Other knitting articles for background (knitting machine; programming the machine; etc.) are linked on the same site here: https://soup.agnescameron.info/index.html

I applaud their restraint. Me, I would've been compelled to title it, "Kniterate Knotes".

• freedomben

  today at 5:08 PM

  I used to live near a town called "Knik" which all the locals pronounced with a hard "K" like "Kuh-nick". It launched a terrible habit of intentionally pronouncing silent K on all words, which was way more fun that it should have been. I started using all sorts of phrases just so I could pronounce the hard K, like "Don't get your kuh-nickers in a twist". I also started using a handle of "The Knight of Knik" which I of course pronounced as "The Kuh-nite of Kuh-nik", which then I shortened to "The Knik Knight" (pronounced "Kuh-nik Kuh-night"). I likewise applaud the author's restraint.

This looks interesting but I have no idea what it's talking about. I assume this is how non-techies feel when reading a programming article.

• microflash

  today at 4:03 PM

  Indeed. I’m also quite lost but it caught the eye of an acquaintance. Hopefully, we’ll have a discussion over tea about it.

  To me, knitting seems to be such an intimate art where a person pours their skill and heart. When I wrap myself in the sweater that my grandmother knit for me in a city far away from home, I feel her presence and love in the patterns woven in the fabric, wondering what she’d have been thinking while knitting. “I was thinking about the latest mischief of our naughty goats and this boy frolicking along with them.” She’d answer whenever someone asked.

  Programming and automating this takes away all that intimacy out of that art but I guess it is inevitable for the “engineering” minds. Maybe there’s a wonder to it just by exploring the possibilities, albeit through machines.

  • WillAdams

    today at 4:17 PM

    The thing is, early knitting machines were advertised by showing them competing against "mighty fishermen of many years" since it was deemed a necessary activity for fishing communities in winter.

    View it as an extension of Jaquard looms and the punch cards used for them being the precursors of modern computers.

    c.f., the Native American representations of Intel chip designs:

    https://kottke.org/24/09/a-navajo-weaving-of-an-intel-pentiu...

• kruffalon

  today at 4:22 PM

  This is a programming article, just not in your subfield.

  If you have any programming background and some time to aquiantence yourself with the specific words and aspects of this kind of programming I'm sure it will make sense to you too :)

  • stavros

    today at 4:25 PM

    It's mostly the knitting terms I don't know, not so much the engineering ones. Fairisle, Jacquard, etc.

    • oh_my_goodness

      today at 4:58 PM

      Possibly you might be missing the point. Unless maybe this comment is subtle humor?

      • kruffalon

        today at 7:02 PM

        If it is subtle humour it's too subtle for me ;)