DW scarf progress / hyberbolic planes

Still working on the Doctor Who scarf. I had a couple of setbacks when my dog decided to pull skeins of yarn out of my bag and tangle them to bits. This surprised me as he doesn't generally fool with my yarn. Well, I think he now has gotten the message that this is NOT acceptable behavior. I was able to untangle and rewind the yarn into balls. I just had to remember which was which color for the scarf as I'm following the pattern for the color blocks.

I hope to be able to finish the crocheting in the next day or so, then have to tackle the tails. Here is a photo of where I stand right now. It is about 73" at this point. That is very approximate. I have about 30 rows left I think. I am on my second skein of beige and olive but have a good bit left of the other colors at this point.

If you're interested in all things Who, you might like to have a look at what Amazon has available Search Amazon.com for doctor who. I have four different Who wishlists from the classic to the new series. Particularly close to my heart right now are the The Sarah Jane Adventures since sweet Elisabeth Sladen passed away recently. Such a lovely lady and wonderful actress. She will be missed. Doctor #10 (my favorite, David Tennant) appeared in the The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Third Season and #11 Matt Smith appeared in the 4th season which is not yet on DVD.

But I have taken a turn away from crochet, haven't I? :-) Big Who fan here.

But back to crochet - a couple of weeks ago I discovered the book Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes. VERY interesting reading. I really enjoyed what I read. It does take some concentration and if you hate geometry and such this is probably something you'd prefer to skip. While I don't pretend to understand most of it, I did catch a bit and hope to crochet one of these interesting characters at some point. It had detailed instructions on how to crochet a hyperbolic plane. Someone at Eons also posted this link, at the University of Florida, to more patterns.

Just to let you know what you're in for - a hyperbolic plane has constant negative curvature. What is curvature? Good question. I can only explain it by example. A straight line or flat surface has zero curvature. Circles have constant curvature because they are curved everywhere in the same way. Curving outward is positive curvature - like an egg or a hill. A valley would be negative curvature. So if a surface has constant positive curvature it is a sphere.

To put this into practical use, if you made a crocheted pentagon and you surrounded it with crocheted hexagons (laying them side by side with no space between them), you would not be able to lay them flat. They will eventually form a sphere - a soccer ball is the example used in the book. The premise is that a surface with constant positive curvature will not be able to lie flat but will, in fact, close in on itself eventually, thus becoming a sphere or circle.

The book had examples of where this concept is found in nature and different ways to use it in crochet. I found it fascinating.

The Institute for Figuring is another site that I've mentioned before with more crocheted examples. 

If you're interested in this topic, I suggest you get the above book and do some research online, google hyperbolic plane + crochet, for example.

I don't know if I mentioned here before but I decided against making the Sweetheart Ripple Afghan in Reversible Ripple Afghans for the time being. I may do it later but am not doing the crochet-along. It's just a matter of time and priorities.

You might remember that this Sweetheart Ripple is the afghan by Kim Guzman. If you ARE working that sweetheart ripple afghan, do go have a look at the video demonstrating the special stitch. I thought it looked to be very helpful.


Happy crocheting!
Sandie