Math

I like math. I know this horrifies many knitters, but there you are: my graduate work was highly dependent on an understanding of basic matrix math and Fourier transforms, I took six quarters of college math (and should have taken more), and I just like it. It's beautiful. This despite the fact that I'm mediocre at it. What can I say? I like the way I know it should be.

So I'm thrilled by the mathematics of knitting. I'm starting to fiddle with pattern design and it's mostly because of the geometry, not because of the appearance. I want to work out the perfect way to shape a sweater over my high, bony shoulders. To calculate the relationship between swatch shrinkage and where and how much I should increase the length of my cotton knits (as cotton has an annoying tendency to grow in width and shrink in length). To understand a raglan.

In pursuit of this last, I'm knitting a little baby sweater. Many of my friends have had babies in the past year, others are still expecting. One of my friends, Georgina, had a baby in January and is about to come down to San Diego to visit. Can I finish the little raglan cardigan by the time she arrives? Perhaps! But if nothing else, I'm mesmerized by its geometry.