Baby surprise jacket, cap, and simple blankie

My mum is here, visiting for a couple of months. And when mum or mum-in-law are visiting, somehow, my knitting and crocheting activity peaks up. Has to be one of the best friendly things in the world, just sitting in the sun with a hot cup of tea and coffee and making new things. 

So a good friend's baby shower brought out this joint effort. It is the very first time I have made the EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket. Actually, I did not make it, I "instructed" my mum, reading out the EZ instructions, and mum made it. And she did the cap. 

Like so many of her generation, my mum does not knit from written instructions - and while I marvel at the amount of knitting knowledge my mum, grandma, and mum-in-law simply carry in their heads and execute it at the right time, they instead marvel at all those wonders that exist in the knitting world, that they never knew about because they never "read" knitting. Like this Baby Surprise Jacket for instance - my mum was just completely bowled over by the construction of it, and she was anticipating the outcome like a little child while she was making it, and chuckling like a little child by the end of it! 

The blanket - well that's another story. Sometime last year, I had these two balls of Paton's Baby yarn, a very baby yellow, with no complete project coming out of it. So, mum-in-law (who was visiting then), sat and did these yellow squares, and we hoped that someday it would turn into something. And so, last week, I got some white, and turned it into a baby blanket, all ready for the new baby to arrive. Work is super busy right now, so this has to be the quickest bit of crochet I have ever done, trying to find odd bits of time to joining a square here and a square there (there was a time deadline, the baby shower invite). And yes, I did follow EZ's instructions and had it hanging around the kitchen, and even with my Mac on the train! (I can sometimes produce code and woolly things together, funny the two processes actually help each other). 

So, this gift had the fortune of having three knitters on it, me, my mum, and my mum-in-law, a true family project, a super welcome for a super new baby. 

Permutating Friends of 3 Scarf Pattern

Every once in a while, you "unvent" something, in Elizabeth Zimmerman's words. To me it means new ways of doing old things, but also new ways to explain old things, and seeing relationships between diverse things that may on the face of it have nothing to do with each other.

I was recently playing Friends of 10 with my 5 year old son. The game introduces kids to the total number of permutations or ways in which you can put two positive numbers together to make a bigger number. So, for example, there are 11 ways (not counting commutativity, in math terms, since 1+ 9 is the same as 9+1 in our number system), by which you can make the number 10:

• 0 + 10
• 1 + 9
• 2 + 8
• 3 + 7
• 4 + 6
• 5 + 5
• 6 + 4
• 7 + 3
• 8 + 2
• 9 + 1
• 10 + 0

The most interesting thing is that counting this way, there are always an odd number of ways in which you can produce an even number. So, for example, there are 11 ways (count the bullets above) to make the number 10. And, in beautiful contrast, there are always an even number of ways in which you can produce an odd number. So, for example, there are 2 ways to produce the number 1: (0+1), (1+0). 

So, what does this have to do with a pattern? Well, here goes. I was crocheting as I played with him, and I kind discovered this pattern. Then, afterwards, I searched on the net, and found several similar variants, of what is called the "waves" pattern. But, re-discovering it from the first principles, starting from a math game, really tickled me. 

Permutating Friends of 3 Scarf Pattern

We will do friends of 3, and let a slip stitch (ss) stand for 0, single crochet (sc) for 1, double crochet (dc) for 2, and treble crochet (tr) for 3. So, now, lets look at the 4 combinations of making 3: 

• 0+3
• 1+2
• 2+1
• 3+0

Are you getting the idea? It's so exciting, isn't it? 

Cast on a multiple of 7+1 stitches. For the scarf cast on a number of stitches long enough to cover the length of the scarf, and depending on the needle size.  

Now, a simple two row repeat plus a foundation row, based on our friends of 3 permutations above: 

• R1: Foundation row: ss into second chain from hook, sc, dc, tr, dc, sc, ss, *ss, sc, dc, tr, dc, sc, ss*, repeat the 7 st pattern from * to *. Turn work. 
• R2: Chain 4 (stands for the first tr), now, working only in the back loops of the previous row, dc, sc, ss, sc, dc, tr, *tr, dc, sc, ss, sc, dc, tr*, repeat the 7 st pattern from * to *. Turn work. 
• R3: Chain 1, working only in the front loops of the previous row, ss into first chain from hook, sc, dc, tr, dc, sc, ss, *ss, sc, dc, tr, dc, sc, ss*, repeat the 7 st pattern from * to *. Turn work. 

Repeat rows 2 and 3 for pattern. Make the width of the scarf as thick as you want. Cast off and finish. 

In the first row we go singing: 0-1-2-3-2-1-0

Ravelry link to project

And in the second row we go singing: 3-2-1-0-1-2-3

Ravelry link to project

Ravelry link to project

And every stitch on the two rows together makes friends of 3, so the height effectively remains constant over the two rows, and we, nevertheless, get the waves. Plus, working into the back and front loops gives a raised pronounced look that defines the waves. How exciting! 

Ravelry link to project

By the way, this is just plain old kindergarten math leading to the explanation of a crochet pattern from first principles. There is a whole section in combinatorics and higher mathematics that looks at what is called partitions: computing the numbers of ways you can put together k numbers to add up to a number n. So, technically, we were looking at a 2-way partition. Can we look at multi-way partitions for designing patterns? Always, the simple builds bit by bit to build to the complex, and this never fails to inspire me and put the wonder back into me! Hope you enjoy the pattern!