In the next few minutes, Stephanie told me all about her new project, Algorithmic Knitting Design, where she applies computing techniques to creating knitting patterns that use very simple and standard hand knitting techniques to achieve a high fashion effect!
This is how I see hand knitting as well: not as a lovely piece of a pot holder with a heart shape in the middle (although these items can be very cute and full of love 😍) but as a communication between the past and the future, an interplay between the handicraft and technology. Knitting, the way we practice it today, exists somewhere in between the digital and the real world, and Stephanie transcends this existence by establishing a channel of communication.
Using my hand dyed BKD yarn she created an epic knitting pattern, Algorithmic Diva Bolero, a bolero made of three yarn qualities BKD DK Superior, BKD Bouclé and BKD Kid Silk Lace, that will be promoted on this year's Breidagen (2023) with the kits available at the festival and in my shop, just follow the link HERE or click on the photo.
Find out more about Stephanie, her knitting journey so far, the history of knitting and the future of our knitting craft in regard to innovative technology in the interview below.
Algorithmic Knitting Design is a project creating handknitting patterns that integrate algorithmic computing and digital aesthetics. What I’m trying to do with the project is give a more contemporary take on the aesthetics of handknitting and offer new challenges to knitters, while tapping into our amazing inherent skills to see where we can take our much loved, timeless craft in the 21st century! The project grows first and foremost out of a personal interest. As a totally fanatic knitter (and mathematician), I was looking for knitting designs that better suit my personal fashion aesthetic, while still feeding my love for challenging knits. But the project really started to come to life after I was reading my knitting patterns to my partner, who’s a computer programmer, and laughing together about how similar knitting patterns are to computer programming language, which is absolutely real. Modern computer programming evolved directly from the punchcard technology developed in 1803 for the Jacquard Loom by Joseph Marie Jacquard, adopted by Charles Babbage in 1837 as a mechanism for storing data and math operations for his Analytical Engine, and used subsequently by Ada Lovelace in 1843 to create the first computer program. So, the relationship between computing and handicrafts is really inherent, and the project really grew out of trying to highlight and reconnect this relationship. I want to see what happens when we knitters and handicrafters start to think of ourselves as applied scientists and mathematicians, and I’m really excited and curious about what that can do with our crafting in the future with this lens. <3 I don’t code myself, it’s in a way too abstract for me; I’m very hands on, I prefer to code with yarn and needles, so I’ve been working with three computer programmers / artists / architect - Stelios Manousakis (my partner), Jan Truetzschler von Falkenstein @tea_tracks and Weihaw Wang to lay the groundwork for developing patterns in the future, using everything from basic knit and purl to crazy chaotic lace and dramatic cablework.
I started crochet as a kid, learning from my mom, and after a couple false starts many years later, I finally started knitting about 10 years ago, and have been fully addicted since! I’ve also been designing my own clothes and done some costume design as a sewist/designer for almost 30 years, so I bring that approach to my knitwear design. I’m hugely inspired by Belgian and Japanese minimalist fashion, the Antwerp Six, Jan Jan van Essche, Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto. This kind of approach to clothing focuses much more on form and drape, rather than clothing that focuses on shaping around the body itself. I also love things like digital glitch and chaos, asymmetry, unpredictability, noise - which all relates to my professional music practice, aka my ‘day job’. So I’m really trying to bring all these sensibilities into my designs, while balancing project size and how much chaos and unpredictability we can handle as hand knitters.
I’m glad you put “failures” in quotes! Because I don’t think of things as failures but usually very valuable lessons in the long run 😅 plus I’ve made all the mistakes so many times at this point I’m pretty expert at fixing them, so that’s good! but I did once spend probably close to 2 years on and off knitting a dress/tunic from a pattern I thought was so cool, on 3mm needles, finally finished it, blocked it, wore it for a while and decided the torso too short, CUT IT IN HALF at the bust and added 10cm length to the torso, kitchenered the whole thing back together and then decided after all that it still didn’t suit me. I’m not sure what the lesson is there but it was in any case a very good exercise in patience and process.
In terms of design, I’ve currently been struggling with a design for more than a year that I was soooo excited about at first, and then got caught up halfway through because I realized it just wasn’t practical on so many levels (which is pretty important criteria for me) so I didn’t know what to do. Thanks to the wonderful ladies at Cross and Woods finally found a good solution to finish the design, but it’s taken me so long to develop the pattern that the main colorway in my sample has been discontinued, which sort of breaks one of the cardinal rules of pattern development! There’s basically zero chance I’ll knit the whole thing again (turns out I don’t looove fairisle color work) so I’m not entirely sure what to do with that yet.
