Fabricated pleasure at U of L’s Knitting at Noon

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on April 27, 2022.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Student Ziara Ruchkall, works on her "temperature blanket" during Knitting at Noon this week at the University of Lethbridge Dr. Margaret Perkins Hess Gallery.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The University of Lethbridge welcomed members of the community this week to their Knitting at Noon in the Gallery program offered at the Dr. Margaret Perkins Hess Gallery.
“We welcome all knitters, or crocheters, or embroidery, or felting just to come and hang out and work on a project or they can come and learn how to do a new fiber art skill,” said Kristen Meiszinger, program coordinator at the University of Lethbridge art gallery.
She said it is open to all skill levels and it is offered bi-weekly on Mondays as opposed to monthly as before since the interest increased throughout the pandemic, as people noticed the benefits for their mental health.
Meiszinger said the program has been running for about six to seven years, even through the pandemic as they were able to offer it virtually.
“They’re not huge numbers, it’s always like small numbers that come to this which is nice because it’s a little intimate program, where introverts can come and just work on their crafts,” said Meiszinger.
She added that they wanted to offer it more frequently, especially for the campus community for a mental health aspect and a way to be able to have students socialize and meet other students.
“It’s nice seeing all the different projects that people bring and that they’re working on,” said Meiszinger.
One of those projects on Monday was a “temperature blanket” that was started on Jan. 1 by Ziara Ruchkall, an anthropology major, who participated in the program on Monday for the first time.
“This is my first time attending and it was a recommendation of one of my professors that I come and stop by, as it’s really good for mental health,” said Ruchkall.
She said she thought it would be a great opportunity to meet the community while working on her project.
“At the beginning of 2022, I chose colours that coordinate to temperatures throughout the year that go from minus 40 to plus 40 degrees Celsius and based off of whatever the average temperature of the day is I crochet a row in a coordinating colour, so at the end of the year I will be able to look back and see all of the weather I’ve endured,” said Ruchkall.
She said that each month is separated by a grey border and she will be adding a grey border to the whole blanket once it is finished. Which will measure around 5′ by 6′ once finished at the end of the year.
“I have a friend who’s doing a mood blanket, so based off of how they’re feeling that day, they have a chart that correlates to it. If they’ve been feeling really happy throughout the day it will be yellow, but if they’ve been really sick or not feeling themselves it’s grey or blue,” said Ruchkall.
She said she was able to showcase her blanket in one of her anthropology classes while talking about data representation and how it correlates to storytelling.
“That was something that really interested me was that you know data representation isn’t just graphs, it can be things like this where visual arts is involved,” said Ruchkall.

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