Stupid Math

The Ruched Yoke Tee pattern I've been working on requires several rows of "increasing evenly" across the row. I'm a liberal arts major. I can do math, but only if I'm wearing sandals. But I'm also a millennial. So, I started looking for an app to do this for me. I knew there were stitch-counting ones, and I've heard about knitting mathematicians, so I was hopeful.

I think the shininess of the yarn picked up the dark mauve of the blouse I was wearing when I took this picture. It turned a weird color, even with editing. Also, I might do something about the row where I used the wrong increase stitch (distinguishable by the holes - oops). I'm thinking about weaving ribbon through it? But I might just leave it, like an artistic nod to the key-hole that will interrupt it. We'll see.

Turns out, there is an app. It looks pretty slick - you can adjust for in-the-round or straight; increasing or decreasing evenly; and for easier-to-remember or more-accurately-symmetrical. It will even keep track of where you are, and give you the next instruction. It's available for iThings. I'm an Android girl.

Fortunately there's a less-slick website. It doesn't adjust for circular or straight - it's all the same - and it won't feed you the instructions, but it will give give you the easy-to-remember way and the evenly-balanced way, and there's helpful, reassuring commentary. And, the creator made a calculator for decreasing.

The best thing about the website, though, is the list she keeps on the other page. It's a whole list of knitting-related math-doers. Very, very slick indeed.

In Progress: Corporate Synergy Gray Glovelets

I'm working on a solution to my freezing fingers at work. Now that it's winter, it's been a little warmer in the office, so my deadline for these is closer to April, when they'll start cranking the AC.

Since they're office accessories, and the yarn I want to use happens to be gray (Jo Sharp calls it "opal" - see below), I decided they're "corporate gray," like so many suits at so many meetings.

Also, I am infatuated with cable knits, and I like the idea of the pattern having a collaboration theme, which works well for a cable pattern. In this pattern, there are two cables which come together from opposite sides of the mitt, twist a bit, and then part again. It reminds me of a lot of my projects at work: I find someone with whom to collaborate - often from a completely different part of the organization - we work together and do great things, and when the project is over, we go our separate ways. As for the title, well, I'm working on my career evaluation package, so my head is full of buzz words. And the more buzzwords, the better, right? ;)

I had some left-over hanks of gorgeous Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran that I had bought on sale from Webs and used in a couple projects for my tiny baby daughter. It's 85% wool, 10% silk, 5% cashmere and it feels like a warm, cozy dream. Webs no longer sells Jo Sharp yarns (this was a long, long time ago that I bought it), and Jo Sharp apparently no longer makes Silkroad Aran in Opal. I'd look for an alpaca/wool blend with a similar gauge, if I were going to do this again.

This is the second time I'll have made the left glove. Last time, there were some things I realized I could have done better, and by the time I got into the right glove, I couldn't stop thinking about how this could be so much better. So I frogged what I had done on the right, and re-started. That first left mitt is a lost cause, but I'll keep it around in case I need to steal its yarn (though I should have plenty).

When I land on a pattern I'm happy with, I'll post here and on Ravelry, where you can find my other original pattern, too. I'm making myself finish this and the shawl from hell (not my pattern, for the record) before I start on anything else, so it should be done soon-ish.