In terms of successes, I’m definitely super excited about our Algorithmic Diva boleros! I love collaboration because it forces you to think in different ways than you’re used to, and having you come in with the idea of mixing these 3 yarn types helped me look at designing in a new way I totally hadn’t tried yet. And I’m soooooo happy with the result on all levels. To date, I think it’s my most fun patterns to knit, your color and yarn combos are epic, and I’m so proud of the final results!
I’m definitely NOT a knitting prodigy, I’m a pretty good intermediate knitter at best. 😂 I absolutely love and am in awe of my test knitters some of whom knit absolute MILES around me!! :D but I guess I do have an artist’s approach to design and development which is perhaps a bit unusual. The transition from knitter to designer was in some ways very natural, I’ve been designing clothing for much longer than I’ve been knitting, and I was mainly an improviser with crochet - I didn’t even really understand that there were patterns you could follow to make things! But I think as many designers will tell you, the real tricky part is actually writing down your pattern for others to follow, being totally thorough and accurate and finding the right language that’s clear to as many people as possible, but still remaining compact enough to actually be readable. The ongoing explosion in knitwear designers is really cool, and I love how anarchic, non-hierarchical and supportive the knitting community is, so you feel like you’re not alone trying to figure all these things out.
Well, I think there are many possible approaches, and the one I’m most interested in, and I feel is most often neglected in this conversation is the user-end approach. I think a lot of technological development has a very top down approach, about seeing how ‘intelligent’ and close to ‘human’ a machine can get. I’m really not interested in technological innovation as such. I want to keep doing the things I love such as knit and design and I’m interested in technology helping me do that in unexpected and exciting ways. So I’m not very interested in or worried about how well machines can imitate us, I’m more interested in how they can help make my handknitting more fun or useful or relevant to my own needs, how it can be a tool for evolving the knitting craft. I think it’s important for us to insist on our personal needs in this respect, because it helps shape the technology itself.
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hello, fellow yarn dyers!
Today I would like to show you what a tedious process developing a new hand dyed yarn colorway is, and how many steps and missteps it requires, time and money aside.
I had this ambitious idea to develop a new color for the Breidagen, a Dutch yarn festival I am visiting in October this year. Like every art lover, I am also a big fan of Dutch painters. I visited Rijksmuseum a couple of times, my jaw dropping in front of Rembrandt, Vermeer, and other titans of the Dutch Golden Age. So I set myself the goal to develop a new colorway based on the Dutch painters for every year of Breidagen I visit! The Milkmaid, I said! One of my favorite Rijsks paintings. The light, the shadows, the colors, the undertones, the composition, the scene. Is there a more beautiful morning in the history of painting? I doubt. But how to approach the challenge? Vermeer was a master of his trade, and I am just an ex-scientist dabbling in yarn dyeing.
Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid
OK, said I, what do I see? An interplay of light and shadow, milk whites, and shades of greens, browns, and blues, right? I thought maybe it would be a good idea to shade everything with greys, then dye it up in various shades.... but:
...the grey color just overwhelmed all the others, and I didn't like it 🤷🏻♀️
Okay, said I, let's ditch the grey base and play with the rest, but:
... it all became too busy. So I decided to skip the grey all in all. But:
....the speckles that I used to emphasize the colors of the skirt and the food just went all over the place and did not have any meaning .... so I decided to speckle only the whitish part of the yarn and reduce all the colors to something wearable, adding several shades of green that flow into each other adding to the depth of the colorway.
After I got the colors right, I decided to reduce the speckles to the white part only.
Et voilà! Many hours pour into developing a harmonious, wearable hand dyed yarn colorway, so I hope you like it! Cannot wait to see your creations with this transposed piece of art.
The Vermeer colorway will be available on all my bases.
See you at Breidagen 2023!
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The sweater features prominent cable shoulders knitted from side to side. The stitches are then pickd up from below the slip stitch seam to knit back and front. At the end, sleeves are knitted in the round.
Do not get intimidated by the interesting construction: this is a knit for an advanced beginner or an intermediate knitter willing to explore new shapes and knitting directions.
I will hold a KAL (knit-a-long) starting February 1st, so if you are up for some knitting fun, grab your copy of the pattern either here in my store or up on Ravelry (link) and join us.
