I was all fired up ever since I came across this blog of mymateriallife crocheting a ball (sphere) from 6 granny squares. I was intrigued no end how 6 squares (size is irrelevant) can ever make a ball or a sphere !
My math knowledge told me, we can only make a cube with 6 squares. In the blog it was also mentioned that we use 2 squares one for the bottom, one for the top and the rest four make the sides. Anybody with a little math knowledge can with certainty say this structure cannot be anything but a cube !!
I loved the ball idea that it was made of granny squares which is an amazing pattern for its simplicity and versatility. I wanted to try it straight away and commented on the blog so.
I finished crocheting the 6 squares yesterday night by 12 and hit the bed excited at the idea of turning these into a sphere. I could not rest in peace !! I kept asking how does a cube become a sphere.
Next morning at breakfast I drilled my daughter who is a student of math to explain this. She simply dismissed me saying it cannot. A square has sides, a sphere none !! How can a square box be converted to a ball ? My curiosity had to take a back seat as I had to attend to mundane weekend commitments through the day.
With a hot cup of ginger tea in the evening, I set about sewing the squares as in mymateriallife’s post. And I made this cube.
This is what I expected it to end up, as I sewed the sides. Now before I closed the final side I had to stuff it with some polyfill. And ………
TADA !!!! the cube turns into this ball !!
Right, how did this happen ?? My limited knowledge told me the centre of each square got pushed outward and made a curve as I stuffed it. I called the math kid in the house to explain it and the only thing she added was the word ‘convex’ !! 🙂
I am happy today. For I made what I wanted to. And learned a lesson in geometric shapes too 🙂 Thank you materiallife for this enlightenment !!!
Things I want to create before wrinkles overwhelm me 
A nice way to find out …
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Indeed ! thank you.
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The ball is just wonderful!!!
I do a bit of craft teaching and am always on the look out for creative ways to use a square. Hmmmm…… I wonder if it work with knitted squares?
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Of course knitted squares are no different from crocheted ones. So they should work absolutely fine. I am assuming the knitted ones would be much better too since the seams will not be as pronounced as the crocheted ones. The key is, a fabric that can expand and stretch when stuffed.
I plan to try this with cloth …people sew cloth balls with different shapes, but I don’t remember a ball made of squares..hexagons are very common to make balls.
Crochet is based on geometric fundamentals since it deals with shapes and dimensions. It is used in mathematical modelling too …hyperbolic crochet is a fantastic one I have been wanting to attempt.
Hmm there I go again :(( I seem to always say more than I should 🙂 Its lovely to know you and thanks for visiting, liking and taking the time to comment on a sunday morning !!!!
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Wow! I’m impressed with how quickly you turned that out – nice work! So six convex squares do make a ball …
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Aha ! there you are 🙂 You have noticed this post sooner than I expected ! Thank you so much for being the first to comment ..first honours are yours rightfully 🙂
As I said, this ball got the better of me since yesterday. I must confess, it took me forever to do the sewing though.
yeah, each square turns into a convex curve making it into a ball ….but this is possible only if the material (in this case yarn) is stretchy. Both the granny square pattern which is holey and the yarn are stretchy, therefore they lend themselves well to this conversion into a curve. The nature of the material is a paramount factor.
Sorry for this detailed explanation ;0 you can tell I am consumed by this eurekha moment 😉
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