When yarn art meets science

I’m a bit of a nerd, it has to be said, and a few years ago I went to Bali (from Australia, so not quite as glam as it sounds now…) to do a coding bootcamp. Over the 10 days of the course, we learnt HTML and CSS, the two main coding languages for the front end of websites. Having some idea of how to code has been useful ever since, even if I’ve not been able to make my millions in software development.

One of the things I really enjoyed about coding with the problem-solving side of it - when you design something, code it and it doesn’t work and then you spend time trying to work out why. It seems weird, maybe, to find that interesting, but the sense of achievement when you work out why is really great.

I was thinking about that aspect of coding when I was crocheting recently. I was on a business trip and had taken what I thought was a relatively simple project with me. A cake of Scheepjes Whirl and a dragonfly pattern. Maybe because I was travelling, I kept making mistakes and the nature of the pattern meant that the mistake wasn’t usually apparent for several rows. So then I had to spend time going back and working out where I had gone wrong. Like when I was coding, sometimes I had to go step-by-step through so much I had done. And like when I was coding, the aha moment when I found the mistake was worth it (even if it was followed by a sinking heart when I realised it meant unravelling 7 rows…).

One of the things that all the lessons say is to count your stitches at the end of each row. And my head knows it is right, and I should. But I think my heart enjoys the jeopardy of making a mistake and then finding it.

Another aspect of knitting/crochet that appeals to my inner nerd is reading patterns. Like code, you need to know what the terms are to be able to understand what is going on. And once you get more experienced, you can glance at it to get the gist. Also like coding, you can end up with the same result through slightly different instructions - there are some pattern writers that I just can’t get my head around.

I think this is one of the reasons I like knitting and crochet - it fulfills by my arty side and my nerdy side at the same time!

I’d love to think that someone might read this, who has thought about knitting or crochet, but been reluctant to take it up because they don’t think they are creative enough. And if you do, let me tell you - give it a go, you might find it fits your way of thinking!