The Math

I have never, ever been good at math. I’m not complaining - just stating a fact of life. There are things I’m quite good at like cooking and crafty stuff. I’m also voracious reader and I’m proud to say that I’ve shared the fruit of that obsession – a fairly large vocabulary - with my daughters. It makes me feel fabulous when people comment on their command of the language. It’s something that we share and it makes as all feel connected. The math is another story.

It’s really not a stretch to say that, as a 5th grader, the Drama Queen is a far better mathematician than I am as an adult. She can put numbers together in her head lightening fast (before I can get them on paper) and is in a special program for children who are gifted in math. Given all of this, I think that perhaps she ought to be buying the yarn for me because clearly I just can’t get it right.

I still have 2 extra balls of yarn that are left over from the first scarf I ever made and there are many other extra balls in the stash from other finished objects. The waste is a little troubling (Hello! I could’ve used that money to but yarn I actually needed) but not something I’m going to shed tears over. The projects that are currently languishing while I await the second batch of the yarn are far more upsetting. Seraphim sits pitifully – one skein away from completion. She was supposed to adorn my shoulders during the High Holidays. Sadly, not so much. Maybe next year.

The newest casualty of my inability to do simple addition and multiplication is the funky scarf. You can see the obvious problem. It’s currently about 4 feet long and I’m nearly out of yarn again. I ordered the extra balls on Monday so I’ll need to put this aside while I wait for its arrival. Thankfully, when I called KnitPicks, they said that the dyelots I used were still available and I’m not to far from the end so I’m pretty sure that I’ll still finish on time. Whew!
While I wait for the necessary yarn deliveries I’m tempted to start a sweater for me but, of course, there are issues. I really want to do Green Gable and I have both the appropriate yarn and the pattern at home. The problem is (here comes the math again) the sizes don’t go as high as I need. Of course I knew that before I bought the pattern but I was I a state of wild denial and decided that I could make the necessary adjustments. Math! Assuming that I can make the adjustments correctly I’d also have to adjust the amount of yarn required. Drat - math once more! Maybe DQ can figure it out for me while I make Tilia – a project with correct sizing for which I’ve purchased the correct amount of yarn.

More numbers:
1 – today marks exactly one month that my dad has been living with us
2 – number of days till the National Book Festival
3 – months till the next big family vacation – officially on the books as of yesterday.
4 – weeks (give or take a few days) 'till my favorite day of the year.

I could go on but you get the picture – overall, life is good!