Tonight was knitting night with the mathies. I made some more progress on my fountain lace dish cloth and also started another. The pattern also comes from Smariek's blog. It's the traveling vines dishcloth. This is a really pretty pattern, and it's suprisingly easy.

Annie has been working on a new sweater pattern, and it is making me jealous. Therefore I'm stopping by Crazy Girl Yarn Shop on Friday to pick up the ribbon yarn to make the tank pictured above. This will be my first garment that's not a hat or mittens. Yay!

I've also found a knitting book at the library that I'd like to recommend. It's Vintage Knits by Sarah Dallas. It has some fun patterns and most would make great beginner's projects. I'm definitely going to go buy myself a copy.

April 16th

Find two consecutive integers such that the square of the sum of the two integers is 11 more than the smaller integer.

So what's the answer? My students would dearly like to know. They had an exam tonight covering polynomials, factoring, and rational expressions. I was afraid that I made the test too easy, but I don't think my students would agree with that.

I don't have any real knitting news tonight. I am scoping out a pattern for a tank top. I may start that this weekend. I'm going to try and do a couple of rows on the fountain lace dish cloth while I go re-watch The Return Part II. It's one of my all time favorite episodes of Stargate EVER!

Oh, the pictures above are of some tasty blood oranges I've been thinking of drawing, and the view from my office in January.

2nd Post

For the last two days I've been bashing my head against my Applied Math homework (pictured above). I'm trying to find the modified equation for the planar Kepler problem using the BCH formula. Unfortunately every time I do the Poisson brackets, I get a different result. Math is fun!

Let's talk about something prettier...like mittens.

The mittens pictured above are a gift for my mom. ( I know, it's a bit late. At least I'll have them done for next winter!) I'm following the Tweedy Mitten pattern by Midnightknitter which can be found here:
http://www.midnightknitter.com/knitpixiepatterns/uploads/mittens_two.htm

I'm using US #8 bamboo needles and Cascade brand Pastaza yarn. I love the 50% Llama/ 50% wool blend. The mittens get softer with use and don't pill much at all. My only problem with this yarn is that Miles LOVES to play/chew/eat it. I've had to become very creative at hiding my knitting.

My second project is a fountain lace dishcloth. I'm using a pattern by Smariek located here:
http://smariek.blogspot.com/2006/09/fountain-lace.html

I decided I wanted a larger, stretchier cloth so I'm using US #8 needles. The yarn is Sugar 'n Cream. This has been a fun intro into basic lace patterns, and I can't wait to try more.

April 12, 2007

My fellow Mathy and knitting enthusiast, Annie, has been urging me to start a knitting blog. I've decided to give it a whirl. Along with knitting, I thought I would intersperse this blog with my thoughts on math, books, and anything else that pops into my head. I hope you enjoy the ride!