Dissertation

KnitWell: Exploring Creative, Open-Ended Knitting as a Form of Journaling to Record Emotions, With Consideration for Mental Wellbeing

Rickard, Emily Joy

2024

Overview

This practice-based, autoethnographic and participatory research investigates how aspects of hand knitting, such as stitch, colour, texture, scale and shape, can be used as a tangible, tactile tool kit to record and reflect upon an individual's emotional state. The research investigates the potential benefits, opportunities, limitations and affordances that this recording method offers and considers what impact the creation of a ‘knitted journal’ has on mental wellbeing.Framed as ‘KnitWell’, the research focuses on the creative choices one can make within knitting as a means of capturing and expressing emotions. KnitWell involves the creation of a Daily Knit Journal (DKJ) that employs a ‘free knitting’ approach. In contrast with following a pattern, free knitting enables the knitter to freely discover the craft of knitting, by selecting yarn, colour, and stitch choice in an open-ended and creative way.There are two strands to the research methodology: autoethnographic knitting practice and participatory research involving 11 knitters who took part in three iterative phases of activity. In each phase, the participants were invited to create a DKJ and complete a daily well-being scale for 28 days as well as a Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale at the beginning and end of the 28 days, followed by a material elicitation interview. The parallel autoethnographic practice allowed the researcher to investigate the technical elements of free knitting, experiment with the structure of a DKJ and embed themselves in the participant study as Participant 12.Multiple levels of analysis were conducted to examine the visual DKJs, the corresponding interview and written diary data. Analysing the participant data began with an inductive data analysis approach. Visual and technical analysis of the DKJs was undertaken using specific parameters to provide consistent interpretation. A KnitWell website was developed to visually communicate each participant’s creative knitting journey and acts as an analytical platform to share the research findings. A deductive data analysis approach was used for the autoethnographic data which began with the themes identified from the participant data. The analysis of the autoethnographic and participant data identified three core themes. The first, ‘Process and Participation’, addresses the knitters' approach to the concept of free knitting and daily knit journalling; overall, the experience of free knitting brought a new element to the knitters’ practice. The second, ‘Emotional Expression’, relates to the knitters’ articulation of emotions in their knitting, through their use of colour, stitch, and tension; analysis revealed that the tactility of knitting captured an essence of the day through its expressive nature. The third, ‘Awareness and Approach to Meaning’, unveiled the multiple layers of meaning within a DKJ; through decision making, reflection and memory-keeping, the DKJ can hold flexible meaning to the knitter.In summary, this research provides detailed insights into the value and experience of keeping a knitted journal for mental wellbeing. Evidence indicates that the KnitWell proposition provides a meaningful way of capturing emotions on a daily basis, using the flexible creativity of knitting, and has the capacity to positively impact mental wellbeing.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Autoethnography / Color / Creativity / Emotions / Fairs & exhibitions / Mental health / Mindfulness / Needlework / Textile design / Textile Research / Well being / Yarn
• ISBN: 9798297620056