There is math in crochet? Who knew?!?

[Tiga]

My head hurts. I want to make the hexagon motifs afghan in the aug/sept. issue of Crochet Today, but I wanted to make it large enough for my queen size bed.

 

It took me all day, but I FINALLY figured it out.

 

The pattern calls for 1 skein of each color; I'm going to have to use 4 of each color! And there are 7 colors. And 8 skeins of the main color!!!! It uses TLC Essentials (I finally found all the colors I need in one yarn ), so at least it won't be super, super expensive. Unless you count $100+ as super, super expensive. Which I do, but considering how large this beast will be, I guess it's not too bad. So maybe it's just super expensive, not super super .

 

I'm going to buy the yarn one color at a time, a little at a time, and then when I have it all, I'll start making the endless motifs - there are about 55 each of 4 motifs.

 

Maybe I'll finish this when I'm 80.

 

Oh, and if anyone wants the exact numbers and the modified layout, let me know, and I'll share my work.

[PoisonApple]

Um...the train arrives at 10 o'clock?

 

Wow that sounds like a lot of work but I bet it will be beautiful when you get it done1

[krzykajun]

Don't forget to share a pic when you're fininished !!!

[BlondieeAggiee]

I attempted making a blanket big enough for a queen sized bed once. It was made out of tiny three inch granny squares. I don't know how many I already had, but at last count I still needed 250 more to complete it. I decided that a WIP for three years was too long and I've hacked it up. It's still larger than a standard blanket but not as large as the queen, and now I only need 50 more squares.

[pragmatica]

Sounds lovely! Can't wait to see it. You (and your ilk ) are super-brave to take on such big projects. I'm constitutionally unable to take on projects that last more than a few weeks, at best.

 

But mostly I'm posting because of the title of your post -- there's PLENTY of math in crochet, if you want there to be. Stitch patterns in dictionaries are X number of stitches + Y. If you want to stitch a solid circle, the formula is to add the same number of stitches in each row as there were crocheted into the original ring. Using a random snowflake generator (don't know the right word for this -- it's in an old version of KidPix and generates random five-, six-, and eight-sided snowflakes, kinda like a fractal tree program but everything's symmetrical) and some conversion of lines in the image to chains and DC, you can create infinite random doilies or, now that I think of it, infinite random snowflake decorations. (Now that I think of it, I bet a bedspread based on a Julia set would be really cool as well as infinitely dorky.) At one of the last knitting and crochet conferences in Oakland (sorry, didn't go, don't remember which one it was), there was a workshop on using phi, or the golden mean, as a basis for designing stripe patterns, which I still think is pretty funny except they called it the golden mean because its ratio was pleasing so the stripes are nicely placed. And I know there are lots more examples that are bound to be even less obscure than the ones I listed but there's not enough coffee in me to remember them yet.

 

Sorry, I'm a big fat wannabe math and science geek (actually just a writer who works with software engineers all the time), and clearly this rant has nothing to do with anything in your post but the title! But I've been tutoring slack-jawed elementary students in math (my current unfortunate and extended period of no new contract gigs means that I have to do volunteer work or my head will implode) and struggling to make math -- well, heck, even basic arithmetic -- relevant to everyday life so they'll close their slack little jaws and actually think. (Not that they have any interest in crochet, but I've gotten into the habit of saying, "See? MATH!!!" Also, every time my hobby converges on spouse's areas of interest, I have to whack him on the head with it so he'll stop mocking me for always dragging yarn everywhere. (Gently, of course -- both the mocking and the whacking. But I just called him about mapping a Julia set to a pixel graph and he's into it.)

 

Sorry to go so far abroad on this topic -- I'll get off my soapbox now. Have a great weekend!

 

--Elissa

[xampx]

pragmatica, i know what you mean, i cant sit and make something without a whole technical drawing in advance and all kinds of irrelevant measurements. Im building a house next year so its only going to get worse with that lol.

 

Good luck with the queensize blanket Tiga, id manage about 20 squares before the boredom kicked in lol

[blackpurl]

I hate math... but for some reason I can figure stuff out concerning crochet. Just like my husband knows the point avg of all his favorite basketball players. But, he groans when helping the kids out with homework!

[Starr]

I cannot do practical math to save my life, but when it comes to crochet and beadwork, I can do the math all day!!!! (if I remember correctly, there are about four 6mm beads in one inch LOL but it has been so long since I have done any beadwork, I could be wrong LOL)

 

I have been using crochet to help my son with math, he struggles worse than I do otherwise LOL

[clocke]

Wow. I think I'd try a bedspread or an afghan pattern based on the Julia set. Fractals are SO cool!

[gardnr]

As a math teacher this thread had me LMAO!!!! Maybe that is why I love to crochet...all the math involved.

 

Gardnr

[Ladycrochat]

Tiga, I am really looking forward to seeing your wonderful afghan one day, anytime you need a boost along with it....just post a comment and you know that all of Crochetville will be right there behind you:ghug...cheering you on! I LOVE THIS PLACE:jumpyay !

As for the whole math aspect to crocheting:hook ...you are all, of course, right! I never realised how much math we used....but I supposed as it is mixed up with one of our LOVES :bheart(crochet) we just don't notice it!

[Tiga]

Well, it's going to take some time to accumulate all the yarn and then I figure at least a year to make all the motifs. But I don't mind.

 

No one ever said crochet was a race, lol! Well, except all those articles lately about the "world's fastest crocheter". WTHeck is that all about?

 

Anyway, I'm going to start buying in January (I am not allowed to buy anymore yarn until I finish up all of my current WIPs), and it'll take me 4 months to get enough yarn to start on the first motifs - I need 4 skeins of each color! And I don't care is they say no dye lot - I just don't trust that!