Via Seitvertreib, we are introduced to these wonderful vignettes from associate biostatistics professor at the University of Oslo Kathrine Frey Frรธslie who illustrates scientific concepts, in this case the R-number associated with viral contagion and herd immunity, through knitting and crochet (see also) projects. More to explore on science communication and data visualisations (including for the crafty the patterns to make your own COVID-related cosies) at the links above.
Friday, 11 December 2020
statistrikk
Tuesday, 5 February 2019
7x7
suburbia: Eliza Gosse paints Australian Mid-Century modern homes
emancipation of the dissonance: economist and performer Merle Hazard delivers an atonal tune

autoglyphs: Michael Light takes an aerial survey of the arid American west
forget about it: a versatile Italian word to know
needs more salt: a seasonings purveyor and a tech company collaborate to optimise spicing up your recipes
byggeskikk: a photographer becomes quite taken with a picturesque cabin
catagories: ๐ฎ๐น, ๐ณ๐ด, ๐, ๐ถ, ๐, ๐ท, ๐งถ, architecture, food and drink
Wednesday, 23 January 2019
bahn-verspรคtungsschal
Via the always excellent Nag on the Lake with a bit of an update from Colossal, we learn about a loyal but frustrated rail commuter who, much like Andean quipu or the zealous knitter who got carried away with the Doctor’s scarf, documented delays experienced in coloured wool bands during her daily trip (two a day—round-trip, hin- und zรผruck) between Moosburg an der Isar and Mรผnchen, which should take approximately thirty minutes on regional trains—once infrastructure repairs and diverting to buses meant that long interruptions became the norm.
Her one hundred-twenty centimetre long handiwork (reminiscent of a DNA test result in the rawest form) garnered a lot of attention after her daughter, a prominent journalist and news editor, posted it on social media. The knitter decided the auction off the “train-delay-scarf” for the charity Bahnhofs Mission, an outreach and assistance programme for the homeless, transient and precarious based in train stations, raising several thousand euro. Claudia Weber, the creator, is working on a new shawl for 2019.
Wednesday, 2 January 2019
thread and transistor
As a heuristic exhibition to explore the shifting definition and value of craft in modern society and commerce, Dezeen highlights some of the best instalations during the Istanbul Design Biennial that employed stitching and weaving recontextualised in electronics and as a store of value, as in an heirloom quilt to hand down from one generation to the next.
Looms themselves prefiguring mechanical computational relays, we really enjoyed discovering the functional universal computer whose circuitry was embroidered out of gold and the yarn spindle whose spooling action can actually save a spoken yarn as an audio recording. I wonder if future electronic devices will be decentralised and once again a cottage industry. Moreover, given the value assigned to block-chain cryptography—secure and sturdy though mathematically also relatively simple, it struck us as particularly delectable that there is one gaming circle that calls for players to produce their own knitcoin to advance. Check out the link above to learn more about the individual works from Ebru Kurbak and others.
Monday, 26 November 2018
selbuvotter
Often interpreted as a snowflake instead of a flower and universally as shorthand for all things wholesomely wintry and Scandinavian, the knit pattern selburose is an ancient symbol and predates its 1857 appearance on a pair of mittens (vott) that had the whole congregation of the town of Selbu quite smitten with the design.
Tuesday, 10 October 2017
7x7
microcosm: an annual photography competition invites us to explore the world around us just below the threshold of the naked eye
the luwians and the trojan war: the intriguing tale behind the lost frieze that may document the collapse of the Bronze Age
point and shoot: using algorithmic processes to inform the shutter when a photo-worth opportunity presents itself, one internet and technology giant is offering an automatic camera for home use—relatedly
gastaloops: one hundred day push to create gorgeous, encircling animations—via the Everlasting Blรถrt
high rate of staff turn-over: activities offered at the White House adult day care facility
extinction cos-play: crocheted costumes for the common pigeon to highlight the importance of biodiversity and fighting to protect endangered species—via Nag on the Lake
trek ‘splaining: a visual physics lesson on the problem-fraught workings of as seen on TV teleportation
catagories: ๐, ๐, ๐ญ, ๐, ๐ฅธ, ๐งถ, archรฆology, environment, foreign policy, physics
Monday, 28 August 2017
cool and calculated
Thanks to the brilliant essay by Margaret Wertheim we’re reminded that not only is non-Euclidean geometry not just some contrarian theory, it’s moreover observable in Nature and we can learn to crotchet with hyperbolic patterns.