Caroline is kindly providing yarn for one sweater to one lucky winner - all knitters who purchased the pattern are eligible for the ruffle!
]]>What I really love about this Issue is that it is gender-neutral and I will finally have a piece or two to share with my hubby. Isn't that love? 🤗
Here are my favorites:
1. the absolute No1 for me is the Wider Sweater by Inyoung Kim. I spotted Kim when she published her entrelac vest in Pom Pom, Issue 36 and follow her ever since - you can find her ecclectic designs on her Ravelry page (link)
2. Susane Crawford's Hutton cardigan features a beautiful shawl collar construction with a repetitive slip stitch pattern.
3. Midori Hirose designed Cassis, a vest for all weathers and occassions.
4. Beloved cardigan by Griselda Zárate is knitted in two-colour half-brioche stitch allowing for infinite colour combinations.
5. Kodikas Sweater by Hanna Maciejewska is a study in texture in soft wool.
6. A marled magic Viva by Susanna Kaartinen has a classic sweatshirt construction and a striped pattern inspired by Fibonacci sequence
For shawl lovers there are three shawl pattern, one crocheted in two colour nuances that fade together, one knitted in double knitting technique for those who love colour blocking and one, as the name says, Simple Dimple, for a knitter who loves simple, yet effective textures. There are also two more swetaer patterns, a colourwork piece by Maiju Räsänen and a cardigan Dracena by Paula Pereira.
You can order your copy in my BKD Shop. Enjoy!
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All proceedings of your purchase of the Kokon Pink yarn will be donated to support the Breast Cancer Awareness Fond. The yarn is available in these selected shops, linked through their Instagram accounts :
@eylulkilim
@foreveryarn_doylestown
@handmakecreate
@lanadimiele
@lilicommetout
@theknittingloft
@theknittingplace
@yarnshoplugano
@tribeyarnslife
@yarnznl
@soo_jak_
@warmnfuzzyyarn
My mom died of cancer in 2004. I was 25 and it took me a decade and more to understand and accept what happened. When hearing I am from the Balkans, people usually ask me how it is to be in a war. Well, war is nothing comparing to cancer! So, please do support this important cause, and check your breasts regularly. Let's stick around for a bit longer!
I didn't have a new design to join this year, but I remembered that there is a vest I knitted in Kokon Pink yarn still waiting for a pattern to be written 🙈. So here you go - my BKD Skater's Vest for Kokon Pink's Pink Ribbon Campaign!
Every day is a good day to start something new - like skateboarding. See you around!]]>
MELLOW - attenuated shade of very light pastel brown
WATERLILY - attenuated shade of a pastel violet
CLOUD - attenuated shade of pastel blue
SPICE - attenuated shade of a pastel brownish orange
LEMON SORBET - attenuated shade of pastel yellow
SAGE - attenuated shade of bluish green
CLOUD - attenuated shade of pastel blue
ROSE PETAL - beautiful shade of rose pink
LEMON SORBET - attenuated shade of pastel yellow
MILK - attenuated shade of white gray
PEACH BLUSH - attenuated shade of yellowish pink
SPICE - attenuated shade of a pastel brownish orange
WHEAT - strong shade of pastel yellow
MELLOW - attenuated shade of pastel brown
WATERLILY - attenuated shade of pastel violet
See my Pinterest board for more inspiration
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I was inspired by nature around Berlin in autumn and had to acknowledge it with a color palette I originally developed for a new DK base, but you can order it on any base I offer, just write me a convo. I plunged into orange yellows, dark reds and moss greens, and added a bit of gray for that "autumn storms" feel.
The nature around Berlin is pretty harsh and unfriendly moorish greenery with patches of woods and lakes. It is beautiful in a rough, uncultivated way and reminds me a lot of the famous Teutoburger Wald!I learned how to love it over the years, and am walking long weekend walks learning more and more every time about the history and geography of the region.
If you are into Netflix & knit, and a sucker for history, like me, binge Barbarians, about german tribes that stopped Romans from conquering the northern Europe. Loved it!
autumn gray, reminiscence of the late summer storm
violet shades of autumn
greenish moor landscape
red beech leaves of deciduous forest
gorgeous yellows, browns and oranges of autumn
corn fields in Brandenburg
Find it in my shop on DK Merino, or just write me a note if you'd like it fresh dyed on another base.
For more inspiration, check my Pinterest board below
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