EILEEN ADLER

And all the time I thought I was just knitting or crocheting or coloring. Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a crafty – mathy ride!
 

Knitting and Crocheting: 

• Skip Counting: we do this all the time, but did you think of it as a math skill? When casting on a few stitches to begin my knitting project, counting each stitch separately is fine but if you are casting on four hundred stitches, one-by-one is a waste of time. Skip count by 2s and you’ll be done in half the time!  When beginning a crochet chain, count by twos for a faster chain. 

• Division: A knitter or crochet artist will often come across a set of directions something like this: increase a certain number of stitches across the row. This is a division problem because to do this evenly spaced without unwanted puckers, you must place the increased stitches evenly spaced. How do you accomplish this? Take the total number of stitches on the knitting needle or in your piece of crochet, then divide this number by the number of increased stitches required. Example: with 112 stitches, the pattern instructs us to increase eight stitches; 112 ÷ 8 = 14. Every fourteenth space or stitch increase one stitch for a total of 120 stitches.

• Gauge – this is defined as the number of stitches and rows that are contained in one inch of work. If you don’t know this, your item may not be the right size. Mr. Rogers’ statue located in Pittsburg and designed by Robert Berks, is wearing a red crocheted sweater created by Alicia Kachmar in 2011. Talk about gauge!!!!

Coloring is so relaxing. Try your hand at coloring quilt designs using graph paper.

• Using graph paper, copy the lines of quilts and color them in your way. This one is called the Courthouse Steps. Make several and assemble them.

Zentangles are abstract drawings created using repetitive patterns including a combination of dots, lines, simple curves, S-curves, and orbs. Tangling can set your creativity on its head.

      

Zentangles

Today is my birthday and that’s math too – I’m celebrating 876 months, 3,796 weeks, 26,663.25 days! I’m thankful for living my meaningful and purposeful life with the love of my family and friends. Thank you for sharing my journey.

Self-care Ritual: find something that you enjoy and mathimize it to the limit while maximizing your enjoyment.