5 Ways Knit and Crochet Explain Math and Science

If you’ve ever shown a knit or crochet pattern, especially a lace or texture chart, to a non knitter or crocheter they may have said something like, that looks like a code or another language. It is! And maybe even more so than a casual first glance would give away.

Knitting Is Code

Elisabetta Matsumoto, an applied mathematician and physicist at the Georgia Institute of Technology hosted an event at a physics conference for attendees who knit. “knitting is coding” and that yarn is a programmable material. She also explained a “knot theory” of knitting that is analogous to crystal structure and crystalline materials.

Re-Imagined Math

The Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Carthage College re-imagines math, as a way in which understand the world.  She uses knitting and observations as her tools.

Inspired by Nature

Nature meets jewelry meets knitting when the artist Nora Fok creates her exquisite jewelry that is crafted using knit and crochet techniques.

High Tech Crochet

The art of crochet turns high tech when a student at Holmdel High School enters a science contest called Regeneron Science Talent Search with her project names  “A Novel Low Cost Resistive Soft Crochet Stretch Sensor as Applied to a Wearable Bluetooth Keyboard Text Input Device “ According to the article, Shayna’s device, when attached to rings placed on the hands, can allow someone to type in mid-air! There are further possible applications of this device as a virtual reality controller and as a medical rehabilitation device for tracking hand injuries.”

Communicating Through Crochet

Two sisters Margaret and Christine Wertheim, created a unique approach to communicating math and science through crochet.  They created an art installation, which was housed for a period at the Smithsonian Museum. It combined mathematical theory with crochet designs to show the beauty and fragility of the coral reef.