Review of One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp

One Thousand Gifts

Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

by Ann Voskamp

Zondervan, 2010. 237 pages.

This is a book about gratitude, a book about counting your blessings. A lot of it I felt was affirmation of what I already knew. I read it slowly, pausing when others had it on hold, so I had to turn it back in to the library for awhile, and also pausing when I’d put it in my pile to post a quotation on my Sonderquotes blog.

Basically, the author writes about how her life was transformed by looking around her and counting one thousand gifts in her life. And then she continued on.

Now, I have a blog, Sonderblessings, devoted to counting my blessings. But in some ways lately, I’d gotten a little off that. My health has been bad since my stroke last summer, and I’m feeling a little lack of focus lately. But when I read the last chapter, something resonated.

I particularly liked the poem she quoted from Teresa of Avila, and what Ann Voskamp said after quoting it:

“That’s His song! I rejoice in you. Come rejoice in Me. The song that plays the world awake, the song that fuels joy: Enjoy Me. Enjoy Me!

“Is there a greater way to love the Giver than to delight wildly in His gifts?”

This last chapter also references some themes that God had been speaking into my life lately. God loves us enough to sing over us. God talks of Himself as our Husband. (When I don’t have a husband any more, all the more reason to turn to God.)

You need to read the book for the full context, but I was delighted to find this section here:

“We fly into the light splitting back the dark. I press my cheek into the cold of the windowpane, wanting the whole of the erupting horizon. Happiness burns like a longing, and over the wing and the whir of the propellers, forty thousand feet over earth, I can hear Him, singing, waking the world. He’s singing that song! The one I really didn’t believe He sang! ‘He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs’ (Zephaniah 3:17).

“He sings love! In the air, over the world, I can see the song, the ardency of the notes pulsing in colors. The curve of the world burns ruby, a jewel prying open the day. And I can see in: Love is the face at the center of our universe. A sacred Smile; Holiness ready to die for intimacy. . . .

“I was afraid? I would have let fears that He wasn’t close, wasn’t passionately caring, wasn’t tenderly tending, keep me from seeing this sunrise bleeding love up over all the world? Now that would have been crazy! Look at that love that orchestrates red over water, that arranges light to play ocean in shimmering lines, that composes sky to gradate, scale of luminosity. And all for us — in this moment! He chose me — us! To be his bride! True, that’s the intellectual premise of the Christian life, but only as the gifts are attended, not as ends but as means to gaze into the heart of God, does the premise become personal, God’s choosing so utterly passionate. So utterly fulfilling.

And the key to all of this? Counting the gifts God was giving to her. Noticing them. Listening, looking, and seeing God’s love and God’s generosity pouring down.

So Ann Voskamp has given me a focus for the year. Enjoy God. She’s shown that a simple idea like that can transform your life.

onethousandgifts.com
aholyexperience.com
zondervan.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/1000_gifts.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Prime Progress

Woo-hoo! After getting my prototype Prime Factorization t-shirt from my new Cafepress Shop, I tweaked the colors to make the chart brighter. I also made shirts on different colored backgrounds. As luck would have it, the new shade for 2 almost perfectly matches the “Caribbean Blue” background. My new revised shirt came this week, and I love it!

For those just coming in on this, the chart is 10 rows of 10, beginning at the bottom left. (Because I can’t bring myself to have higher numbers down lower on the shirt.) Each prime number gets its own color, and the prime factors of each number are displayed by color. Unlike the sweater, the numbers are listed on the shirt.

Like the sweater, I couldn’t resist putting rows of 8 on the back. And of course, I had to list those numbers in their Octal representation. But since that adds to the cost, I’m also offering t-shirts that have only the chart on the front.

Now, as long as I was so happily wearing my prime factorization t-shirt, I had to spend some time making progress on my prime factorization scarf. The biggest problem with the scarf is that I need to carry around lots of skeins of yarn. Fortunately, I ordered a Prime Factorization Tote Bag from my Cafepress Shop! (The pictured one was ordered before I brightened up the colors.)

