Knitting New Neural Pathways
A few years ago, I finally dove into crocheting and knitting. At first, my stitches were very irregular in tension and it was like I had completely forgotten how to count (a CRUCIAL skill in the fiber arts!). Within a few weeks, I was able to have my favorite movies playing and let my fingers fly with very little thought. That feeling of “it just clicked” is a direct reflection of my brain laying down new, more efficient myelin sheaths to connect the motor and sensory centers for my fingers.
Myelin is a fatty, insulating substance that forms a protective sheath around the axons of nerve cells. This sheath helps electrical signals, or impulses, travel quickly and efficiently along the nerve fibers, much like insulation on a wire.
If you’re like me, and tried something new recently, you may have experienced the impact of myelination in your own life. At first, it feels like the process of learning can be slow and effortful because you’re accessing new neural pathways. But with repetition and meaningful practice, things begin to “click.” For me, that happened with crocheting and knitting, my moves became more automatic and less effortful.
Myelination is key to our understanding of neuroplasticity. The brain responds to new experiences by forming and reinforcing neural connections and strengthening neural pathways. Myelin makes these pathways more efficient. The more we engage in a new habit or hobby, the stronger and more insulated our neural pathways become.
As a neural educator, I’m always looking for ways to leverage neuroscience with my learners. Here are a few things I’m thinking about:
Encourage varied experience: Because myelin development is tied to neural activity and experience, rich and varied learning opportunities (hands-on, discussion, collaboration, reflection) support the brain’s wiring.
Celebrate growth-mindset wiring: I can tell students: “Your brain is growing. Practice, effort, and challenge don’t just teach you facts, they help your brain become more efficient.” We can celebrate productive struggle and even mistakes and failure because we know our brains grow and change in response to these experiences.
Be patient with network-heavy learning: Higher level thinking and skills like metacognition, reasoning across domains, and synthesis require coordination of brain networks, which in turn rely on mature white-matter pathways. Myelination and growth takes time with lots of opportunities for meaningful practice, sense-making, and integration.
Whether students are learning to regulate their emotions, read with fluency, or practice a new hobby, myelination helps turn repetition into efficiency — transforming fragile new pathways into durable habits the brain can rely on. It’s the same reason my early knitting stitches felt awkward and uneven, but now my hands find the rhythm more easily: with each stitch, the pathway strengthens and the myelin thickens, just like it does for our students as they learn.
