Sheepish Bloom Drop

Airwhaler, using one of the flowers she crocheted, participated in the Sheepish Bloom Drop group yarn bomb.  She tied a note to the flower and attached it to the fence on a softball field.  The flower remained up for about two weeks, but when we went walked by it yesterday, it was gone.  Only the string that had attached it to the fence was left.

Airwhaler: Double Knitting

Along with crocheting, Airwhaler can also knit, and she does so occasionally.  She decided to learn how to double knit, but was surprised at how difficult it was.  According to her, "It's awful.  It looks really cool but is kind of miserable to make because each row takes twice the normal time.  But it's still fun in a horribly sick way."

So for anyone wanting to double knit, Airwhaler has warned you.

Airwhaler: Granny Bunting and Scarf

Following instructions from Attic24, Airwhaler crocheted a few granny bunting triangles.  She made six in total with varying designs and color schemes and sent all of them to England for Yarndale.

Airwhaler also made this scarf with knitting needles.  She did not follow any sort of pattern; the ends are simply sewed together to form a möbius strip.

Airwhaler: Crochet Flowers

Airwhaler recently got a book called 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet from a friend, and she has been making flowers nonstop!  She plans to connect all of the flowers she made into one long chain.  Believe it or not, she has over 40 flowers already made!  She only sent me a sampling of her collection, and I cannot wait to see her entire stock of crocheted and knitted flowers.

Chrysanthemum 

Airwhaler: Granny Square Blanket

A granny square blanket is pretty standard in the crocheting world, and an online search for "crocheted blanket" immediately comes up with links for granny square blankets.  Airwhaler made a lovely blanket from 54 squares, each with its own unique pattern and color scheme.

To join all of the squares together, Airwhaler followed the tutorial on Carina's Craftblog, and she crocheted together all of the squares in a pattern along the diagonals.  It alternates between squares with random color combinations, two color combinations, and solid color squares.  The blanket is pretty cool.

Airwhaler: Miscellaneous Items

Airwhaler enjoys making a lot of little projects that only take a few hours, such as dishcloths and potholders.  The entrelac dishcloth, whose pattern is found on Ravelry, was made with a Tunisian crochet hook.  The dishcloth is a decent size, having a diagonal that is almost the length of the diameter of a kitchen stool.

On a stool

Potholders are also easy items to make.  For her friend's birthday, Airwhaler made her a potholder that is similar to the ones shown below.  The design of the potholder is called a granny mandala and can be found on Crochet with Raymond.

The center of each potholder is something called an African flower.  I quite like the African flower in the middle of the potholder; it complements the pattern surrounding it.

Potholder 1

For the back of the potholder, Airwhaler just made a simple circle.  She then crocheted a border around the two to attach them together.

Potholder 2

Airwhaler: Ripple Blanket

My friend Airwhaler is a very avid crocheter, and I can often find her crocheting in the car and at home.  She has completed many projects, which I have asked to feature on my blog, since they are so interesting.  This post is the first in a series about Airwhaler.

Currently, Airwhaler is working on a ripple blanket.  She found the pattern on Attic24, a crocheter who blogs from England.  For her blanket, Airwhaler bought Stylecraft Special DK yarn from http://us.deramores.com/, which ships for free if the order is $50 or more.

All of the yarn

More yarn!

Airwhaler generally follows the pattern described by Attic24, but after crocheting many rows, she has her own advice to share.  She purposely started with an extra 15 chains because she knew she was accidentally going to skip a few.

The ripple blanket requires a lot of different colors, so Airwhaler has become very adept at changing colors.  Midway through making the blanket, she found an easier way to change colors, found here.  She adds that she basically crocheted over the ends and did not tie a knot.

Airwhaler has generously provided me some photos of her blanket, which show the wonderfulness of the ripple pattern.

The close-ups show in even better detail the stitches and beauty of crocheting.

Ah, wonderful!

What a beauty!

Fun with Calculus: Modeling Volume of Solids with Known Cross Sections (Part 2)

Read Fun with Calculus: Modeling Volume of Solids with Known Cross Sections (Part 1) before reading Part 2.

To attach each cross section I made, I used the extra yarn at one end to weave through the base.  I did not tie any knots; I just weaved the yarn through many times.

The first square 

Attached 

More cross sections attached

As the squares got bigger, the extra yarn at the end was not long enough.  I did not think ahead when I was making the squares that I would be using the ends of the yarn to attach them to the base, so I needed to extend the yarn.  I tied more yarn to the end and proceeded to weave through the yarn.

Tied with a simple knot

About halfway done

When I finished attaching all of the squares, they were a little floppy and were not straight.