I am super happy about how the prime factorization scarf is turning out. The original sweater is kind of pointless if you don’t know what it represents, but the scarf is aesthetically pleasing totally aside from the mathematics.

Here is my progress earlier this week, up to 24. (Today I finished 30, and, honestly, it’s hard to stop, because it’s so much fun to see how the next number will turn out!)

This one starts at the bottom. Though with a scarf, you can hold it any direction you like.

Once again, the background color, black, represents 1. It’s used between the other numbers.

The first stripe of blue is our first prime, 2.

Then we have pink for 3.

4 = 2 x 2. It’s not quite as easy to tell on the scarf, but the next blue stripe is twice as wide as the original.

5 gets a new color, yellow.

6 = 2 x 3, so a stripe with blue, then pink.

7 gets purple.

8 = 2 x 2 x 2, so that stripe of blue is three times as wide as the original.

And so it goes. I love the way the colors flow. You can quickly see that blue is showing up every second stripe, and that every second blue stripe is fatter. You can see the pinks showing up every third stripe and the yellows every fifth. As I said, I think it makes a lovely art object totally apart from the math behind it. And the math makes it completely cool.

Also, with a scarf, you don’t have to decide your colors ahead of time. I am using a certain progression. I’m afraid going to 100 is going to be ridiculously long, but I may do it anyway. After all, I’m doing it more for the math than anything else. But when I’m done, I’m planning to make a cuff-to-cuff cardigan using the same design, and that one cannot go so high.

I’ll continue to show my progress. Such fun!

My posts on Mathematical Knitting and related topics are now gathered at Sonderknitting.

Review of Heist Society, by Ally Carter

Heist Society

by Ally Carter

Disney Hyperion Books, New York, 2010. 287 pages.

When I was a kid, I avidly watched It Takes a Thief. This book reminded me of that show, but this time it’s a group of teenagers pulling off a nearly impossible heist. I also love that a teenage girl is the star.

And they manage to deal with the readers’ sense of ethics: They have to do this theft to save Kat’s father. And it’s really stealing back, not stealing.

As the book begins, Kat has tried to leave “the life,” the family business of stealing. She has conned her way into the Colgan School, and plans to put thievery behind her.

But then her handsome and rich friend Hale frames her for a prank against the headmaster, and Kat gets kicked out. Hale informs her that he needs her help. Her father is in danger, because he’s been framed for stealing five Old Masters from a very evil man. That man wants his paintings back.

The catch is that Kat’s father did not actually steal them. (He was doing another job at the time.) So Kat has two weeks to assemble a crew, find the paintings, and steal them back.

This book is simply good fun. The way the group of teens pull off the heist is brilliant, clever, and plausible. (The author invented a fictional museum, so it’s not like she’s giving directions for a heist like this.) I do love the solution at the end, and there’s plenty of danger along the way. I’m also kind of happy I took so long to read the original book, because now I can right away get hold of the next book, Uncommon Criminals, to find out what Kat’s up to next.

www.allycarter.com
www.hyperionteens.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/heist_society.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Penny and Her Song, by Kevin Henkes

Penny and Her Song

by Kevin Henkes

Greenwillow Books, 2012. 32 pages.
Starred Review

I’ve already found the book I want to win the Geisel Award for a book for beginning readers this year. I received a copy of this book at ALA Midwinter Meeting and fell in love with it. Then I got to hear Kevin Henkes speak about his work and particularly this series he is starting for beginning readers, and my love only increased.

The book begins like this:

Penny came home from school
with a song.
“Listen, Mama,” said Penny.
“It’s my very own song.”

But right then is not a good time for Penny to sing her song. The babies are sleeping. Papa tells Penny the same thing. So Penny goes to her room and tries singing to herself in the mirror. She tries singing to her glass animals. “That didn’t work.” In the second chapter, the babies are awake, so Penny tries singing her song at the dinner table. Mama and Papa both tell her not to sing during dinner.

