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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?

Knit and Felt Some Tabi Style Slippers

The felted slipper craze that began last year doesn’t seem like it’s fading away. The Sailor Slippers, often striped knit and felted slippers made with super bulky yarn, because the project of the moment late last year (check out more knit slipper options in this post all about sailor slippers) and they’re still consistently popular with knitters.

Which makes sense because they are fun and fast to knit, and seeing them go from this giant thing to something that actually fits a foot feels a little magical. 

I have always loved felting (in fact my first book was about felting knitting) and it’s always fun for me to see people rediscover this technique. 

If you’ve knit enough plain slippers to fit all the feet you know, maybe it’s time to stitch up some tabi style slippers instead. 

Maymade Knits has designed these cute tabi ballerina slippers, made with bulky yarn and felted. They’re worked flat at first and then in rounds, and are available in 10 EU sizes (the Internet tells me add 31 to your American shoe size to get your EU size). The designer says the slippers are meant to have a close fit and you should choose a size a little smaller than your foot for the ideal fit. 

The pattern includes a video tutorial along with the written pattern. 

You can grab this pattern on Ravelry. The same designer has her own version of the striped felted slipper as well, called Sarah’s Striped Slippers. These are worked in super bulky yarn and have a contrasting foot and a striped body. These are knit flat and seamed and there are 7 size options available. Check that pattern out here if you’re looking for a more traditional slipper shape. They also look roomier so you can wear them with socks if you like. 

[Photo: Maymade Knits]