By pondering how simple creatures and primitive—even primordial—structures can prefigure the most complex and abstract mathematical concepts that mankind is credited for discovering rather than being informed by a disembodied function, the author explores how we might not have taken the most optimal and encouraging approach to academics and suggests we engage in maths jam-sessions and that virtuosity differs only in instrument. Study and practise aren’t being supplanted by license but rather the notion that our imagination is rather inhibited by convention and we’d be better able to see the next revelatory breakthroughs if calculus was the plaything of all aspirants and not just the few. When first taking a geometry course and being introduced to the different fates of parallel lines, I recall day-dreaming about the architecture and the topologically understanding of birds but didn’t know that these abstract concepts were embodiments of the physical world. There are a lot of thought-provoking avenues to explore in the piece whether or not one believes that honey-bees or nautiluses know what’s best suited to going about their business and the most resonant support for her argument was how mathematicians have time and again have found themselves feeling doubt and disdain for their most transformative theories and nearly didn’t dare share them for fear of rejection—whereas bit of contextualisation and craft might have proved liberating.
catagories: ๐, ๐ถ, ๐งฎ, ๐งถ, environment
Friday, 4 November 2016
sweater weather
The fabulous Messy Nessy Chic invites us to peruse the pages of a gem of car-boot sale find in the big book of British knitting patterns called “Wit Knits,” published in 1986. These ugly sweater connoisseurs, including Joanne Lumley (aka, Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous), haven’t even a touch of irony in their enthusiastic modelling. Be sure to check out the entire rogues gallery (which might even inspire a crafty project) at the link up top.
Wednesday, 7 September 2016
haberdashery or bodhisat
Since first spying this knitted cap in the style of Buddha’s (note the distinction between Skinny- and Fat-Elvis Buddha) scalp on Everlasting Blรถrt, I’ve been both enamoured and intrigued.
Not that I actually need another hat, though an avid hat-wear am I, since I have many outstanding ones, including animal ones: I got an owl and H got a cute deer which unfortunately bears a strong resemblance to Pedo Bear so that one does not get worn often and a superb one hand-made from a crafty friend from a kit. I do not however have an animal hat made from a kit, like these fun ones courtesy of Nag on the Lake. Wearing the hand-made one always makes me yearn to learn to knit in earnest and start a cottage industry, though the feeling fades once the hat is doffed. I wonder if some clever person might make instructions for this. Meanwhile, if you are confident with placing an order, there’s a website from Japan that sells them featured on Biglobe.
catagories: ๐จ๐ณ, ๐ฏ๐ต, ๐, ๐งถ, networking and blogging
Monday, 4 January 2016
fingerhut
It never occurred to me to me that that vestigial “pepper” dangling off a tomato pincushion had a special purpose—I thought maybe it was just to segregate the pins from the needles, but it’s really pretty keen I think that it’s resonant and gets people talking and maybe appreciating the neglected knitting-basket in the corner.
The Victorian Era design (introduced as seamstresses and tailors became more common and pins less dear—being kept under lock and key in prior ages) invokes a belief that a tomato on the mantle (as was the fashion at the time) of a new home would ward off bad luck. If no tomato was available, the new occupants would improvise with something of that general shape and colour and the sampler work of making a tomato pincushion served a dual purpose—as did the composition of the hassock itself—the tomato being stuffed wool wadding to prevent rust and the little strawberry was filled with sand to sharpen the pins, though superfluous now due to the way pins are manufactured and treated so as not to dull and are considered disposable now. I wonder what other sorts of surprises are lurking in the design everyday, maybe antiquated things.
Thursday, 17 December 2015
5x5
purl two: upon request the BBC would send out the knitting instructions for the Fourth Doctor’s iconic scarf

food pyramid: Vox examines at different ways nutritional guidelines are influenced and imparted globally
zodiaco: Salvador Dalรญ’s astrologic menagerie plus a hint into the obsession the artist had with his departed elder brother, Salvador Dalรญ
tween: proposed EU rules would raise the social media age of majority to sixteen
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐ฎ๐ธ, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐งถ, food and drink, networking and blogging
Saturday, 13 June 2015
5x5
viewer-discretion advised: graphic and unsettling no-nukes animation from 1956
this just in: how the hammering in of the Golden Spike for America’s transcontinental railroad marked the beginning of breaking news
purl 2.0: artist incorporates chunky stitches for maximum comfort
figleaf: the cyber attack on US government workers is bigger than anyone is letting on, having targeted security clearance questionnaires
Saturday, 28 February 2015
stioch or yarn-bombing
catagories: ๐, ๐งถ, antiques, lifestyle, philosophy
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
cornucopia
catagories: ๐งถ, holidays and observances, language, networking and blogging