<p>Is anyone else wondering if there’s some math significance to 1216900?</p>
<p>But wait - it’s the patent number for F.B. Wildman’s Circular Knitting Machine! Of course!</p>
<p>^ ROFL! Thanks for the humor. :p</p>
<p>Soo nervous right now. Logged onto one of the school’s computers during lunch and almost fell out of my chair when I saw the date. Good luck everyone! I don’t have anything left to keep busy with because I’m procrastinating on submitting my Harvard app so I’ll just sit at home and nervously await my decision.</p>
<p>Yeah, sports, community service, school, newspaper/blog writing pretty much keep me busy anyway…but exciting news such a short time away…crazy. This could be a like “realization of goals from all the hard work” type moment.</p>
<p>Are we there yet? Oh no there are still 8 days left >.<. ■■■</p>
<p>@heinochus: Yay knitting!! :D</p>
<p>8 days!</p>
<p>Machines are for cheaters. ;)</p>
<p>I’ve actually wanted to learn knitting for a while. My sister took it up for like a week during the summer and then gave up.</p>
<p>I cross-stitched a small (like 3" x 3") pattern of a duck with headphones, once, mostly because I read that Rosey Grier cross-stitched.</p>
<p>I’d like to do something more. Seems like it would be neat to wear socks I’d made.</p>
<p>It’s fairly easy to learn yourself, because there are a lot of internet resources around. I think the best site with instructions/videos is knittinghelp.com – that’s mostly what I used when I was teaching myself last year. Many people make something small and square, like a washcloth, as a first project, then move on to more complicated things.</p>
<p>Once you know how to do basic stuff (how to knit and purl, how to cast on and bind off), you can check out ravelry.com, which is a social networking site for knitters. You can use it to find lots of free patterns, and see what other people’s projects look like, and decide which yarns to use, and all kinds of other things.</p>
<p>I think knitting is a fabulous craft for science/engineering-type people, because it’s all very mathy and structured, and it’s fairly easy to learn some basic stuff and then go off and make your own designs. Also, hand-made socks are the most comfortable thing ever.</p>
<p>(And quiteVALid, surely you can distract yourself from decisions with the winter Knitty? I think it’s supposed to come out later today or tomorrow. :))</p>
<p>If I get accepted to MIT,
I will take whoever knits me a hand-made snuggie out to lunch for a week.</p>
<p>@heinochus: Yes, I agree with molliebatmit. I learned most of my knitting skills from knittinghelp.com. There are some simple beginners’ patterns on the site. There are also many awesome science and mathy patterns out there (on the Internet) too, such as Klein bottle hats, mobius strips, and hyperbolic planes (I have made the latter two… the first one is in my queue). And Ravelry is amazing. It has a pattern browser, a yarn browser, and lots of fun groups. There is even an MIT group, I believe. </p>
<p>Also, handknitted socks are THE best things in the world. Once I get all of my holiday knitting out of the way, I will finish one pair that is still on the needles and probably start another. Designing is also quite fun. I’m designing my first* pattern now. It’s really like “yarn engineering”. It’s quite fun!</p>
<p>@molliebatmit: Yes, most definitely! I just finished my other media distraction (Popular Mechanics- Meh, it was kind of lame this month… there were lots of articles about cars). The new Knitty issue doesn’t seem to be out yet. 
Oh, well, it’ll probably be released soon. I have tons of stuff to do tonight anyway, so it would probably end up being a distraction.</p>
<p>@dosoon: If I get in too, consider it done. :)</p>
<p>*By “first”, I mean the first pattern that is all written out with drawings and everything that isn’t total lamesauce.</p>
<p>Oh, lord, a handknit snuggie would take forever.</p>
<p>The size of things you’re willing to knit people is a sign of how much you love them. 
I make socks and hats for my friends in the lab, but my collaborator gets a whole sweater!</p>
<p>Since it’s going to take forever anyways, I would like to offer some additions to the design of a snuggie I think would be both revolutionary and just straight up righteous.</p>
<p>1) Add on a turtleneck at the top of the snuggie so my neck is warm too and the snuggie never falls down.</p>
<p>2) Add on MITtens at the end of the sleeves. I would say gloves but MITtens has more school spirit. Plus I can do most things with my thumb and one giant blob of the rest 4 fingers.</p>
<p>T_T Being defferred/rejected now means the loss of a great education AND a handknit snuggie. But then again being accepted just means that much more</p>
<p>@molliebatmit: It wouldn’t take that long if it was stockinette, especially on circulars. I would probably use some bulky/super bulky yarn too. Maybe double-stranded Simply Soft? Anyways, I’m a little bit of a sock whore, so I usually don’t give those away. I tend to stick to hats and scarves when it comes to gifts.</p>
<p>@dosoon: I will take your suggestions into account. Don’t forget, I have to get in too. 
But yes, it would be a bonus prize- to get in and to get a comfy snuggie.</p>
<p>I tend to knit fine-gauge things, so those are my biases. :)</p>
<p>Still, looks like there’s a Bernat pattern that calls for 2510 yards of bulky-weight yarn. That sounds like it would approximate forever, even on big needles.</p>
<p>2510 yards sounds enough to wrap my entire body and walk around the city looking like a colorful zombie.</p>
<p>I never said it would be done by the time we got there. </p>
<p>I found the pattern on Ravelry though. It doesn’t look too bad… just kind of boring. Maybe I could put some cables or something in the sleeves or the edges to spice it up. Or a big colorworked MIT on the chest.</p>
<p>There are 3 thread on this forum I look at consistently.
One is the super paranoid thread.
Another is the countdown thread, of course.
And then there is this thread, about knitting.
This one’s my favorite by a longshot. :D</p>
<p>But of course. :D</p>
<p>We can start a new thread: Mollie and quiteVALid teach everybody to knit!</p>
<p>And we could have a CC knit-along! I feel like I’ve seen a colorwork MIT hat on Ravelry somewhere, although all I’m finding at the moment are projects in German…</p>
<p>Knitting is very calming. I am sitting here petting a skein of 92% merino/8% cashmere as we speak. (Sorry, quiteVALid… just imagine a really, really, really soft cotton. :))</p>
<p>EDIT: Brilliant – somebody is making a pair of [Knucks[/url</a>] with “PUNT” and “TOOL” on the fingers.</p>
<p>EDIT 2: Also, [url=<a href=“http://discovermagazine.com/photos/03-the-bizarre-and-brilliant-world-of-knitted-science]The”>http://discovermagazine.com/photos/03-the-bizarre-and-brilliant-world-of-knitted-science]The</a> Bizarre and Brilliant World of Knitted Science](<a href=“http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/PATTknucks.html]Knucks[/url”>Knitty: Summer 2006)!</p>