CompassionKnit

MarchTerm Knitting is now a bonified MV club!!! Get your knit on all year!!!!

'Getting our knit on' is now a MVCS club!!!

Yes, it's true.  Our Marchterm knitting course has evolved into a full fledged club..with president(s) and an advisor and a place to meet and ....well lots of knitting and having good times!

For those of you who want to be part of the fun, here's what you'll need to purchase to get started:

Knitting needles (no, duh) - start out with straight needles (size 10) for beginners.  Those of you who took Marchterm knitting, you can now advance your skills by getting different needle sizes - try 24 inch circular needles (size 6).  You can do alot with a pair of these!!!!

crochet hooks - a couple sizes...not itty bitty and not HUGE.  Just a couple middle sizes.

yarn darning needles - these are really important, they will help with weaving in yarn ends and sewing up seams.

stitch markers - we can make these during our club meetings.  It's fun and you'll use these alot.  I'll talk more about what to get before we meet.

yarn - yup, you'll be buing LOTS of it, it's addictive.  This will depend on what article you want to knit, its purpose and who its for.  We'll talk about how to design things based on these and several other factors.

Peyton Pless will be contributing to write club guidelines: like when and where we will meet, how often to attend to get credit, etc.

See you at school!!!!

The Bizarre and Brilliant World of Knitted Science!

OK, all you science geeks..... this is for YOU!!!

More Knitted Science!

Get Your Knit On!!!

Greetings March Term Knitters,

This week, you will learn the fundamentals of making something out of two sticks and a really long piece of string.   If you already know the basics, then you can move on to more challenging techniques.  In any case, the ultimate goal is to create a product that can help someone else in someway;  keep them warm or just let them know they are cared for!

From this activity (both learning and creating a finished product), you can earn community service hours (1 for each hour spent in class this week).  You must be present and working on your assignment to get service credits.

Below are the charities identified to receive your knitted item:

The Snuggles Project - Most shelter animals are kept in areas with stainless steel braces and hard plastic flooring or even bare concrete floors. The Snuggles blanket you knit would allow them to have a little reprieve from the coldness of the pen they are kept in.  Research has shown that an animal that has a blanket in its cage is more likely to get adopted!  We will donate our blankets to a local Animal Shelter. Go to the website and click on the "Get the Project Sheet", download the pdf and you are good to go.

The Duulan Project - Dulaan is the Mongolian word for warm. Think of it not just being physically warm, but also the warm heart of human love, and the warm feeling that grows from knowing that you have touched a life, even on the other side of the world.

The Dulaan Project is an effort of the Flagstaff International Relief Effort (F.I.R.E., 501c3) This project seeks to inspire the generous spirit of the knitting community to help meet the urgent needs of Mongolia's impoverished people.

Knit One, Save One - Why Your Cap Matters

Did you know that 60 percent of newborn deaths in developing countries can be prevented? 
It just takes a simple package of basic health measures provided to mothers and babies.

Keeping a newborn warm is one of the simple steps for saving lives. 
That's where your cap comes in. Knit One, Save One is part of Survive to 5, Save the Children's commitment to saving the lives of babies and children.  We will modify this slightly to benefit local preemie babies in Santa Cruz county.

When Knitting Nuns Go Bad

Nuns on the Run

Looks like that dream we knitters have of taking our hobby/passion and making it into a paying proposition has some serious drawbacks with unfortunate consequences. Well, for some it appears.

Knitted Anatomy

Knitted Uterus
So now that I'm planning for my Anatomy & Physiology course, maybe I should include knitting body parts for extra credit (honors students only).    I could use them in the following years as teaching tools, such as the one below.....the knitted womb.

If one can knit a Ferrari, then there's no end to the possibilities that can be applied to that wonderful structure, the human body!

Gutsy Knitting

I am totally grooving on this notion of using knitted examples to learn science concepts. Here, for your edification, is the Knitted Digestive System!

In its entirety:

Lower G.I.

Stomach and Accessory Organs

The Tongue

Winter Break Ends

I have a new job! I'll be teaching Human Anatomy & Physiology (general and honors) to juniors and seniors at the local (south county) Christian high school. Part time this semester and if all goes well, it may extend to full time next year. Looks like my winter hiatus has come to an end. Good thing I didn't start another sweater....guess my knitting will get whittled down to the 20 sock pairs on my goal list for this year.

Knitting in nanometers

But wait, there's more! It seems there's an indra's net of knitting and science relationships out there. Can you imagine knitting with yarn that's only nanometers in diameter? Apparently, they can be used to knit together artificial muscles for robots.

Crafty Geometry

As I was rifling through my mail pile this morning, I came across a recent edition of Science News - the subscription for which I retain cuz I just KNOW it'll be useful in the classroom someday. The title article, 'No yarn! Crocheting (and knitting) Math' caught my eye. It begged further investigation, and lo, there was a whole spread about men and women of numbers using knitting and crocheting to visualize complex structures! Awesome. So, for those of us who can't recall (or never knew!) a hyperbolic plane from a Lorenz manifold here are a few examples showing how art supports science. I wonder if physic's string theory has also come from off the needles?

Check out Knit Theory! for another view on this nexus between math and the stringed arts.

Lorenz Manifold

A crocheted Lorenz manifold brings the shape's swirls into sharp relief.

Hyperbolic Fabric - Many of the lines that could be inscribed on this crocheted hyperbolic plane curve away from each other, defying Euclid's parallel postulate.

Doughnut Math - The two tori below display a network (left) and a colored map of countries (right) that can't be depicted on a flat sheet of paper without crossings and overlaps.

Hyper Growth - Because the hyperbolic plane grows exponentially, the violet outer boundary consumes as much yarn as the deep-purple center section does.