Internship Reflection
/by Shannon Kaiser
This summer I have been interning at the Heritage Winooski Mill Museum. I’m studying art history and history at UVM and will enter my senior year this fall. Admittedly, I did not know much about the Mill Museum or the history of Winooski before starting this internship. This position initially caught my eye because I am very interested in museum work and local history. In the description of the internship, I read that knowing how to knit or at least being willing to learn how to knit was a plus for potential applicants. I thought, well okay, that’s not really what I’m interested in, and I’ve never tried knitting or any kind of textile arts, but I’ll see how it goes.
Shannon (right) teaching museum visitors how to spool knit at French heritage Day.
As it turns out, learning how to knit has been one of my favorite parts of this internship. I first learned how to knit using a spool (known as French knitting or spool knitting) for Winooski’s French Heritage Day event. For the French Heritage celebration, I spent the day with yarn and a crochet hook in hand, showing visitors of all ages how to use a spool to knit. The visitors who tried spool knitting ranged from young children trying it for the first time to seniors who were delighted to try it again after not having seen that style of knitting for years! I was touched by listening to adults describe how they had learned how to knit on a spool as children and had forgotten about this craft until now. The response to French knitting amazed me because, for older people, it reminded them of their childhood, and for children, it reminded them of making Rainbow Loom bracelets. Many visitors found the craft fascinating and expressed that they had never heard of it before, much less tried it. I replied, “I hadn’t either until just recently!”
spool knitting Instructions Shannon Developed
Not only did I learn how to French knit, but I then learned how to knit the standard way with two needles with the assistance of the Stitch Together program. The Stitch Together program is a knitting group that meets at AALV (The Association of Africans Living in Vermont) in collaboration with the Winooski Mill Museum. This was another organization I had no knowledge of before starting my internship. Previously, I had only known knitting as a task that continually frustrated my grandmother. I recall her knitting a few rows, and then groaning as she would rip them out and asking why there wasn’t something more interesting to do. Perhaps my grandmother, who was from Lowell, Massachusetts, an area famously entrenched in the history of mechanized cloth production, had simply had enough of textiles by the time she reached old age. However, I imagine she would have really enjoyed the friendship and camaraderie that the Stitch Together program fosters.
Learning to knit has been so enjoyable for me because of the connections I have been able to gain with community members both during French Heritage Day and at AALV. And perhaps, to a small extent, this is a taste of the sense of togetherness and socialization that drew so many young women to leave their homes and work at the textile mills in Winooski and Burlington centuries ago.