To solve this problem, I weaved through the top corners of each square to attach them together and hold them in an upright position.

Corners attached

The completed "solid" looks pretty cool when examined from different angles.  It is definitely a great visual if one is learning about how to solve for the volume of solids with known cross sections.

View from the top

Fun with Calculus: Modeling Volume of Solids with Known Cross Sections (Part 1)

Using the model of the area in between two curves from the previous post, I decided to create solid with known cross sections.  Information about the volume of solids with known cross sections can be found here or there.

For my project, I chose a square cross section.  The idea behind cross sections is that each slice has an infinitely thin thickness.  However, yarn is not infinitely thin, and crocheting a square for every single slice that can be made takes up a lot of yarn, so I only made 15 slices to be evenly spaced out.  Just keep in mind that there will be spaces in between each cross section in my model, spaces which should not exist.

Each square cross section I made had a side length that corresponded with the difference between the y-values for f(x) and g(x) at different x-values.

First cross section I made

Another, bigger cross section

 I will attach each cross section on perpendicular to the base, which is the model of the area between the curves f(x) and g(x).

An idea of how each cross section will be attached

Each cross section I made generally increased in size, since as the x-value increased, the y-value generally increased until the vertex.  After, each cross section decreased in size.

5 of the cross sections I made

To avoid confusion before I attached each square to the base, I stacked the squares up in increasing side length.  The two piles represent the squares that belong to the portion of the solid that is to the left of the vertex and the remaining squares that belong on the other portion of the solid that is to the right of the vertex.

All of the square cross sections I made

To see the final project, go to Part 2.

Fun with Calculus: Modeling Area Between Curves with Yarn

A major part of calculus includes finding the area under a curve.  Before he or she learns about integration, a calculus student learns about approximating area under curves by means of a method called Riemann sum.  To find more about Riemann sums, visit Khan Academy or Paul's Online Notes.

I noticed, while previously crocheting, that each row resembled a rectangle that could be placed underneath a curve to approximate the area.  If I were to crochet enough rectangles, I would have a Riemann sum approximation of the area under a curve.

I chose two random functions, f(x) and g(x), and drew them on a piece of paper.  As far as I know, these are functions that I just drew on paper and cannot be resembled by any equation.

f(x) and g(x)

I then crocheted a shape to model the area between the curves, which is solved for by subtracting the area of f(x) from g(x).  According to the Riemann sum approximation method, one should choose between a left-hand, right-hand, midpoint, or trapezoidal approximation.  I chose none of those options, since I did not really think about that.  I have a combination of a left-hand and a right-hand approximation.

Model of the area between f(x) and g(x)

Placed on the graph, the crochet model about approximates the area between the curves.  It does not fit perfectly, as it is only an approximation.

Yarn iPhone Case: Finishing

After making the iPhone case base, I made the walls of the case, which is the last part of the case.  For the case I made, I included holes for inserting the headphones at the top and the charger area on the bottom.  One can also include holes for the volume controls on the side and the sleep button on the top, but those buttons are easy to press through the yarn, so I did not include gaps in the wall for those buttons.

Making the walls of the case is essentially making a border around the rectangle.  I used single crochet stitches around the border until I reached the spot where I wanted to include a gap for the headphones or the charger.  Depending on what way one goes around the rectangle, one will encounter either the headphones area or the charger area first.  For me, I encountered the headphone area first, but I used the same methods for the space for the charger.

To make the gap for the headphones, I crocheted the border until I reached the area for the headphones.  Then, I made 3 chain stitches in place of the single crochet stitches.

Chain stitches

The length of 3 chain stitches was enough for the headphones, and I connected the chain stitches to the rectangle by making a single crochet stitch.

Single crochet stitch

When I reached the place to insert the charger of the iPhone, I repeated the same process as for making a gap in the border for the headphones.

One border around the rectangle was not enough to keep the case on the iPhone, so I went around the border again.  This time, because I wanted the border to curl slightly inward, I made sure I crocheted with the inside of the case facing towards me.  It does not matter which way the first border was crocheted.

One time around

After I made the second border, I went around again, but not with single crochet stitches.  I just made a second chain around the second border to make it tighter.  I used this chain to tighten the corners by skipping a few stitches around the corner area to create a box shape.

Finished!

Back of case

I put the case on the iPhone, and it fit perfectly!  It was not loose at all, but I would have preferred for it to be a little smaller so it could stretch over the iPhone and be even more secure on the phone.

With iPhone

Perfect size gap for the camera

The yarn iPhone case is light, protective, and can be personalized any which way one wants.  The case will definitely look better with different colors and crazy designs and patterns!