Math and Knitting?

What does math have to do with knitting? Well, if you are Elizabeth Z immerman everything.

Elizabeth Zimmerman was to knitting what Henry Ford was to automobile manufacturing. Ms Zimmerman was part philosopher, part engineer and part scientist. She saw patterns and designs in life and the world around her. Elizabeth called herself The Opinionated Knitter. She had definite ideas about yarn, wool, needles and designing and encouraged fellow knitters to test their limits

Ms. Zimmerman became disenchanted by her friends demand to use printed patterns in their knitting. Ms. Zimmerman developed a mathematical formula for creating seamless sweaters in the round on circular needles. This allowed knitters to concentrate on other creative concerns, like yarn and stitches. This mathematical formula is all about the finished size of the sweater and the amount of stitches needed to make certain parts of a garment.

Sadly, Ms Zimmerman is no longer with us, but her designs and legacy live on through her daughter Meg Swansen and Schoolhouse Press. If you want to take your knitting to the next level, I suggest reading Elisabeth books. They are full of her reflections on her life, from childhood in England to the schoolhouse in Wisconsin where she lived with her family.

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I didn’t expect to like the show “Only Murders in the Building” as much as I do, but one draw of the show, in which neighbors investigate murders for their true-crime podcast, is definitely the costumes, especially the knitwear.

Selena Gomez’s character Mabel wears a lot of great knits, and Joji Locatelli was inspired a yellow sweater featured in the very first episode of the show.

This top down waddle textured pullover is knit in Mabel’s signature yellow color, but you can use any fingering weight yarn you like. The design is actually pretty simple as it uses regular ribbing and fisherman’s rib, which looks like brioche but is a lot easier to do.

The pattern comes in 9 sizes, with actual bust circumference measurements ranging from 30.5 to 62.5 inches, or 76 to 156 cm. It’s meant to be worn with 2-4 inches/5-10 cm of positive ease, so you can pick the size that fits you best with that in mind.

The somewhat close fit and raglan sleeves make this sweater easy to wear and it’s sure to be a new favorite for fall and to layer with in colder weather. This one reminds me of some of my favorite textured tops that I’ve purchased, and I actually already bought this pattern so I can make one as soon as I make some room in my knitting schedule.

You can get your copy of the pattern on Ravelry. While you’re there take a scroll through the projects gallery so you can see how it looks in different colors and on different bodies if you’re not into the yellow. There are lots of really pretty options in there!

If you’ve never worked fisherman’s rib before, it’s really easy, but if you want some practice before you take on this project, check out my fisherman rib scarf, which is worked on big needles and is a super quick knit to get you comfortable with the concept.

[Photo: Joji Locatelli]

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