So, Tuesday I posted my plan for making a Prime Factorization Blanket for my new niece or nephew. I then learned that my brother and his wife may know the baby’s gender by December 17th. Did I want to wait that long to choose the colors and start?
Short answer: No. I got to thinking: It’s not like this won’t be a very multi-colored blanket. I had thought about using shades of blue or shades of pink at the beginning, but I don’t think that’s a good plan. Since the colors represent numbers, and since a baby’s going to see this, better to have distinct colors with distinct names as the prime factors that show up most often.
On top of that, I happen to have a full skein and more of a turquoise blue left over from another project. Turquoise worked out very well as the color for 2 in my prime factorization scarf. It doesn’t cry out “boy,” but neither is it a bad color for a girl. And best of all, it goes well with pretty much every other color. (And 2 has to do that.) I decided to go with bright, rich colors for the primes that will be most predominant.
Thanks to a fairly long management meeting and a day off today where I needed to read, I’ve already finished the first row. I’m very happy with the colors! Now, the first row consists of just knitting 9 squares. The next row of white will convert them into diamonds. I’m also proud to say that I sewed in the starting ends of all the yarn. And that’s my plan to go on with: At the end of each row, I’ll sew in all the ends that were loose at the start of that row. (I don’t want to sew in the ends right next to a live stitch.) That way, it won’t be a daunting task at the end of the blanket.
So here’s the first row, the numbers 1 through 9 (0 is a blank space.), with the numbers the colors represent written on the picture:
I admit it’s getting where I’m going to have a hard time giving this away! Good thing I’ve publicly said it’s for my new niece or nephew!
And that does remind me. If you’d like your own Prime Factorization T-shirt or Tote Bag, or if you have a friend or loved one who really needs one for Christmas, be sure to check my Cafe Press Prime Factorization Store! 🙂
My posts on Mathematical Knitting and related topics are now gathered at Sonderknitting.
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