But after dinner, Penny and her song get all the attention they deserve. I particularly like this page:

“That was beautiful!” said Mama.
“That was wonderful!” said Papa.
The babies made baby noises.
“Thank you,” said Penny.

The whole family enjoys singing the song, and it has a lovely gentle ending that brings things full circle.

One thing I loved about this book was Penny reminded me of myself as a little girl. No, I didn’t make up my own songs (Well, at least not to share.), but I did play “Little Marcy” records and dance all around the house, singing along with Little Marcy. I can also relate to having to be quiet while babies were sleeping.

This book just makes me happy.

And I would love to try it out on beginning readers. Though I think it would work great for Storytime as well. Kevin Henkes explained that he put in two chapters because beginning readers love the accomplishment of finishing a chapter. He is writing further books about Penny that will get progressively a little more challenging.

But I have already found a friend.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/penny_and_her_song.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Sonderling Sunday – Chapter Five, Ken Kiang

Happy Sonderling Sunday! Alles Gute zum Muttertag!

I want to point out that Sonderling Sunday is not necessarily for people who speak German. It’s for nerdy types (Sonderlinge) who enjoy playing with language, who enjoy looking at concepts from a new perspective (such as “knew by heart” translated as “knew like her own vest pocket”), or who enjoy the sounds of words (such as “Balderdash!” translated as Papperlapapp!).

For Sonderling Sunday, I use Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, the German translation of James Kennedy’s The Order of Odd-Fish as a source for learning all the things you never knew you wanted to be able to say in German.

We’re on Chapter Five. This begins on page 48 of the English version, and Seite 65 auf Deutsch.

I’ll start with the opening (two) paragraphs:

But who is Ken Kiang?

Let us rewind to several years ago. Imagine a room — a large room, the size of a theater or cathedral. The room is almost empty, the walls bare, the floor nearly deserted.

This is translated as:

Wer ist nun Ken Kiang?

Gehen wir einige Jahre zurück. Stellen wir uns einen Raum vor, einen gro?en Raum etwa von der Grö?e eines Theaters oder einer Kathedrale. Der Raum is fast leer, die Wände sind nackt und es steht so gut wie nichts auf dem Boden.

There aren’t really new words in that section for me. The only thing I find particularly interesting is that the word translated from “bare,” is nackt, which I thought meant “naked.” And yes, that is the same meaning, but in English we tend to use naked more often for people and “bare” for things like walls. I would venture to guess that we got our English word “naked” from this source.

Going on, let’s look for some more interesting translations. In fact, a paragraph a little ways down the page has much more potential.

It is a small, wind-up brass donkey. Ken Kiang watches it trudge across his desk. The donkey is a medieval Arabic automaton he unearthed at a recent archaeological dig in Syria. He wants to be impressed by its unique workmanship. He longs to glory in its exquisite detail. He aches to be fascinated by its stunning ingenuity.

It bores him.

Auf Deutsch:

Es ist ein kleiner Blechesel zum Aufziehen. Ken Kiang sieht zu, wie er über seinen Schreibtisch hoppelt. Der Esel ist ein mittelalterlicher arabischer Automat, den er bei einer archäologischen Ausgrabung in Syrien kürzlich gefunden hat. Er würde sich gerne von der einzigartigen Handwerkskunst beeindrucken lassen, sehnt sich danach, sich in den wundervollen Einzelheiten zu verlieren. Er wünscht sich beinahe schmerzhaft, von der verblüffenden Genialität dieses Apparates fasziniert zu sein.

Er langweilt ihn.

Here we have:

“brass donkey” = Blechesel

“trudge” = hoppelt (I suspect it’s really saying the brass donkey hopped across the desk.)

I still enjoy that “impressed” goes back to the same roots in German. I know this because on the computer printing out something in English is ausdrucken in German. And the translation for “impressed” is beeindrucken. I think that’s sort of like “imprinted,” which you have to admit is in the word “impressed” when you really look at it.

