Shopping for Users and Yarn

Yarn shopping!  Yay!

Unfortunately, my magpie nature has me standing in front of a shelf of yarn pretty much completely unsuitable for the project at hand.  This project is supposed to be an alpaca/wool/silk scarf suitable for use with dress clothes and I'm looking at fabulous lumpy mixed fiber yarns in eye-popping colors.  Remember where this stuff is, but go find something to use for this one!

Among the most interesting users of Weaving Today are those who have no local weaving community available to them, but who feel the need to reach out and connect with others involved in the same craft.  Several of these are from overseas, and at least a few are unable to participate in local guilds because of access issues (transportation or disability) or because there are no guilds close enough to them.  These users may post from time to time when they have a question or when they know the answer to someone else's question.  The latter is less frequent, likely because the Weaving Today staff answer questions when no one else answers, and nobody wants to argue with Madelyn.  I went looking for a few of these users to prepare this project.  One is a specialist in a particular weave structure (huck lace) and the other is a generalist who is an occasional weaver.  Each has over a dozen posts, a large number for users of this site (average is just over two if professional users aren't considered).

Lynn is a huck lace specialist.  She weighs in on most conversations in the buck forum, including technical discussions about reading drafts and designing huck. On her "about me" page, she lists only her age (60) and gender, and lists her "favorites" as the huck forum.

Kaaren is a generalist, with comments on five different threads.  Her "about me" page is unusually complete for Weaving Today users.  She has a short biography, including a description of her weaving practice.

These two users stand out by virtue of their length of use and number of posts.  These "front pew" users are recognized as experts of sorts in the Weaving Today community.  Even so, 16 posts over two years hardly qualifies as the kind of use most affinity spaces boast.

And while we're talking about barking up the wrong tree . . .

Having found the suitable yarn, I have managed to select colors that are absolutely gorgeous together, but not at all what I thought I came in for.  While I'm at it, I guess I'll buy a skein of that turquoise and pink ombre!

Math Mess and Method

Hmm.  I want the scarf to be 70 inches long, so add 7 for take-up, 15 for loom waste.  Do I want fringe?  Okay, 12 more.  No, the loom waste can be part of that.  Hmm.  Sett 14?  Nope, only number 12 reeds.  12 it is.  How much draw in?  It's a twill, better plan extra.  I HATE ARITHMETIC!! Okay, take a break and come back before I start measuring. Yup.  Blog time.

My method for working with the Weaving Today website began with reading through the forums provided.  I noted the number of posts in each thread, and the types of interactions (whether a single user posted frequently to the same or different threads, whether interaction was call-and-response or involved more chatting, etc.)  I then read through the blogs, noting how frequently posts were made and the type of material addressed by each contributor.

Having gathered an idea of how the site's users were engaged, I started looking for the ways in which individuals interacted with the site.  This mostly involved reading through posts to see if there were patterns of use that could be helpful in understanding how weavers were using the site in their work.  Because the site includes an individual's number of posts next to their avatar, this was fairly easy to track.  I looked closely at those who had large numbers of posts but who were not employees of the site's magazine, attempting to find any "super-users" who spent large amounts of time in the space (there weren't any).
I also went to the site frequently to see which users were signed in.  Once a day or so, I signed in myself.

Once I had determined a general pattern of use, I made my first post.  It was to the "introduce yourself" thread, one that does not get a lot of traffic.  I identified myself as a student and a weaver, and asked for information about how weavers use digital resources.  I received only one answer, from the "queen bee" of the website, who provided a summary of digital weaving resources.

My method in examining this website has been neither systematic nor exhaustive.  What I have found is a discernible pattern of light use, much of which occurs "under the radar," that is, without signing in.  This may be because the majority of users don't actually sign up, or because they need not sign in only if they want to make a post (all other aspects of the site are available without signing in).

Okay.  83" long.  16 inches times 12 is 182 ends.  Balanced weave, so 16 times length without fringe plus take-up is . . . (where's the calculator?) 1232 plus 182 times 83 is 15,006 divided by 36 is about 417 yards. Can that really be right? Double check.

Time to go yarn shopping!

We Interrupt This Tapestry . . .

Let's put down the butterflies and fork for a moment and get academic.

The Weaving Today website is probably best understood using Gee’s concept of affinity space (2004).  Users, however, appear to spend much less time in the space than most examinations of affinity space use would indicate is typical.  In fact, it appears to be typical for users of Weaving Today to log on once a week or less, for between 20 and 60 minutes.  Compared to players of MMOs or users of sites like Flikr, this is an insignificant investment of time in the space.  Interaction between users is fairly limited, too, with very few users providing the vast majority of posts.

This may be accounted for, in part, by the difference between the apparent age of Weaving Today users and more typical digitally native users.  Where “digital natives” (those 18-24 who grew up using digital technologies) are widely perceived as more able to use these technologies, some evidence indicates that “digital immigrants” are more likely to use technologies for “work,” that is, to accomplish specific tasks (Cowan 2011). 

Although it is dangerous to overgeneralize, younger users frequently have more time to spend in affinity spaces, and, because they also typically multitask, may spend time in the space while attending to a variety of other tasks as well. In contrast, older users are more likely not to multitask, and are more likely to spend shorter sessions on line (Wagner 2010). This may well be connected to the particular physical challenges of older users in digital spaces, where interfaces may favor those with socio-cognitive features and physical characteristics such as vision and motor control more often associated with younger individuals (Charness 20).

Because of these features, and taking into account the patterns of use I have been able to observe, it would seem that the Weaving Today site may function for most users less like an affinity space and more like a knowledge/reference site.  This view of the site is strengthened by the observation that the most frequently seen pattern of use is for a question posted by a member (you must be a member and be signed in to post) to be answered by one or more of the site experts, who are employees of the site’s parent magazine.  The relatively short amounts of time spent by visitors to the site also argues that development of individual identity in the space is limited as well.

It bears mentioning that, while we tend to think of participation in digital environments as a new literacy, it may be important not to confuse the concepts of “new media” and “new literacy.”  “Literacies,” as  Moje points out, ‘‘’make use of’ symbol systems and technologies for producing those systems.  They are not one and the same.” The ancient technologies of weaving are a literacy as well, one that may apply to modern digital environments is new and exciting ways.

In a nutshell, it appears that users of the Weaving Today site visit to seek answers to specific questions, look for related threads or blogs, and post a question if there is not already an entry addressing their particular issue, then returning when the post has been answered.  This sort of task-related use of digital technologies is, apparently, typical of the adult and older adult users who seem to make up the bulk of the Weaving Today online community. It is to be hoped that this limited time investment in online environments maximizes weaving time.

Back to the tapestry.  Over, under, over, under, over, under, pack it down. . . lovely.

References

Charness, N., & Holley P. (2004). “The New Media and Older Adults:  Usable and Useful?” American Behavioral Scientist 48, 416-433.

Cowan, B. (2011, November 6) “‘Digital Natives’ Aren’t Necessarily Digital Learners.” The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Gee, J. (2004). Situated language and learning: a critique of traditional schooling. 

London: Routledge.

Moje, E.(May 2009) “Standpoints: a Call for new research in new and multi-literacies.” Research in the Teaching of English 43 (3), 348-362.

Wagner, N., Hassanein, K., & Head, M. (2010) “Computer use by older adults:  A multi-disciplinary review” Computers in Human Behavior 26, 870-882.