Knitting is Coding!

It's true! The New York Times printed an article all about this notion.

"Elisabetta Matsumoto, an applied mathematician and physicist at the Georgia Institute of Technology. For Dr. Matsumoto, knitting is more than a handicraft hobby with health benefits. She is embarking on a five-year project, “What a Tangled Web We Weave,” funded by the National Science Foundation, to investigate the mathematics and mechanics of “the ancient technology known as knitting.”

Dr. Matsumoto’s team likes to contemplate how stitch patterns provide code — more complex code than the 1s and 0s of binary — that creates the program for the elasticity and geometry of knitted fabric. The buzzword is “topological programmable materials,” said postdoc Michael Dimitriyev.

He is working on a computer simulation of knitted fabric, inputting yarn properties and stitch topology, and outputting the geometry and elasticity of the real-life finished object. “I’m the killjoy that brings in elasticity,” he likes to say.

Once the computer simulation is refined, Dr. Matsumoto and her collaborators can pull out equations and algorithms for knitted fabric behavior, which in turn could be put into physics engines for computer game graphics, or movies."

This is a fascinating, and rather complicated for my non-math brain. If you'd like to read the article, Knitting Is Coding. I'm excited by this notion even though I can't understand all the nuances. Just the general concept is thrilling! After reading this article, every time I pick up my knitting I think about math, physics and knots. I highly recommend dipping your toes into this pool of interestingness. Do it! It'll change how you look at your knitting/crocheting!

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