As all fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will know, 42 is The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Today is the 42nd anniversary of the first broadcast. This cushion is the ideal gift for any Douglas Adams fan, or as a 42nd birthday present for anyone. When …
Author: Pat Ashforth
Am I doing it right?
We have often been asked about illusions for left-handed knitters. It is always a difficult question to answer because people use their own workarounds. It was only today that it occurred to me to do something practical about it. I have taken the lettering from Love Cushion and put it in a separate little pattern …
Love is in the air
This is the ideal time to make a small knitted box with a hidden gift. Cube Thing is made from three simple strips of knitting. They are not joined but they stay together to form a cube. You can put your gift inside and it can be taken out again without doing any damage to …
02022020
Today is 02/02/2020. Whichever side of the Atlantic you are this is a palindromic date. It doesn’t matter whether you put day or month first, or whether you put them before or after the year, they read the same backwards as they do forwards. What’s more the date will also read the same if you …
Modular Knitting 3
How to use modular garter stitch shapes with 45, 90 ad 135 degree angles. Previous posts about making the shapes1. Knitting at MathsJam2. More Modular Knitting Now you know how to make the shapes, what can you do with them? You could make a small cushion or go on, as many people have, to make …
More Modular Knitting
In an earlier post I described what happens at a typical Woolly Thoughts workshop about modular knitting and why these foolproof methods work. Begin with a garter stitch square, knit diagonally: Make a slip knot Increase by knitting into the front and back of the loop Increase at the end of every row until you …
Two Dolphins
New year – new pattern. Steve has now designed more than a dozen illusion blankets. You can see them all here. This new one is amongst my favourites. There are many reasons why I particularly like it Dolphins appeal to people of all ages so it isn’t just a baby blanket It is very easy …
Knitting at MathsJam
Last week I gave a talk at MathsJam Annual Gathering. This is an amazing annual event where ‘mathematicians’ from around the world get together. It isn’t the boring number stuff you might imagine. When 200 eccentrics (of the nicest possible kind) get together it leads to mind-bending fun, puzzles, games, performances, cake baking, singing and …
Borromean Baubles
These simple mathematical baubles can be made in lots of different ways and either hung as a decoration, or used to hold a small gift. The Borromeo family originated in Rome – that’s where the Rome bit of their name came from. In the twelfth century they set up a bank in Milan and became …
Barbie Spirals
Barbie has lots of new knit and crochet spiral dresses. In maths there are very specific definitions for some kinds of spirals. You can find lots of information about mathematical spirals on the internet. Some of them refer to ‘circling round a centre point’ but you will also find square, hexagonal and other shaped spirals. …