When I took Algebra, 4 banger calculators were so expensive that Nyack hospital gave one to my Mother as an appreciation gift at her 10 year anniversary employee banquet. Needless to say, I didn’t get to use in on my homework (very often).
I was thrilled when I learned about graphical solutions to sets of equations. You mean I could draw something carefully and it would tell me the answer? Or at least where the ballpark was that the answer was in? And sometimes the graph would even be pretty? That I could do. Arithmetic accuracy? Um, when spreadsheets came out, I was so happy to let them do that for me!
As I’ve been reading up on Apollonian Gaskets, I’ve learned how to calculate the sizes of the circles I need, but not exactly where they touch each other. I think that has something to do with triangles through their centers, but I’m not sure yet. I am sure that I didn’t want to wade through anymore mathematics articles to find out how to calculate them!
I want a graphical solution.
Enter the Gear extension in the opensource Inkscape illustration program. My circles are going to be edged with picot loops, so gears approximate them well. By fitting them together in the program, I can see which loops to instruct the knitter or crocheter to join-as-you-go, calling for the right sizes from my spreadsheet by the number of gear teeth.
It was all going swimmingly when I realized (because my circles looked wonky) that there was a maximum number of gear teeth I was allowed to call for. Uh oh. If your guide circles have 600 teeth, then a 360 tooth maximum is a problem.
I asked my husband Dan to fix the program for me. Sometimes with opensource software you can do that. I tried to be helpful by digging around on my folder system to find where the Inkscape extension code was located, but only found the ones I’d downloaded after about 30 minutes. It took him 5 minutes total to find the code, find the line that limited the size, and alter it.
So I’m back in the design business! I was so happy I put off a chore to start the above chart draft. It does need polishing, but there is only so long you can put off chores. I’ve also found another pretty pattern source for more shawls in the same technique, Doyle Spirals.
I hope your endeavors find support too.