A couple of weeks ago, Laura treated us to a graphical representation of knitting happiness. Unfortunately, I felt that her graph could have been a little more mathematically rigorous.
Click on the graph for a bigger picture.
As you can see, the graph has two axes that represent knitting pleasure and knitterly frustration, respectively. The z-axis is a combination of these two quantities. Knitting pleasure is a combination of variables, including how nice the yarn is, how much fun is the stitch pattern and how cool is the finished item. Knitterly frustration is also a combination of variables, including mistakes in the pattern, annoying yarn and boring knitting. The exact equation for me is z=2x/y because I'm usually just happy to be knitting and can often overlook the frustrations.
I put a number of recently completed projects on the graph to demonstrate some of the above ideas. For example, the Clapotis was almost the perfect project. I loved the yarn, the stitch pattern and I wear the finished item all the time. My vest from Jaeger was really fun to knit and I wear it a lot, but the yarn was only OK, so it falls a little short on knitting pleasure. The Jaywalkers were made with great yarn and fit really well, but the stitch pattern got a bit boring and they took forever to finish. Finally, knitterly frustration is so high with Reynolds Gypsy (it splits like a mofo!) that no amount of knitting pleasure can overcome it and any project registers low on the knitting happiness scale.
These are just my opinions and I'm sure that the equation for knitting happiness is different for every knitter. Stay tuned for some knitting happiness from me later this week!
4 comments:
You are such a geek! :) I started the Simple Knitted Bodice (only had the pattern for 8 months or so) as my Jaywalkers are so stinking boring. Beautiful yes, but they require too much concentration to just crank out while reading. I hoping the heel will entice my interest soon.
Excellent graph! I think the three axes system works well. I wish I could make my scientific graphs so colorful. My PI seems to like solid black versus dashed black lines. sigh.
So clever! And so funny! If there were a graph for graphing excellence, then yours would be in the left top corner. :-)
I had to frog my Jaywalker, I hated it so bad. My Lorna's Laces were not striping as prettily as yours, and I was getting a funny-looking toe. Yours are lovely, though! I don't really notice a difference in the striping, except on the foot, and who's gonna see that?
You are most definately a geek... but you know what? I like geeks.
That graph rules...the 3 axis system seems to work really well and takes into account all sorts of options...and I love the formula! what program did you make that in?
Post a Comment