{"id":28803,"date":"2015-12-02T23:48:24","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T03:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=28803"},"modified":"2021-09-11T13:25:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-11T17:25:00","slug":"an-outliers-scarf-for-jade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=28803","title":{"rendered":"An Outliers Scarf for Jade"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OutliersScarf3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I recently posted an explanation of my Probability Scarf<\/a>, where I simply rolled a die to decide which of 6 colors to use for each row of the scarf.<\/p>\n

\"Probability_Scarf\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But that represents a uniform distribution, where each color is equally likely — a little boring.<\/p>\n

So I thought: Why not make a scarf using the normal distribution, a bell-shaped curve. I searched the web and found a site that would give me random numbers generated from a normal distribution.<\/p>\n

I’ll use four colors:<\/p>\n

\"OutliersYarn\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Brown is for the center of the distribution (numbers within half a standard deviation from the mean). This is where most of the data will fall.<\/p>\n

The next color has a bit more red in it, but it’s between red and brown. This will be for numbers between a half and one standard deviation from the mean.<\/p>\n

The third color will be used for numbers more than one standard deviation from the mean, but less than one and a half standard deviation. It’s quite bright and red and pretty.<\/p>\n

And finally — for the outliers — I bought a rainbow yarn. It turns out it changes colors very slowly, so you can’t necessarily tell that it’s rainbow-colored in the scarf, but it is bright and is slowly changing.<\/p>\n

Also, about half the numbers are negative and half positive. I went with positive is for purl and negative is for knit.<\/p>\n

And the point of the scarf? It is the outliers that make it beautiful! Yes, we need the nice middle-of-the-road, close to the mean folks — but the colorful ones are the outliers and add spice to life. <\/p>\n

I’m planning to give the scarf to my daughter Jade, who has always been an outlier in several areas — and I fully believe that has a lot to do with why she is so wonderful.<\/p>\n

\"OutliersScarf2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The scarf is turning out lovely. I plan to continue until I run out of one color. (I bought two skeins of the brown yarn.) Yes, I am going to have lots<\/em> of ends to sew in when I am done! I’m planning to do a crocheted edging in brown to cover up some of that.<\/p>\n

\"OutliersScarf1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m gathering all my Mathematical Knitting links on my Sonderknitting<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a>