Credit: Sarah Spencer Posted on 09/03/2018 7:05:54 AM PDT by BenLurkin
By hacking a domestic knitting machine, a software engineer advanced modern knitting and made a massive equatorial star map in tapestry form.
Australian software engineer Sarah Spencer spent years hacking and programming a 1980s domestic knitting machine for fun. This hobby grew into much more, however, as Spencer developed a new computer algorithm that did something never before accomplished with such machines. Her accomplishment — knitting with bird's-eye backing using one knit per pixel in three colors — might not mean much to anyone outside of the knitting community. But this achievement allowed Spencer to make something truly out of this world.
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"Stargazing: a knitted tapestry" consists of locally sourced Australian wool that matches the blue color of the outfits of the accomplished Australian women depicted in portraits on display as part of the 2018 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia. Spencer wanted her universe to be "dressed in a similar ultramarine blue to celebrate the achievements of all women in the fields of science," she said in the statement.
The piece stretches out to about 9 feet (2.8 meters) tall and 15 feet (4.6 m) wide. The astronomical tapestry, which took Spencer a whopping 100-plus hours to complete, weighs in at 33 lbs. (15 kilograms).
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
That’s nothing. During WWII the Deuchland Ladies Home Society knitted an entire Tiger Tank. They used steel wool.
Very seriously cool...
I made a table out of a pallet.
Beautiful. She should start selling them.
I once turned 20 board feet of cherry wood into kindling.
It’s not hacking.
Thanks BenLurkin. Ping to APoD.
apparently no one took a picture
That is awesome. Way to go!
” Her accomplishment — knitting with bird’s-eye backing using one knit per pixel in three colors”
VERY impressive!
“Per Urban Dictionary it is”
I checked that definition. He had a machine that produces fabric designs. He programmed it to do a particular design. He used the machine strictly as the machine was intended to be used. Nothing extraordinary.
I am a programmer. Software-wise, to me, a hack would be a quick and dirty, or just dirty, modification to a program. Or a modification intended to produce an illegal benefit.
Really cool.
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