Comments on: Knotty Problems

Knotty Problems

Bora Horza Gobuchul — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:01:51 -0800

Science through yarn: Wooly Thoughts. The Home of Mathematical Knitting, including knitted klein bottles and hyperbolic planes. The Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art (previously). Much, much, more on knitting, crochet and quilting used to visualize complex theories in topology, probability, chaos and fractals.

Inspired in part by the Strong Connected Components podcast (Previously), which has featured interviews with mathematicians and knitters Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer, founders of the aforementioned Wooly Thoughts, and Daina Taimina, author of "Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes". (Tangentially elated: Nerdigurumi, geek culture crochet patterns.)

By: madcaptenor

madcaptenor — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:26:12 -0800

Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes won the 2009 Diagram Prize for the "oddest book title" of the year. A list of previous winners is at Wikipedia. Sadly, for those of us who like math books with interesting titles, Emmanuel Kowalski's The Large Sieve and its Applications was defeated for the 2008 prize by The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-Milligram Containers of Fromage Frais.

By: monkeymadness

monkeymadness — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:34:03 -0800

I love this stuff. Thanks for sharing. Daina Taimina just gave a talk at my university on Friday. I was a little surprised that it wasn't better attended. It's fascinating stuff.

By: clockzero

clockzero — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:27:11 -0800

You receive ten credits for this cool post and two demerits for the amusingly unconscionable pun in the title

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:19:07 -0800

The hyperbolic crochet coral reef has been discussed previously (though I don't think it had its own website at that time).

By: prettypretty

prettypretty — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 18:43:39 -0800

Insanely stunning -- thanks

By: progosk

progosk — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 22:23:01 -0800

I guess this music video fits in (sort of) here.

By: Obscure Reference

Obscure Reference — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 06:09:48 -0800

If you can knit a Klein bottle, can you have a line of Klein clothing? This would allow one to be dressed and nude at the same time.

By: torisaur

torisaur — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:07:36 -0800

I just disappeared into "Wooly Thoughts" for more than an hour. Love this, thanks for posting!