Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Knitting Is the New Mental Jujitsu

Last night I worked mostly on the Web site but also accomplished two things with the sweater.
  1. The body and sleeve are now joined into one piece on the large circular needle.

  2. I finished the chart for the thing I'm going with the chest.
Is it just me, or does a seamless sweater feel miserably unstable until you've got about four rounds completed following the joins? I was in mortal terror of stretching or breaking the joining stitches, especially while working that first round.

The charting process was such a good mental workout. I have never, to put it mildly, been fond of mathematics (Mom! Dad! Remember all the fun with long division?) so I was surprised to find myself feeling invigorated by the rigors of calculating and adjusting, calculating and adjusting.

All told, I think it took four hours to finish the chart. To my great surprise, it bears a family resemblance to what I had in mind. Now all I have to do is knit from it.

With all this extra work, my housekeeping has gone straight to hell this week, but I'm trying not to let it bother me. C keeps showing up and hasn't made any Grey Gardens jokes yet, so perhaps the situation is worse in my head than in reality.

Gee, that would be a first.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Housekeeping is overrated. Knitting and photography are way more important. Congrats on the chart. Maybe math is easier when you can see the point.

Rabbitch said...

a) I suspect my house has already gone all Grey Gardens, b) housework is for the weak and c) I think you've just given me a movie I need to watch.

Susan said...

Jove is right on--if only they'd used knitting patterns to teach you math in school. All manner of studies say more learning takes place when the students not only see the purpose, but care about it as well (big shock--so what do we do? Grammar worksheets! Oh boy!) Way to go with all of this knitting and photography. It's so exciting to watch you begin to recognize how awesome you are, espeically since I've known it for all of my years.

As an aside, my word verification code looks like a celebratory word (like hurrah!) from an unknown language--so, to you I say, "mtheai!"

Rebekah Ravenscroft-Scott said...

oh my god! i just read that the Yarn Harlot is coming to CHICAGO on Oct. 1! wanna go? no details yet, but dude, let's be there!

btw, love your grey gardens reference. yes, our house has almost reached that point but with dogs instead of cats.

TurnipToes said...

Sounds like you are making great progress on the sweater. I was thinking of making my first sweater soon, and I have that seemless pattern narrowed down to one of the options...I cannot wait to see how yours turns out.

Elizabeth said...

Years ago, I had a friend in upstate NY who was completely math phobic. One day we were discussing how to make a tam. I had been in a tam phase after buying Starmore's Fair Isle Knitting book. My friend who would panic at the idea of calculating 7% of $10, instantly and effortlessly calculated the radius of her hat, based on the circumference, and then used her row gauge to figure her decreases for a 7 pointed star. I was dumbfounded, not because the problem was that challenging, but because she hadn't believed she was any good at math.

I'm dying to see what interesting feature you've cooked up for your sweater!

sagrada familia said...

Quite useful material, thanks so much for the post.

Unknown said...

Kondiloma akuminatum ialah vegetasi oleh Human Papiloma Virus tipe tertentu, bertangkai, dan permukaannya berjonjot. Tipe HPV tertentu mempunyai potensi onkogenik yang tinggi yaitu tipe 16 dan 18. tipe ini merupakan jenis virus yang paling sering dijumpai pada kanker serviks. Sedangkan tipe 6 dan 11 lebih sering dijumpai pada kondiloma akuminatum dan neoplasia intraepitelial serviks derajat ringan. Kondiloma akuminatum ialah vegetasi oleh Human Papiloma Virus tipe tertentu, bertangkai, dan permukaannya berjonjot. Tipe HPV tertentu mempunyai potensi onkogenik yang tinggi, yaitu tipe 16 dan 18. tipe ini merupakan jenis virus yang paling sering dijumpai pada kanker serviks. Sedangkan tipe 6 dan 11 lebih sering dijumpai pada kondiloma akuminatum dan neoplasia intraepitelial serviks derajat ringan segera kontak kami untuk mendapatkan obat kutil kelamin paling manjur