Knitting and Math Combine in Wooly Thoughts

I came across this article from the Guardian recently about a husband and wife who explore math-inspired knitting.

Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer have made more than 90 math-inspired afghans, as well as other expressions of mathematical ideas in knitting and crochet.

They share their creations at Wooly Thoughts, and their work has been featured at the Science Museum in London, among other places.

The pieces are beautiful even if you don’t know the meaning behind them, and the couple have used them to help illustrate and talk about mathematical concepts in classrooms, where everyone can look at and talk about the same model.

Their projects aim to take the stigma away from both men knitting and women doing math, and they say they hear a lot more that women say they can’t do math than men say they can’t knit. Here’s hoping projects like this can help put both of those stereotypes to rest.

[Photo by Pat Ashforth, via the Guardian.]

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I’ve shared a lot of Christmas stocking knitting patterns over the years (see posts 1, 2, 3 for example) but what if you want to knit a stocking for a non-human member of your family. If you’re looking for Christmas stocking knitting patterns for your cats or dogs, this is the post for you.

These large paw print stockings are perfect for either dogs or cats, so they’re great to knit if you have both. They are worked in the round using DK weight yarn, and the stocking measures about 17 inches/43 cm from the top to the heel. You can get the pattern from nicolaluke.

The K4 Project has a super cute Kitty Christmas stocking pattern, which is worked in worsted weight yarn. They also have a dog version, or you can buy both and get a discount if you have both dogs and cats to knit for. Both projects have two patterns, showing how to work the stockings flat or in the round.

Put your dog into a Christmas scene with this stocking pattern from ifanhourChild. It shows a dog in a dog house in the snow, and has room for the dog’s name at the top. It’s worked flat using worsted weight yarn and the pattern includes charts for many small and medium dog breeds (there’s a separate listing for bigger dogs) so you can stitch a dog that looks like yours.

Annie’s Woolens has both dog and cat stocking knitting patterns that are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. You can change up the colors to suit your pet if you want, and they come with an alphabet chart for personalization. Or you can stick with holiday colors and buy a kit to make the dog or cat stocking.

Waiting for Santa Paws is a pattern from Kate Agner on Ravelry that would be cute for a dog or a cat. It looks like a leg with a paw print on the bottom part of the foot and more paw prints running around the top of the leg. This is a great option if you don’t want to mess with a heel turn because it doesn’t have a heel, because dogs and cats don’t have heels so why would their stockings?

Book Review – 20 to Knit: Tiny Christmas Toys to Knit

Book Review – Knit Christmas Stockings

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