“stunning ingenuity” = verblüffenden Genialität

Onward! Some more interesting words and phrases:

“weary” = überdrüssig

“most rare” = seltensten (This clearly has the same root as in the word “Odd” = seltsamen

“experiences” = Erfahrungen (This has fahr, the root for “travel” in it.)

“connoisseur’s instinct” = Genie?erinstinkte

“homeless shelter” = Obdachlosenunterkunft (literally, something like “whether-roofless-accommodation” and “accommodation” is literally “under future.”)

“verve” = Schwung (Google translates this “momentum.”)

“showmanship” = Publikumswirksamkeit (I’m going to start looking for the longest word in each section. So far, Obdachlosenunterkunft has it by one letter.)

“charities” = Mildtätigkeit (Hmm. Google just translates this as “mild activites”)

“more obscure crusades” = düstereren Kreuzzügen (literally, “darker cross trains”)

“ambitious” = ehrgeiziges (literally “honor stingy”)

“baffled needy” = verblüfften Bedürftigen

“laurels” = Lorbeeren

An even longer word!:
charity programs = Wohltätigkeitsprogramme

“standard for excellence” = Ma?stäbe (The German is shorter than the English! Literally, this is “measure-bars”)

Here’s a good one!
“when inspiration struck” = als ihn die Muse küsste (“when the muse kissed him.”)

“clods” = Schwachköpfe (“weakheads”)

“dabbled” = dilettierte

“itched” = juckte

“use it to great effect” = wirkungsvoll in Szene zu setzen (“effectively set the scene”)

That’s it for Chapter 5!

Longest word of the day: Wohltätigkeitsprogramme

Most fun figure of speech: als ihn die Muse küsste

Best insult: Schwachköpfe

Most fun to say: verblüfften Bedürftigen

Tune in next week, when Jo, Aunt Lily, Colonel Korsakov, and Sefino flee from the evil Ken Kiang!

Librarians Help! Week Three Report

Do people realize how many ways Librarians help others? This is my little quest to publicize those things. I’m keeping track of the ways I help people on my job. I would love to get comments from other librarians, or comments from people who have received help from librarians.

This week, there was the usual book-finding. Here are some examples:

— Fablehaven books
— James Patterson books on CD
— Babymouse
— Veggie tales videos
— Percy Jackson books #4 and #5
— Kids’ cookbooks
— Picture books from a list
— Microfiche issue of National Genealogical Society Quarterly
— Magic School Bus series
Nobody’s Perfect
Leading Ladies
The Wizard of Oz
— Fiction about knitting (Debbie Macomber)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
— A guidebook for Malawi
— Another book by Margaret Mitchell
— A road map of Loudoun County
— Books by Ken Follett
The Secret Lives of Henrietta Lacks
— Books on origami
— Travel books
Caleb’s Crossing (It was a Hot Pick, so she could get a copy right now.)
— Video Jazz series by Ken Burns, episode 1
— “Classics” for 5th or 6th graders
— books on Monarch Butterflies
— The Princess and the Pea

As you can see, the variety is incredible. Some other things I did:

— Updated our books on the Annotated US Code with “Pocket Parts” — yearly updates with any changes.
— Learned more about the Virginia Room before the Virginia Room Librarian retires.
— Checked on the interlibrary loan availability of a particular book on traumatic brain injury for someone who works in the coroner’s office.
— Booked people with our English tutors
— Showed people how to make copies
— Helped someone print an airline ticket
— Put books on hold
— Requested microfilm ILL for Caswell County records in North Carolina

As a bonus, I’ll list some of the classics I found that kept two mothers of 5th graders happy. One was planning to get abridged adult classics, and I admit I told her I don’t like those. (As far as I’m concerned, they lose their classic status when watered down. They are classic more for their language than for their plot, and will be enjoyed more when kids are ready for them.) The mothers didn’t want books that were too long (like The Hobbit), but also didn’t want books that were too easy. Some books I did give them:

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle
Half Magic, by Edward Eager
The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander

Spread the word: Librarians Help!

