Some things are harder to teach than others.

@futurebird @va2lam @bucknam
I would really like a diagram of a way to do that...

@Anke @va2lam @bucknam

OK I've tried to draw it.

Do not overthink the details of these diagrams. Consider the difference between using a knot to hold the thread vs. using friction.

Friction is often a better, more robust solution. There are many ways to start sewing. Just overlap your stitches, back-stitch a few times until you feel it will not slide out.

@futurebird @Anke @bucknam that's sort of how I finish sewing!

@Anke @va2lam @bucknam

OK I've tried to draw it.

Do not overthink the details of these diagrams. Consider the difference between using a knot to hold the thread vs. using friction.

Friction is often a better, more robust solution. There are many ways to start sewing. Just overlap your stitches, back-stitch a few times until you feel it will not slide out.

@va2lam @Anke @bucknam

It's how I start and finish and I thought "everyone knew this" (because I learned to do this when I was so young I can't remember being taught... one might call it "instinct")

@futurebird @Anke @bucknam I was definitely taught, by a teacher maybe?

I think this dynamic of people learning a task wanting formal official steps leads to people thinking that there is "One Right Way" to do tasks that can be done in many ways.

A frustrated teacher formalizes something that just isn't formal to avoid having everyone bugging her over and over "but how do I start it? how do I knot it?"

Will I cause someone in 20 years to be told "That's the Wrong Way to do it."

hmmm

@futurebird I have a new-hire mentee that I keep having the same conversation with

him: should I do it by X?
me: sure. Y is also fine.
him: I don't understand

I mean....yeah, that's clear and is also the problem. I'm not going to micromanage your keystroke by keystroke.

**I need you to understand the task.**

Only then will "instructions" make sense.

@va2lam @Anke @bucknam

My mom or grandmother taught me. But I was like 3. I have no memory of it.

It's really hard to teach things that you don't remember needing to learn. But it can be done!

@Anke @va2lam @bucknam

OK I've tried to draw it.

Do not overthink the details of these diagrams. Consider the difference between using a knot to hold the thread vs. using friction.

Friction is often a better, more robust solution. There are many ways to start sewing. Just overlap your stitches, back-stitch a few times until you feel it will not slide out.

@Anke @va2lam @bucknam

OK I've tried to draw it.

Do not overthink the details of these diagrams. Consider the difference between using a knot to hold the thread vs. using friction.

Friction is often a better, more robust solution. There are many ways to start sewing. Just overlap your stitches, back-stitch a few times until you feel it will not slide out.

@Anke @va2lam @bucknam

OK I've tried to draw it.

Do not overthink the details of these diagrams. Consider the difference between using a knot to hold the thread vs. using friction.

Friction is often a better, more robust solution. There are many ways to start sewing. Just overlap your stitches, back-stitch a few times until you feel it will not slide out.

@futurebird
and on a machine generally you sew forward a few stitches and then backward over them and then go... same at the end, reverse over the ending... i feel like thats probably taught more explicitly than hand stitching these days. like if you found a machine sewing beginners guide book theyd have it in there explicitly
@Anke @va2lam @bucknam

@va2lam @Anke @bucknam

It's how I start and finish and I thought "everyone knew this" (because I learned to do this when I was so young I can't remember being taught... one might call it "instinct")

@Anke @va2lam @bucknam

OK I've tried to draw it.

Do not overthink the details of these diagrams. Consider the difference between using a knot to hold the thread vs. using friction.

Friction is often a better, more robust solution. There are many ways to start sewing. Just overlap your stitches, back-stitch a few times until you feel it will not slide out.

@Anke @va2lam @bucknam

OK I've tried to draw it.

Do not overthink the details of these diagrams. Consider the difference between using a knot to hold the thread vs. using friction.

Friction is often a better, more robust solution. There are many ways to start sewing. Just overlap your stitches, back-stitch a few times until you feel it will not slide out.

@dlakelan @Anke @va2lam @bucknam

We are making books so hand stitching is the way for us.

Many of my students have never threaded a needle. (I show them how to use a needle threader which is a topology puzzle for a few.)

@va2lam @Anke @bucknam

It's how I start and finish and I thought "everyone knew this" (because I learned to do this when I was so young I can't remember being taught... one might call it "instinct")

@Anke @va2lam @bucknam

OK I've tried to draw it.

Do not overthink the details of these diagrams. Consider the difference between using a knot to hold the thread vs. using friction.

Friction is often a better, more robust solution. There are many ways to start sewing. Just overlap your stitches, back-stitch a few times until you feel it will not slide out.

Some things are harder to teach than others. One of the most difficult things to explain is "how to start sewing without putting a knot at the end of the thread."

Like many tasks that I stumble over when teaching I made the fatal mistake of thinking "this is easy"

I think I need to draw diagrams?

What makes it worse is it's not that important when you are sewing a book signature how you "knot the thread" since it will be covered in glue later.

My students want an "Official Procedure"