Who said Maths and Beauty don't mix?

[reynardo]

OK, let's get something straight right from the start. Mum, if you're reading this, go away. Seriously.

The following entry is a little picture-heavy, so be warned.



At this point I admit fully to blowing my own trumpet. But I am, so very very pleased with how this is working out that I want to!

It all started when I realised that bell-ringers don't really have an arcane or cabalistic knowledge. Their entire repertoire is based on the fact that you can only change one position at a time.

Imagine, you're pulling on a great heavy bell rope, and there are six other people keeping in time with you. You are bell number 3.

So the first round of bells goes:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

So if you're bell number 3, you can really only change place with either number 2 or number 4. Let us assume you're changing with number 4.

1 2 4 3 5 6 7

And you could change back now, or swap with number 5...

1 2 4 5 3 6 7

etc.

So if you can only change in pairs, then in a bunch of 7 people, 3 pairs can change at once, and the last person remains in the same place. I'm going to stick with pointing out number 3 in bold, and I'll also do 5 in italics for a few changes...


1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 3 2 5 4 7 6
3 1 5 2 7 4 6
3 5 1 7 2 6 4
5 3 7 1 6 2 4
5 7 3 6 1 4 2


etc.

So now you'll be able to look at this bellringing score(?) peal pattern thingy and see what I'm aiming it.



Next, I allocated colours. Red = 1, orange = 2, etc. I needed to check that the combination would look OK.



Mind you, once I started knitting the little blighter, I realised it would look far better if there was a grey line between each colour, and again if the colours "fed" off the ribbing at the waistline.

And this is what it's up to now.



If you're into the technical details, Aero circular 80 cm 3.75 mm needle to achieve the standard 8 ply 22 stitches and 30 rows (and I must be doing something wrong, because the stitch count is working exactly), using Cleckheaton Machinewash 100% 8 ply crepe for all except the orange and the green, which are Cleckheaton Country 8 ply, and the very basic sweater pattern is Cleckheaton's Classic Handknits in 5,8 & 12 ply number 096.

(Note - if the pictures haven't turned out, go to http://www.geocities.com/cutondogor/craftpics/ and look for grandsire for the pattern and grandpattern for the graphical working out, and sweater for the work in progress)

Comments

[shadow-5tails.livejournal.com]

Wow.
This sounded intriguing when you first wrote about it. I was just about to ask...

It's beautiful, and fascinating. I love the idea, and that you're using it.

You rock, you know.

While you're on the subject, mind you, of course maths and beauty mix, and well. Even if you ignore the beauty of pure mathematics, fractals and the like, music is all maths! And call me biased, but I think there's definite beauty there...

Just another knitter...

[spidersweb.livejournal.com]

I don't post patterns in my LJ, but I am a Knit List member. I loved the graph, but is that all there is to the pattern? I fall into the category of novice growing into intermediate-maybe knitter and need the discipline of a pattern that tells me what to do every row. and I'd love to make the Bellringer sweater because it's gorgeous!