This week I’ve been learning a new skill (thanks to YouTube) and I fell in love with it.

My friend Renee who lives in Spain and is a fluent French speaker (we chat in French every week), recommended Yolanda Figueroa’s YouTube channel where she runs crochet tutorials of tops that she’s created. The garments are not “mumsy” (as crochet has a tendency of looking like this) at all so naturally I wanted to have a go at making one.

She demonstrates the entire garment and you can follow along. So every night with my phone in hand, I’m continually stopping and starting her video, then doing what she demonstrates – and so far, I’m happy with the result!

Yolanda likes to talk through her project but as it’s all in Spanish, I’m missing all of this context and do wonder if, by the end of it all, my project will turn out like hers OR I’d have to improvise in some way to make things fit. For example, I don’t understand how many stitches she used, I don’t know the history of the garment nor any tips and traps. I’m simply relying only on a physical demonstration which brings up all sorts of reflections about contextual learning.

I can imagine that people who are non English speakers learning something new rely on people showing them the skill but not understanding the WHY or the WHAT. It’s an interesting position to be in as a learner and in some way, quite liberating as it frees you from overloading your brain too much with the context and it gets your brain immediately locked into the task itself. I’m not processing anything other than just to do the task – then there’s a level of attention and focus to it (no distractions), time passes quickly and by the end of it, you feel quite proud of what you created.

In a way, learning without context and getting bogged down with lengthy explanations allows my brain to focus and also allows me to make my own understanding of the WHY.

How I Started

I bought some acrylic yarn to practice with. My habit is that I prefer to make things with natural fibres but as this is a practice run, I made an exception for now. Also crochet uses far more wool than knitting does, so it can get super expensive if you’re using wool. For now, I will make do with acrylic.

Unfortunately all our haberdashery stores are closing or have closed around me so it means I have to travel further out to find places that sell yarn. Not a major problem for me because yarn shops are like book stores. I’d make day trips out of going to them and take my time.

Unlike book stores, yarn stores can be picky with their stock. It feels awkward to now be looking and buying acrylics when in the past, I wouldn’t have been seen dead buying it. ?. Now I have to make an excuse to the retail assistant “oh I’m just learning how to crochet!” in order to explain why I bought the “fake stuff”.

My husband Andrew is not surprised at my new hobby. I’m always learning something new but he does wonder why I’m speaking in Spanish and counting my stitches out loud “uno, dos, tres” etc.

Meanwhile, I showed my father this YouTube channel and as a fluent Spanish speaker himself (he’s self taught and to this day can hold a conversation quite easily with any native) he also explained to me what Yolanda was talking about.

So for now, I continue to watch the video countless times while doing what she demonstrates and in the end I’ll have a top that I may not wear but could proudly say “I made this! Thanks Yolanda! Thanks Renee and thanks YouTube!”

What are you learning from YouTube?

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