December 10, 2003
Patternology: An Emerging Science
Please send some germ-battling thoughts K’s way since Flu Junior seems to be getting the better of her. The big styrofoam container of chicken teriyaki and rice I brought her last night proved not to be the cure-all I thought it would be. And Miss Frankie sprained her little doggie elbow. Naturally, she, too, asked for a big styrofoam container of chicken teriyaki and rice but was fated to be sorely disappointed.
On a brighter note, despite feeling under the weather, K still took some time yesterday to make a beautiful new "Mossy Cottage" banner which combines knitting and dye garden images. We are still "tweaking" it but I am a very happy camper! Thank you, K!!
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The absence of photos today, thanks again to the dratted Flu Junior, gives me the perfect opportunity to talk about a fascinating concept I’ve stumbled across lately: Knitting patterns generated or inspired by an unusual non-knitting-related source. A fantastic example can be found on FiberRavenSoiree where Sheila has posted a picture of a knitting pattern she developed based on a Bach composition (scroll to the bottom of her entry).
Some other unique "automatic pattern generators" I've encountered:
- DNA: One of the commenters on Sheila’s site, Maus of the Knits 'n' Things blog, floated the idea of basing a pattern on DNA strands, not just the DNA helix, which has been “done,” but DNA strands like this. (I assume that's what you meant, Maus?) You can't get any more unique or original than a sock or sweater patterned after your own DNA!
As I was looking for online images of DNA to illustrate Maus's point, I came across this site. The animated bar shows a representation of DNA which, according to the site, “is derived from your unique DNA code which varies the colors and length of the bars.” This would translate perfectly into a knitting pattern, n'est-ca pas?
- Social Security Numbers: The Social Security Sock pattern, designed by Sandy Kazmer, uses your Social Security number to determine the color, order and thickness of the stripes you knit.
- Fractals: On another blog I found a link to a site of a woman who knits patterns based on fractals. Here are some examples of fractals (lots of pictures, may download slowly); here is what the artist knits.
- Computer Games: I was recently playing a computer game which makes a screenful of colored squares (if you're losing, that is) and found myself wondering if one could take a screenshot and create a pattern based on the random picture created by the colored squares. Here is an example of a screenshot that could be used:
I would love to hear any more ideas anyone has along these lines. Wade in!! Anyone?