Deknitting

I've never been really interested in puzzles. Apart from the odd crossword, word search or logic puzzle, the intricacies of cypher breaking or the kind of puzzles Martin Gardner used to write about never really got my interest.

Part of the problem is that I get tired very quickly of things that are too hard. It's the same with video games. I'll usually play games on an easy setting, because being repeatedly kicked in the head until I get it right doesn't strike me as being fun.

When I'm trying to figure out a puzzle, if I can't work it out within a few minutes, I give up and move on to something more interesting. But there is one exception.

I was a scout. I don't admit that very often - scouting for me was far from a consistently positive experience, but there is is. One of the very few things that scouting taught me that I thought was in any way worthwhile (apart from how to hate camping) was knots. I am very good at knots.

Where knots and puzzles cross over is when you want to try and untie knots. There's an old, old story about a thing called the Gordian Knot. The legend is a little involved, but basically the Gordian Knot was one that no-one could untie. Alexander the Great reportedly came along and cut it with his sword rather than try to untie it - that being amazing or something.

I reckon I could untie the Gordian Knot. I can untie anything, given enough time, so long as I can see what I am doing.

So when Terri asked me to unravel a dog coat she'd made a while ago - it was too big for badger - I was more than happy to.

Knitting is very interesting. And in fact it doesn't involve very many actual knots. There are some, but the bulk of knitting consists of a single length of wool that is wrapped and twisted around itself in specific repeating patterns. Usually, a block of knitting comes unravelled if you pull on one end. You have to untie the knot at the end that keeps it all together, but the rest just comes free.

Except... that knitted objects (except for scarfs) aren't simply one basic block of knitting. There are multiple pieces fastened together by stitches in sometimes quite elaborate ways. This particular dog coat consists of one main part which is a tube, plus sections around the neck hole and arm holes that were done in separate sections, and a pocket on the back with a button.

Furthermore, wool frays and twists, which in the end makes unravelling the whole thing quite a complex and interesting puzzle that I am quite enjoying getting to the end of.