Mathematics, Knitting, and Quantum Physics

I have been reading Linda Skolnik’s The Knitting Way. This is not your grandmother’s knitting book, folks, this is very heavy stuff. Skolnik is the founder of the stunning yarn company Patternworks though she sold the company some years back. I don’t often buy from them - their prices are intimidating - but I love the catalogs and do order just often enough to keep them coming. They have a wide variety of fine hardwood needles that I can always add to my collection.

But the book is amazing and slow going. There are so many things to think about which is exactly her point. That when we spend quiet hours with our hands busy, our minds often go to the most interesting places.

There is a lot of math in knitting if you are not the sort of person who relies on patterns. I have a copy of the famous Knitters Magazine Issue 9 Winter 1987 which I bought at the Spirit of ‘76 bookstore in Marblehead shortly after moving to New England. In it Elizabeth Zimmerman introduced her now-famous “Pi-Shawl”, a circular shawl designed on the mathematics of pi. I’ve read the directions a dozen times and am still baffled when I try to explain them - the circumference of a circle doubles as the radius doubles. Oh. But what this translates to is you double the number of stitches on your needles every time the rounds you have knitted double. How simple is that?

But that’s sort of the beauty of this book and of knitting itself. When I was a novice knitter I made scarves - dozens of scarves. I graduated to ski caps and knitting in the round and that was kind of interesting. Then I discovered mittens. Now that was cool because of the gusset you had to make for the thumb. Well, I was thirteen then and didn’t know much.

Over the years I grew as a knitter progressing to sweaters and socks and then to complex patterns - Faire Isle and Nordic ski sweaters - then on to Kaffe Fasette designs. I made his Southwestern pattern coat in jewel toned mohairs one winter and still trot it out for a trip to the store on chilly autumn days. Learning to knit Aran sweaters was probably the most interesting. I made dozens of them all in my own concoctions of design combinations. Shortly after moving to New England I put in ad in Yankee Magazine’s “Swop” column and spent a couple years traveling around to B&Bs all over New England swopping handmade Aran sweaters for a few nights at these lovely inns. That was fun.

But Skolnik is an intellectual knitter. She contemplates the cosmos in her knitting and creates amazing designs based on her ideas gleaned from mathematics and quantum mechanics. The Moebius scarf has become popular in knitting circles but she takes it a step further by knitting in triangles emulating the way August Moebius created the form when he first discovered it. I was never particularly tempted to try a Moebius scarf until I saw her triangle-pattern.

She also has a hat called The Hat of Infinite Possibilities constructed of two Moebius Bands stitched together. Now, let me tell you, I have done that many times while lining jackets and blouses and there is nothing entertaining about it so I’ll pass on that but I admire her creativity anyway.

There is so much to think about - and to write about. Knitting has become a form of meditation that lets my mind free to wander. I’ve never been good at navel contemplating but when my hands are busy my mind soars. Skolnik is a brilliant woman who adds an intellectual dimension to the humble art of knitting. I’m glad to be in her company.

Thanks for reading.