I completed Nora Gaughan’s Basalt Tank from Knitting Nature just in time to show it off at Ally Pally. One person, the lovely Robynn from Purlescence.com recognized it, bless her. (Anyone who needs a knitting indulgence should check out her site– they have beautiful, quality things, free fairy-tale based patterns and great service.)
I don’t know how I feel about the finished tank. It certainly fits me, and was a joy to knit. I marvel at the math involved in the pattern. Knitting the hexagons which grow one from the other, meditation on the maths needed to invent such a thing is inevitable. It made me realize that it was not my own inadequacies that made higher maths “out of bounds” for me, but a deliberately discouraging educational system that told me not to bother.
I guess in my late thirties I am now realizing that I would have been good at things like calculus if I’d only been given the chance. As a young girl I certainly wouldn’t have insisted I’d be given a chance, though that is what it would have taken.
I remember being 12 and my algebra teacher called me to the board to answer a problem. His manner was much like a drill sergeant and he terrified me. I wished I had a shell– maybe the Basalt Tank– to crawl into. I froze up at the board. I was one of two girls in the class. He said, “is there a young man here who can save her?” And there were laugher and volunteers. He never called me to the board again.
Years later I was in a playground and I saw him on the sidewalk. I went up to him an asked him why he had done that. To my amazement he had remembered me and said something presumptuous and backhanded like, “You had a brilliant mind, but you weren’t using it.”
Knitting this tank I realized that he was, and still is, terribly wrong.
October 15, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Hello!
I stumbled upon your blog while joining up the Fitted KAL. I just wanted to say I think you are fabulous and your knitting is inspiring. Calculus is a chore and if you made it to 38, let others suffer through sussing it out ^_^.
Loving the Noro shrug.
KPKPKPKP,
Dani
October 15, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Hi there! Thanks for checking out the blog and for the kind words.
If there were more knitting analogies in maths I would have excelled.
Knit on you crazy diamond!
October 16, 2007 at 6:10 pm
the tank is gorgeous and I LOVE your noro shrug. I am now wondering if I can cobble one together before this weekend…….what a perfect thing to wear with my ski vest (winter outerwear of choice…)
October 16, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Hi Gretchen–
A noro shrug would look really cute under a ski vest…I love that idea!
It was a quick knit, definitely!
October 17, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Congrats on manging to find a shade of Noro without a jarring colour hidden in it!
The tank is one of those patterns that I keep coming back to, but I Think I’d probably want to make some modifications.
October 19, 2007 at 12:49 am
I think the tank looks great on you. You really rock it with the rest of the ensemble (gotta knit me a noro shrug)
October 22, 2007 at 6:00 am
I’m a new reader of your blog, I found you on Ravelry. I really like the entire outfit put together in these pictures. I like the Basalt tank (though I don’t have the book) but wasn’t totally sold on it until I saw your pictures. You look really great in this and now I want to knit it for sure! Also, did you follow a pattern for your shrug or piece it together yourself? All very cute!
October 23, 2007 at 5:56 pm
hi there, At least you got to speak to the math man about his position. I would love to confront my “new math” teachers about their methods… as a 50 year old I still fight the math fight. I am trying to get past the block that I know I have and class room rudness never helped, ever.
The tank is gorgeous as is the get up. I met you on ravelry.
Keep on keeping.
e
December 5, 2007 at 10:19 am
Hi – I found your site a couple of weeks ago and I’m sure you had a link to a site that gave instructions for knitting a shrug – but after spending much time trawling the internet for you again (and finding you by searching on “noro” “dreads” and “knitting”!!) I can’t find any mention of it.
I so want to knit a Noro shrug like the one you have – can you point me to the site that gave instructions for it?
Thanks so much
December 18, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Hi Jamie– I just knit the shrug using top-down raglan construction. But it’s very similar to the shrug in the Fitted Knits book.
Thanks for your kind words!
December 18, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Hi Violetrose– I think maybe the pattern link could be on my delicious bookmarks– I have a sidebar where those show up as “most recent” so it might not be on the blog page anymore but it would be here:
http://del.icio.us/purlygrrrl
June 12, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Gorgious … fabulous… I love this basalt tank…
I ‘m just begin to knit it… and want to know if you have meet some difficults things… some errata and so…
I m doing it with pure cotton… more “rigid” probably…
See you… thanks for your return… and don’t be afraid if my blog is speaking french , lol…
June 12, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Hello Ma Dalton! This pattern was wonderful to knit. I ran into no problems at all, and didn’t need to make any modifications. It’s a great pattern!
March 9, 2011 at 10:24 pm
That is all kinds of amazing and looks quite hot on you! I wish I had the ovaries to take on such a knitting challenge!!!
March 10, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Hey, thanks! It was actually pretty easy– it only looks complex!