Dec 19, 2021
Into the Break and Beyond
Some updates that developed since my last blog post.
In the last 24 hours, I have submitted the first two chapters of my dissertation and realized that I should probably post a reflection on the course overall now that everything is in.
This is gonna be shorter cos I am trying to get things done before I fly off for the break and I want to focus on looking forward instead of dwelling too much on what I may have done differently.
Overall, I enjoyed the pre-thesis process. I did go into this shortly after my personal life blew up into some chaos and that influenced some of my choices, but I am very happy with my choices and what I chose to pursue as a project. I definitely see this project being of interest to me both in the next five months and beyond.
Looking at the feedback I got from my presentation a lot of people seem to be really interested in the idea of a grimoire for my topic and I think that the idea works really well for what I am trying to accomplish.
I sometimes feel like the witchcraft element I started with really turned into an aesthetic coating for what I’ve done so far but I also believe that when it comes to knitting that type of take on it could be greatly appreciated especially if some content supports the parallels I am seeing but I’m not quite sure how to communicate yet.
As I was writing my dissertation I started to realize some of the other stories I’ve read over the years. I think a part of this comes from the fact that I’ve been knitting for 20 years and I’ve been tapped into the world to an extent. It meant that as I was writing I had to hunt for nuggets of information that I came across over the years.
If anything this is motivation to get Zotero into shape with article I had read over the years, reviewing them for background information and the like.
I’m also wondering if I should go back to the notecard situation that I abandoned halfway through to reference quotes and larger ideas.
The key takeaway from this reflection: Zoterro is great, but I need a more tactile form of keeping my notes.
A few solid goals for J-Term:
- Send out emails to designers who I may want to interview for pattern writing advice
- Finalize diary activity and attempt to get that out by December 27th
- After writing my dissertation I realize just as I completed it that there was a better way to structure the whole thing. So, that’s one of the things I’ll be working on over the J-Term.
- My wheel arrives next Wednesday! So I’ll be spinning some samples to take with me on my holiday break travels.
