Thursday, September 09, 2010

Knitting as Math as Secret Code

Over at Golden Apples, Helen has posted about the message she knit into her square for yarnbombing the rocket at the Hall of Science as part of Maker Faire. Please go over and read about what she has done. I'll wait for you.

Are you back? Is your head spinning?

I met Helen first online through some local knitting forum and we quickly connected about our shared love of knitting and possibly also our love of Queens, where Helen also lives. But Helen's mind works very differently than mine. She is a walking encyclopedia, so she can hold forth on many topics, but science and math are her strengths. Also knitting: I think she can boast of knowing something like 49 ways to cast on.

Me? Well, let's just say that when I was checking Finnian's answers to a sample test he was taking as prep for taking the NYC specialized high school exams, I realized that I wasn't the one who should be checking his answers since I really wasn't all that sure which ones were correct. Despite having taken four years of high school math, the skills I have retained add up to about Grade 5. (And yet I function in the world, I might add, and rather nicely, thank you very much.)

Helen, on the other hand, studies math and science for fun. Fun!

It all makes me so, so happy that Helen is in the world. She is out there, doing her thing, which allows others to do, well, whatever it is that we do. Now go on back to Helen's blog and read her other posts, watch her tutorial videos, and learn something new!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Its just knitting!

and it's yesterdays new (post!)

its something i have thought of doing for YEARS. (and finally got around to thanks to you!)

Dickens had Mdme DeFarge knitting code in a Tale of Two Cities. I often wonder how she did it?

did she use braile (a non binary code) or some other way?

certainly, the idea of knitting coded messages is not knew!

Robyn said...

See Helen, you are already demanding more exacting detail than I am prepared to offer...