey, and one skein of a combination of kiwi and spruce green.

Binge Knitting

The word "binge" has a negative connotation, which would be an apt description of some of my knitting situations, but not this one. In a positive way it describes the process of how this sweater was completed, after it had languished for about 2 years in the far reaches of a remote closet. It was abandoned when my attempt to add the bottom portion to the bodice went all pear-shaped, literally, with far too many stitches that produced an exceedingly wide body, even for me! Somehow it was easy to unravel it after it was dormant for that long. I reduced the number of stitches and finished it in a matter of 2 or 3 days. That's the binge knitting part.

It represents the transition from a very difficult semester to the luxury of summer. I needed to reset my mind, to shift down a few gears, and having this very easy project that was half done already marked the transition perfectly. I enjoyed the soft yarn and the feel of every stitch as I marched through to the end. I felt ready to delve into summer research once it was finished. The fact that it can actually be worn is a bonus!

felting addiction

What is it about felting that is so compelling? It could be the ease with which a large amount of previously-abandoned wool finds a purpose. Or the thrill of the unknown outcome. A project is often added to the "what the h#*@ is this?" pile, or it becomes the newest addition to my considerable trove of vessels. However, my latest endeavor has actually been used for its intended purpose, and it has generated positive comments from people who I don't know, who wouldn't be expected to feel obligated to be nice and say it's cool. Here are the before and after pictures. I told you I got inspired by your entrelac bag, oogyknitter!

knitting in neuroscience class

We began the course in January with a lesson in knitting, to demonstrate some of the topics to be covered in the course. These included memory, the brain's reward circuits, motor function and stress. Every once in awhile we pull out the knitting and talk about how it relates to the topic we are covering. Today we were talking about the cellular mechanisms of memory.
As you can see, some of the knitting is more advanced than others, giving us an excellent basis for discussing the extent to which synaptic rearrangement had taken place.