Review of Maisie Dobbs, by Jacqueline Winspear

Maisie Dobbs

by Jacqueline Winspear

Penguin Books, 2003. 294 pages.
Starred Review

A big thank you to Liz B of A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy for bringing this book to my attention.

This book is about Maisie Dobbs, a brilliant girl who was discovered studying on her own and sent to Cambridge by the upper-class family where she was serving. Now, between the wars, she is a Psychologist and Investigator. Her first case is to find out if a wife is straying — but ends up focusing on a Retreat for soldiers scarred in the Great War.

The middle of the book tells how Maisie got her start and how she interrupted her education to serve as a nurse during the war, and how she got her own scars.

Liz’s review is excellent, so I don’t have a lot to add. But one thing that was interesting to me was how much of the book paralleled another book I just read, The Return of Captain John Emmett, by Elizabeth Speller. Both were set about ten years after World War I, in England. Both involved a supposed haven for wounded or psychologically damaged soldiers. Both had things happen during the war that left lifelong scars to those involved. However, I have to admit that Maisie Dobbs is much more pleasant reading, and didn’t go into nearly as much detail about the awful things that happened during the war. The protagonist in The Return of Captain John Emmett is jaded himself about what he saw and just going through the motions of life. Maisie, on the other hand, has been through some awful experiences, but she is using her clever mind to help people and make things right. This book fits the description of a “cozy” mystery, while the other one had too much grim reality to fit that category. However, you do get the same feeling of what things were like after World War I, and how everything was poised to change.

I’ll definitely be reading more books in this series. Maisie Dobbs is someone I enjoy spending time with.

www.penguin.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/maisie_dobbs.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

My Prime Factorization T-Shirt Shop Is Ready!

My Prime Factorization T-shirt Shop is ready!

Now, the motivation was that when the math community found out about my Prime Factorization Sweater, many commenters said I should make a T-shirt. I “happen” to have several of the charts already created in Word, because I’ve written a children’s book about using these ideas to learn about other mathematical bases and make cyphers and patterns using the mathematical principles. So I used two of those charts to make a shirt. But I did want to see if the colors came out distinct enough before I offered it for sale.

Monday night, the shirt I ordered arrived, so I wore it to work yesterday:

And here I am among the Math books:

On the back, as with the sweater, I’ve got rows of 8, so you can see that the patterns change.

Now, there were two things I wasn’t quite happy about with the shirt.

First, one thing I was happy about was that the colors came out exactly as they looked when I printed out the charts. However, that was also the first thing I was not happy about. The blue shade for 2, on my computer screen, is nice and bright and easy to spot. On the print-out, and on the shirt, it looks much darker.

The second thing I was unhappy about was that the numbers were blurry. This was because I hadn’t been able to save my Word table as a jpeg file. My son came up with the solution of taking a screenshot and merging the two pictures into a jpeg. It was good enough, but I really noticed the little imperfections.

Then, at work, wearing the shirt, I had a brainstorm. Surely in publisher, you can turn files into jpeg files? Sure enough! So yesterday evening I went home, opened my book manuscript, and pasted the prime factorization table into publisher. It worked! My test shirt hasn’t arrived yet, but I’m confident the numbers will be more clear.

While I was at it, I changed the colors, and lightened up some factors that are used several times in the chart, particularly the blue for 2. Since my graphic looks different when it’s printed, I’ll post a picture of how the print-out looks, because that’s how it will look on the shirt:

I also added various colors, by popular demand. I now have a Caribbean Blue shirt on order with the new charts.

One other thing I should mention. For “Super Geeks” (like me), I did put rows of 8 on the back. All the charts have the numerical values under the color code, but on the back, I gave those numbers their Octal representation. So after 7 comes 10, after 10 comes 11, after 17 comes 20, after 77 comes 100, and so on. A couple times, when I was looking at the back, I forgot I was looking at the back and thought I had factored incorrectly! With the colors, you could use this as a handy-dandy way to convert from decimal to octal! (Just what everyone needs, right? But if you’re ever on an alien planet….)

