Pi2R or Math Works (when you use it right)

Posted on | May 16, 2007 | 11 Comments

Sorry folks, this is a picture-light post, if you’re looking for the meat, scroll down to where it says “announcement!”

I am math challenged. Don’t tell my boss (she’s an engineer). I would be lost without Excel and Access in my worklife, and sometimes my daily life as well. I would certainly be lost without the excellent resources on the internets when it comes to this little project that I’ve been working on (lest you think that I haven’t been knitting – I have more swatches than you can shake a stick at right now!) One of my recent quandries forced me to work through an online geometry tutorial in which I had flashbacks to Mrs. Lindsay’s 10th grade class. I can’t believe it – she was right when she said I’d need this someday!

A fortuitous email conversation awhile back with Ruth resulted in an invitation to join her and some other fine folks on a small design blog that we are hiding from the general public – it allows us to bounce ideas off one another and get feedback in a safe place, where it would not exclude us from submitting for publication later on. It has been a great experience, and very positive.

As a result I’m working on a few specific things (actually just one right now, though there are a couple more on deck with more yarn on order for more swatching). I do have some goals, but for now I just think of this as testing my limits – the limits of what I think I’m capable of knitting-wise, and of my confidence to put myself out there creatively. I’m learning a ton, and thinking with a creative focus, which is fun. And flexing my problem solving skills – every time I figure out how to make something work (no matter how seemingly little) I am just thrilled. Waking up with an idea in the morning is so cool – so is waking up with a possible solution to a design complication. Every little victory is pretty hard won at this point, and so each one propels me forward – what fun! I’m still a little afraid that it will turn out to be a colossal powder blue yarny mess, but I will have learned a ton in the process and either way you have a good story to look forward to when all is said and done!

ANNOUNCEMENT: I wrote that post last week and was just waiting for a good time to put it up, and now seems like a great time.

SO, I interrupt this broadcast to tell you….. I decided to submit this little project that I mentioned above to MagKnits for consideration – I thought that it would be a great experience and working with the design group really bolstered my confidence. Kerrie Allman has accepted my design proposal and my very first design will appear in the August issue! I am slightly stunned and overwhelmed because I like the idea – but, well, it’s my idea – ofcourse I like it – but I don’t expect that everyone else will like it too. I had to read her email about 5 times over – I’ve been reading Magknits ever since I started knitting and I am so thrilled to have a chance to be included in it. I have so much admiration for some of the designers that have appeared in the magazine, and I have butterflies just thinking about it! I hope that you do like it, and I hope that you check it out, since all I can do now is give you this tiny tidbit. I can’t wait to hear all the critiques (positive and negative)! I am really a relatively new knitter, so I have much to learn about both knitting and design, and feedback is so important to that process. Now I’ve got to get cracking – I’ve got a knit to finish up and a pattern to write!

Comments