Knitting

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Knitting Made Musical with Cyberknitics

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Cyberknitics translates the action of knitting into sound.Thanks to Make, I learned about this really cool project that Teresa Lamb made for her master’s thesis called Cyberknitics. She made a leather harness a knitter can wear as they knit, which also connects to the knitter’s arm and uses circuit boards to translate the movement of knitting into sound.

Here’s what that looks (and sounds) like:

[vimeo 165971570 w=600 h=350]

This is really cool, and would be interesting as a piece of performance art, or even just knitting for yourself and listening to the sound your knitting makes. Or how about outfitting a knit night full of knitters for a knitting symphony? How cool would that be?

Here’s what she says about the project:

Cyberknitics is the study of the relationship between craft, technology, and humans. Crafting is calming, healing, communal, expressive and empowering. It fills a basic human desire that transcends its utility. My work explores what it means to be a crafter now, and what it will mean in the future.

This is really fascinating to me and I’d love to try it out myself. What about you? What do you think your knitting sounds like?

[Photo via Teresa Lamb.]

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Comments

  1. Will the sound patterns change with different movements, such as purling, yarn over, double decreases, cabling, and psso, for example?

Have you read?

Stitch a Simple Sack Hat that Looks Like a Turkey

If your family is the sort to do a turkey trot for Thanksgiving, or even just to take family pictures, you’ll want to get started knitting up some Turkey Sack Hats with this pattern from Underground Crafter. 

The pattern uses super bulky yarn and is rated easy. It’s knit flat but there are a few skills in here around the shaping of the eyes, which includes changing colors, working bobbles and doing a wicked purl 3 together decrease. Twice. 

But that’s all in one row, and the rest of it is pretty simple. The beak is worked separately and sewn on, and the side of the hat is stitched up to make it into a hat. 

What’s great about this one is that it comes in 10 sizes, ranging from newborn to adult large, so you really can make one for everyone in the family. And because it uses super bulky yarn you can knit a bunch pretty quickly if that’s a thing you’d like to do. 

It’s also fun because you could use this base pattern to make different animals or for different holidays. Make it all in orange and stitch on a jack o’lantern face for Halloween, or make a white one that’s a snowman, for example. 

In any style this would also be a fun gag gift for that person in your life who has everything or doesn’t want gifts, or if you do a secret Santa or white elephant gift exchange at work or elsewhere. 

And make sure whether you’re making it a turkey or some other character that you include the pom poms at the top! They’re just so cure and a great way to add a bit more color to the project, and they’re easy to make. (See also: ways to make a pompom with yarn.)

You can grab the free pattern at the Underground Crafter website. 

[Photo: Underground Crafter]