I do like the way the two charts with the same colors show how the patterns change. Particularly look at yellow (5). In the decimal chart, because it’s a factor of 10, it lines up. In the octal chart, because it’s relatively prime with 8, it does not line up.

So, I’m looking forward to my new shirt coming in! And I do feel ready to offer my shirts for sale!

The URL is http://www.cafepress.com/sonderbooks.

Sonderling Sunday – Escape from the Ruby Palace

It’s time for Sonderling Sunday! I’m on Chapter Four, Part Three in my use of The Order of Odd-Fish and Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge in a quest to learn how to say bizarre things in German.

We’re on page 40 in the English version, and Seite 55 in the German version. Here’s the first paragraph of the next section:

Jo and Colonel Korsakov raced down the foggy, twisty passages, searching for Sefino. The deeper they plunged into the palace, the thicker the clammy clouds of insecticide became, until they had to hold handkerchiefs to their noses to breathe.

Auf Deutsch:

Jo und Oberst Korsakov rannten durch die leeren, verschlungenen Gänge und suchten Sefino. Je weiter sie in den Farbenpalast vordrangen, desto dichter wurde die verdammte Wolke aus Insektiziden, bis sie sich Taschentücher vor die Nasen halten mussten, damit sie Luft bekamen.

I know I’m getting better at German from this process, because nothing about that passage surprised me. However, I’ll make some observations.

I know we’ve mentioned this one before, but it’s still fun to say. “twisty” = verschlungenen

“plunged” = vordrangen

“clammy clouds” = verdammte Wolke (No, they’re not swearing. It’s damp.) I have to admit that the English for that one sounds better. (What can I say, I like alliteration.)

You know, when I typed “handkerchiefs” I thought that must be a word of German origins, being a portmanteau word, and since I know “hand” itself comes from German. And doesn’t “kerchief” sound like it’s probably of German origin? But the actual German word is even better. Taschentücher means “pocket cloths.” Isn’t that perfect?

Going on, I’ll list some interesting words:

“greenhouse” = Gewächshauses (“plant house,” and “plant” is same root as “to grow”)

“prodding” = piksten (like “poke,” I think.)

“pleased with himself” = selbstzufrieden (for once, the German is shorter!)

“multiply” = vervielfachen (“for many times”)

“duties” = Pflichten

Here’s a lovely long one:
“differences” = Meinungsverschiedenheiten (“opinion differences”)

“tender recesses” = zarten Gliederungen (“tender outlines”)

“inconveniences” = Unbequemlichkeiten (Funny. I was investigating this word. As did not surprise me, bequem means “convenient.” More interesting: bequemlich means “sedentary.” I guess inconveniences are things that don’t allow you to be sedentary.)

“barked” = blaffte

This one uses a funny idiom in place of an English one:
“Jo knew the twisting maze of the ruby palace by heart.” becomes Jo kannte das verschlungene Labyrinth des Rubinpalastes wie Ihre eigene Westentasche.

wie Ihre eigene Westentasche means “like her own vest pocket.”

“wide-brimmed” = breitkrempigen

I like the word at the end of this sentence:
Das Faktotum packte Ken Kiangs Hand und schüttelte sie wie einen Pumpenschwengel.

That’s translated from: “Hoagland Shanks grabbed Ken Kiang’s hand, shaking it vigorously.” wie einen Pumpenschwengel means “like a pump handle.”

“suffocating” = erstickend

“double doors” = Flügeltüren (“flying doors”)

“glory of battle” = der Pracht der Schlacht

“whacking him with canes, walkers, and wheelchairs” = Sie schlugen mit Gehstöcken, Krücken und Rollatoren auf ihn ein.

A new word for “crop duster” is Sprühflugzeug. (“spray flying thing”)

And that gets us through Chapter Four! Summing up, I think my favorite words of the day are Pumpenschwengel und der Pracht der Schlacht.

