Thursday, April 23, 2009

30,800 in 35 hours

Back several months ago, I undertook a rather large project. I knew it was big, but I was willing to take on the challenge. After 35 hours of work knitting 30,800 stitches, this is what she looks like so far...

Now, how do I know those statistics? I did the math. Yes, I know, I HATE math, but I did it (ok, I had some help)


First I timed myself on how long it took me to do one triangle from the picking up of stitches to the last decreasing join, result-15 minutes. My speed was not crazy fast Miriam Tegels speed but fairly quick. So, there are 20 rectangles per tier to give me 300 minutes, there are 7 tiers completed, that is 35 hours (give or take a few minutes.) Then to obtain my stitch count was easy. My rectangles are 10 stitches wide by 22 rows, 220 stitches per rectangle, 20 rectangles per tier comes to 4,400 stitches per tier and with 7 tiers completed that comes to a whopping 30,800 stitches! Whew, I am tired aren't you?

So, how much more do I have to knit? She wants it like 6 feet long. Unblocked here in the pictures, I have knit 1 foot, I have 5 more feet to go! Hmmm, I am tired of math, so if anyone else wants to figure out how much more time (estimated of course) and stitches I have to knit, that would be fun! Leave me a comment and show off your math skills by May 20th and I will pick someone at random to give a prize. And if you wanted to get real detailed, you can tell me how many rectangles I would need to complete each day from now until October 14, my bosses birthday to be done with the blanket!

Now before you leave me comments like "are you insane? I would never do that!" or "wow, I hope you are getting a raise for that!" or my favorite "Oh hell no! You kidding me, I would say good morning to my boss if I was not obligated!" let me tell you that my boss is a great lady. She gives me tickets (good tickets to boot) to see the Giants play often during the baseball season and is just a caring and fair woman. Besides, she bought all the yarn (and she bought more than what was needed) and said that I can keep the rest.

Ok, I am looking forward to all the comments!

9 comments:

  1. Ok it is actually not very complicated:) If my math is correct (and that is quite a stretch, but anyway); it looks like you need to knit about an hour a day! There are 174 days until October 14th, and you have 175 hours of more knitting to do, so I would say about 4 rectangles a day! Now what I really want to know is, what plans do you have for the left over yarn?!

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  2. Did I forget to mention how absolutely stunning and awesome and beautiful it is going to look!? Woah. I am impressed.

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  3. Woohoo for it being done. And it's gorgeous.

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  4. It looks beautiful!

    I concur with lillamy's calculations. 1 hour a day is a piece of cake!

    Pauline

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  5. 35 hours/ft X 5 more feet = 175 more hours of knitting. Which is just a hair over an hour a day. So if you knit 2 hours every other day on it, or 2 hours a day for one week and skip the next week it will be done in time. So on a Starbucks night, you could knock out 3 days worth of knitting in 1 sitting!

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  6. jeanhmaher@yahoo.com4:35 PM, April 24, 2009

    I will just say, AWESOME, and leave the math to others:) The colorway is so pretty-what is it?

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  7. Two words, that I think you have already said somewhere.

    Job. Security.

    or

    You. Rock!

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  8. Woh! That's a lot of knitting! My math (hah!) comes out at 175 hours also. But, see, now you have a great excuse for long stretches of kitting time. And if you bring it on Wed. nights we can all "ooh" and "aah" over it!

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  9. I don't "do" math, but I did do a Lady E with Silk Garden and I enjoyed the whole time I was knitting her (during the summer in the CA foothills). Love how the yarn keeps moving on to the next sequence of color. Hope you are also enjoying the process. It's going to be a fabulous gift.

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