A Pi Day Special

The second day of Fiber Camp was as awesome as the first!

I started off the morning with a live recording of Guido's podcast- It's a Purl Man, on the "State of Fiber in Boston". It was a great discussion about guilds, knitting groups, upcoming yarn crawls and events, and how to keep the community vibrant and welcoming. Check out the podcast- just search It's a Purl Man on itunes. If you're a huge nerd like me you can even download all the back episodes!

(the photo of the fruits of my labor at Fiber Camp- a double knitting swatch, and my little spun and Navajo plied Corriedale sample) While working this doubler knitting swatch, it occurred to me that double knitting color changes are basically the same as backstrap weaving color changes- switching the front and back strands of the pair. It would be interesting to work traditional andean weaving patterns into double knit garments.

Next up, Navajo Plying. Another technique I've been wanting to learn for a long time! Susanne was a great teacher, with some great techniques for corralling and controlling singles while plying, a lazy kate made from a small box, and of course- the Navajo plying! Along with a technique for pre-chaining it- so you don't have to try to keep up with chaining while spinning the spindle. Truly life changing. What an incredibly useful thing to know!

For lunch Alistair, Susanne, and I headed across the river to sample some excellent Indian food and discuss the state of politics, nature, and more fiber talk.

The last session of the day was an open meeting about guild business and future planning. Lots of ideas and inspiration! I'm excited now about getting involved with making some of those things happen. Common Cod is really a cool community- Boston area fiber people, come to the next meeting and hear Franklin Habit! 2nd Friday evening in May.

I've spent this evening catching up with 2 old friends who happen to be in town, and getting to know one of their new girlfriends, who is also a fiber nerd *squee!* So I'll wrap up this excellent weekend and day with this spot of Pi Day awesomeness- The Pi Scarf!

The only change I'd make is that I would knit it with lots of different yarns, using up scraps and small amounts of handspun, and using a different yarn for every or nearly every stripe.

The idea, in case it isn't obvious, is to knit the scarf using the digits of pi to determine the number of rows of each color- 3 rows of the 1st color, 1 row of the 2nd color, 4 rows of the 3rd, etc.

If you don't want to be a follower, use your other favorite non-repeating decimal- the square root of 2, for instance. Or the golden ratio.

Or "code" something else numerical- a Fibonacci sequence, perhaps, or important dates in your life, or even your favorite bible verses. Make it for your favorite nerd, and don't let them keep it unless they figure out the reference!