Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Multiplication Tables

Last night I cast on for a pair of men's gloves requested by a friend. This friend has enormous hands. His wrists are 8" in diameter. His knuckles are 9.5" in diameter. (A woman's medium is usually about 6"/7.5".) There is no one in my household with hands like that, so I am making these gloves somewhat blindly, with only my hasty measurements to guide me.

Here's the math: at a gauge of 20 sts/4", an eight-inch wrist means 40 stitches, minus the standard 10 percent for ribbing.

(Did you know you subtract at least 10 percent on ribbing, to make it snug? You do.)

I decided to cast on 36 stitches. What's 36 divided between 3 needles? Why, 13 of course.

Sigh.

In other news, tomorrow I'll be returning to the third grade, where we learn things like multiplication and division.

Happy Point Count: 63. I have my next yarn order all picked out, but oddly enough, we have no money. I appear to have discovered a flaw in the Happy Point system, wherein previously I had assumed that I would have least that much money to spend on yarn once I'd earned the points. In fact, income has proved to be an independent variable, and long story short, we're damned poor right now, thankyouverymuch RECESSION. (Yeah, I'm talking at you.)

But good golly, Molly. If and when things turn around for us, can you imagine the colossal box of yarn that will arrive at our doorstep? Not just yarn: books, clothes, the entire stock of Anthropologie... A dresser from Pottery Barn... My sweetie wants a PS3...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If I had known knitting involved so much math, I swear I would've taken up something else.

The recession is seriously messing with my yarn hoarding tendencies, too. Darn you, recession!

Anonymous said...

Try Ann Budd's "Knitters's Handy book of Patterns to custom make gloves.

Elizabeth said...

Thanks for the tip -- in fact, I did use that book. However, Ms. Budd does not take 10 percent off for ribbing -- she just makes that suggestion in the end notes and leaves you to do the math yourself. It's a very useful book, don't get me wrong -- but I say don't go by the numbers she gives 100 percent.