Happy Sonderling Sunday! Do something today to make yourself selbstzufrieden.

Prime Factorization Swatches

I finished three swatches and decided on how I’m going to approach my new Prime Factorization Scarf.

First, I tried garter stitch. It’s a reversible stitch, and I thought it would work for the scarf. No pun intended, I thought I’d begin with the primary colors, since they are clearly “red,” “blue,” and “yellow.” Here’s how that swatch turned out:

The colors do stand out in this version. Black is 1, the background color. The pattern starts on the left. 2 is red. One ridge clearly stands out for the factor. When you get to 1 again, you stop multiplying and start a new number. Primes will always be one ridge. Next is 3, which is blue. Then comes 4, clearly showing as two ridges of red, 2 x 2. Then black, so you start a new number. Then comes 5, a new color, yellow. Then black. Then we have a ridge of red with a ridge of blue, 2 x 3 = 6. A ridge of black. Then 7, a new color. Black. Three ridges of red, 2 x 2 x 2 = 8. Black. Two ridges of blue, 3 x 3 = 9. Black. A ridge of red and a ridge of yellow, 2 x 5 = 10.

What I like about this swatch? The colors pop out and clearly show how many of each factor you want.

Problems with this swatch? Well, I completely forgot that garter stitch with colors is not reversible. Here’s the other side:

The garter stitch pattern would work great in a sweater, where you only see one side. But a scarf is better when it’s reversible, since it’s not easy to keep only one side of a scarf showing.

One other problem was that I didn’t like the colors. In the picture on the web, the red looked like a pretty cherry red. In real life, it was so bright, it almost glowed in the dark. Next to black, it feels glaring.

So I decided to experiment with the colors I think are the prettiest of all the ones in the box. After all, the color for 2 is going to get used in every other stripe. Might as well use a color I like to look at, right?

I needed to pick a stitch that would be reversible in color. I chose the Double Seed Stitch, which gives a nice textured look. You alternate two knit stitches with two purl stitches, and you do two rows that line up with each other. Then you do two rows with the stitches staggered from the first two — The knit stitches in the two top rows are lined up with the purl stitches in the bottom two rows, and the purl stitches in the two top rows are lined up with the knit stitches in the bottom two rows.

You can’t really tell the colors I used in the next swatch, but it’s a turquoise for 2 and pink for 3, yellow for 5, and purple for 7. I got happier and happier as I knitted. I think this is beautiful, and it will be the pattern I use for the scarf. Here’s that swatch:

Now, I acknowlege that it’s not nearly as easy to tell exactly where the numbers separate or exactly which factors are in the number. But it’s pretty. And I know which factors are where. And it’s completely reversible. The back looks exactly the same as the front.

I did one more swatch, to be absolutely sure I wanted to use a black background. I also wanted to see if using larger needles would make the fabric more drapey. The yarn band suggests size 8 needles, and that’s what I’d been using, and I think it would be nice for a sweater. But for a scarf, I’d like a little less firmness. So I made the next swatch with a cream-colored background and size 10 needles, but the same stitch and the same colors for the numbers. Here’s that swatch:

Yes, this combination is pretty. But I think it reminds me too much of my original prime factorization sweater, and I’m ready for something different. So I’m going to go with the black background.

So I’ve begun! I’m using Size 10 needles, a black background, double seed stitch, and 26 stitches across. (The swatches used 20 stitches.)

Oh, one more thing: I hereby resolve that I will, I WILL, sew the ends in as I go, so that I don’t have to do them all at the end, like I did with the sweater. (Sigh. The worst thing about this whole project!)

I also plan to make a black edging along the sides, to hide the carried-along yarn. I can practice on the swatches.

And while I’m knitting, my mind will be spinning with ideas for a cardigan.

Stay tuned and watch my progress! One of the fun things about it is that I can wait to choose colors as I go. I don’t even have to stop at 100….

My posts on Mathematical Knitting and related topics are now gathered at Sonderknitting.