travelling tortoise

Crochet is counting. Crochet is Maths. Maths is everywhere and in everything.

I have recently been asked to check a statement for my grown up niece when she was applying for a Math teaching degree course: she needed to come up with everyday examples of maths being present, and why she was passionate about teaching it. Since then, i cannot STOP finding more and more examples for her! There are examples of maths in SO many things that we do daily.

And what I do daily is crochet – as you may have noticed…

When i was completing the #travellingtortoise blanket brought to you today, i was convinced for the longest time, it was a pentagon in shape. As you will see in the photos below:

Pentagon it is not.

Whilst making it, i kept thinking, five sides, surely, i have gone round all of them by now. Each row, i have pretty much got frustrated, because it was not growing as fast as anticipated. Until… I took a picture of it for my sister to see if she liked it for her house. It was offered to her, because it is very similar in style to one i had already given them a while ago – the original blanket’s bigger, more grown up sister.

I saw the photo, counted the sides, and guess what?

6 sides does not a pentagon make.

There it was, maths again, and the bitter failing of my memory in relation to the shape of this blanket. No matter, the finished product serves the same function. Tell you this much: after i corrected my assumption about the blanket, my rows were all of a sudden growing faster, and the final (sixth) corner came around much quicker than when it was presumed fifth…

Crochet is counting. I love both!

This visceral reminder of the connection between the two, realised by my error in the counting, and then the correction of it, where maths was present, yet again…

Well, it made me think of a project i have seen a long time ago, where a Mathematician and a crafter used crochet to demonstrate hyperbolic crochet in practice. I remember being mesmerised, awestruck even, at such a beautiful use of the technique, as well as the incorporation of maths (science) into creativity (art).

Artist recommentation

Read HERE Dr Daina Taimina’s origination of this connection between maths and crochet in her Hyperbolic Crochet workshops.

I have attempted to make these, pictured below, as sensory crochet items, and out of cotton yarn to use as sponges. That was where i stopped. Hyperbolic crochet as part of my daily practice is not very pronounced. Yet?

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How and why these two (art and science) are considered opposites by some, separate entities, when they are so close and actually have an influence on one another? Dualistic thinking prevails in some areas of our lives. I for one hope more complex understanding of the world around us and connections within it is waiting on the horizon…

UNEXPECTED REALISATION

In the middle of this beauty you will find my 3D lemon meringue hexagonal pattern, which is actually my best selling crochet pattern HERE on RAVELRY. It is a version of a meringue pattern (great name) in a hexagon, which i tend to do with most of my adopted favourite crochet stitches. I learn a stitch and then i stretch it – make a square stitch into a circular configuration is my favourite challenge, or definitely used to be. HERE is the last story of such an endeavour.

After the latest big blanket* #cottonconquest was completed HERE and the last of my triangles were put into jumpers #nauticalnoel HERE, i wanted a simple, not thinking crochet project. So i picked up the black and white meringue hexagon, which was until now abandoned in the corner, and off i went!

_{*made out of cotton squares and complicated figuring out of connections, trying out new patterns and stitches etc.}

I needed to work out styles and colours and do a lot of problem solving in the last large projects. I had to count and consider a lot.. After that, i did not really fancy counting that much. I wanted to get lost in the moment:

Counting without counting.

This blanket was about getting to those creative flow moments easily, when i can keep making without thinking about it too much. Well, apart from the miscounting the sides, which made the progression of this blanket a little less flowy…

I do seem to be alternating between these two types of projects. The challenging innovative ones, and the mindful mindless ones. Long may it continue…

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The finished project has gone to live with its little lemon sister, the original inspiration for the pattern, and the same centre as this here beaut!

WIN WIN!

Thanks for reading and Keep Counting!

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