Claire Wagner was one of the AHP's first Artists in Residence. She tailored knitting lessons to suit patients and caregivers in Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center waiting areas. She brings the same personalized approach to her classes now available on Zoom.

What can people expect when they attend your online class?

The classes are almost like a private lesson for students. I ask them how they are doing and if I can see their work. If there is a mistake, we correct it. Beginners may be quite nervous, but little by little, they get looser and more relaxed. Even if I have a new student, I can incorporate them into what we are doing in the first class. I take care of the ones who are really struggling by showing them step-by-step how to knit a stitch. Those who know very well how to knit go much faster, so I spend less time with them. But I still don’t let them feel abandoned.

What advice to you give beginners who may struggle at first?

Some new students get frustrated because they would like to knit a top, a pair of gloves or a pair of socks right away. I tell them that it's natural for them to be nervous, but it's only knitting. If they make a mistake, we will open the stitch and start again. If they have lost a stage, I show them how to get it back. We start on a small project, making a simple square that they will later use to make a bunny. They like that. They learn that it doesn’t take weeks to learn how to knit. They become more relaxed. Since the class began in January, everyone has done at least 10 projects. Of course, the act of knitting itself is relaxing. The students say this all the time: “It's so relaxing.” I knitted, personally, during the pandemic lockdowns. I found that working on difficult patterns was more relaxing because I had to concentrate on what I was doing. The more I have to concentrate, the more relaxed I become. In class, we are also creating a community. The students did not know each other when we started. Now we know each other quite well. We send good wishes when someone is sick. We laugh and have a good time together.
 

I like the quote about knitting from Jan Karon’s novel, At Home in Mitford: “Knitting, he thought, was a comfort to the soul. It was regular. It was repetitious. And, in the end, it amounted to something.”

Earlier this month, Fiber artist, Lauren Brennan, and movement artist, Carrie Monger, began offering a new free online class, Color Theory and Movement. The collaborative class uses color theory concepts to inspire creative movement. Brennan and Monger described their class during a recent conversation.

What can people expect when they attend your online class?
 
Lauren Brennan: My goal in the class is to help people feel confident in their color selections. A key part of that is offering information about how they can be more intentional. Picking out a project is 50% of everything that you do as a knitter. So along with selecting a pattern, it’s important to know how to choose and combine colors. In our class we provide resources for not just thinking about traditional color choices, but also about color harmony. How do we harness the science and psychology behind what makes colors desirable and pleasing to the eye? I start with color wheels, move into history, and then we talk about psychology and the associations that we make with certain colors. For example, does red represent anger? And is that universal across all cultures? For this new class, Carrie brings her enthusiasm and offers folks a chance to get to experience arts and healing through movement.
 
Could you say more about how you both blend color theory, knitting and creative movement?  
 
Lauren Brennan: We hope that everyone taking our collaborative class will push themselves to try something new! Research shows that trying new things can stimulate new neural pathways as we stretch our senses in novel ways. Carrie uses color to inspire movement. She integrates her ideas about how people interact with color in everyday life.
 
Carrie Monger: Connecting through movement and dance can be such a healing, joyful and meaningful experience. Since I have served as assistant in Lauren’s color theory classes, I became curious how we could take a more multi-disciplinary approach. Perhaps integrating more movement could open our minds and allow us to express ourselves in new ways?  
 
Our Lombardi Arts and Humanities classes have offered people from different countries and cultures a place to create a supportive community, especially during the Pandemic when loneliness and isolation were paramount. And, for the fiber arts and knitting classes in particular, the activity itself can be very sedentary. Lauren, generously, allowed me to end her classes with a movement component which gave participants a chance to stand up, stretch and move. In our new class we will dive further into color and movement and attempt to physicalize terms and concepts of color theory to approach wellness, awareness and connection.  
 
Lauren and I are so excited to embark on the journey of this new class and to break out of our comfort zones and try something new! 

What’s an inspiring quote that you would like to pass on to others?

Lauren Brennan: The famous post-impressionist painter, Paul Gauguin, said, "Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams." I hope that we all find more ways to communicate in a language that speaks to us, and my hope is that everyone in our class learns to use color and movement as tools to communicate in our class.

Carrie Monger: I like this quote by Wayne Dyer: "When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way." It speaks to the importance of the process, the journey, versus the end product or destination. When I dance I'm completely present and in the moment. And that is so transformative.