Knitting Math

I have a long list of things I’d love to learn in life, like knitting. I have an even longer list of things I’d love to teach my son. Yes, knitting is on that list too. Or crocheting, whatever is more to his liking.

I’m not going to go over all the benefits of teaching a child (or self) to knit. Sharpened fine motor skills and improved concentration are just two of the more obvious outcomes.

The no-less important benefit is that knitting and crocheting produce tangible outcomes. And these tangible outcomes can be re-used as beautiful math toys or math art that will teach advanced math concepts.

If you are too busy and your children are too young to pick up yarn arts, you can browse knitted math-y objects on Etsy, like this dodecahedron. I showed it to my son and asked him what he thought of it. He said that he thought it was an emblem, possibly for a robot. He also pointed out all the triangles he saw.

Next I showed him this fractions afghan. We tried figuring out the pattern – rectangles divided into 1, 2, 3, 4 and more parts. We also counted to see how in some rectangles there was the same number of yellow and green elements while in others there were more green elements.

But don’t get too hard on yourself for not creating something just as beautiful for your child. Instead, stick around to find out how you can create no less stunning geometric shapes for and with your child. Hint – you’ll need to stock up on paper plates.