Novel Fencing Material
September 17, 2019 2:48 PM   Subscribe

Maybe you're a knitter. Maybe you like knitting lace. Maybe you should modify a couple of curtain rods into gigantic knitting needles and knit a fence out of fishing net twine. Maybe the local lace museum is so taken with it they'll have you do one for them!
posted by Eyebrows McGee (18 comments total) 75 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oh man, that is really cool. Thanks for posting this!
posted by LobsterMitten at 2:53 PM on September 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


I just finished knitting this beast and so I don't think I'll be knitting any more lace for a while thank you very much.
posted by rikschell at 3:04 PM on September 17, 2019 [20 favorites]


Ok now i want to learn how it knit...
posted by supermedusa at 3:30 PM on September 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


supermedusa, I can't recommend this book highly enough: Knitting in Plain English by Maggie Righetti. I didn't have the forethought to get my mother or grandmother to teach me to knit while they were still with us, so I taught myself out of that book.
posted by Lexica at 4:45 PM on September 17, 2019 [4 favorites]


THIS IS SO COOL
posted by hapaxes.legomenon at 5:29 PM on September 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


That is really beautiful and i want to see one made from copper wire.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 5:42 PM on September 17, 2019 [2 favorites]


Now I want to make one. That's spectacular.
posted by leahwrenn at 6:30 PM on September 17, 2019


I love that she got a chance to make another of these. I've seen hers before because those pictures have made the rounds on Rav, but the museum one was new to me.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:35 PM on September 17, 2019 [2 favorites]


This is so awesome!!
posted by Secretariat at 7:24 PM on September 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


Dang, the biggest thing I ever knit was a 3ish meter scarf...

That's really damn impressive, and cool. I'd never even considered that you could knit a fence, though like all really huge innovations in retrospect it seems obvious.
posted by sotonohito at 7:26 PM on September 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


I haven’t knit with wire exactly, but I’ve knit with silk-wrapped stainless steel. It makes a neat fabric you can scrunch, but it has no give or stretch to it at all. It is not fun to work with, and true metal wire would be awful, though the results might well be gorgeous. The cording this person used probably has at least a little give to it.
posted by rikschell at 7:40 PM on September 17, 2019 [4 favorites]


Wow, that is neat.
posted by cortex at 9:21 PM on September 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


Knitting... a fence. That is a serious badass fiber artist here. And I love the picture in the Knit Hacker post -- standing casual, DIY curtain rod knitting needles in hands, ready for the next challenge.
Very well done, madam!
posted by TrishaU at 9:26 PM on September 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


Want.

This is fantastic.
posted by janell at 10:33 PM on September 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


That's so cool!

I rented an old house once that had a peculiar wire netting fence. An old guy passing buy once told me a bit about the house's history, including the fence. It was made from anti-submarine netting that the Germans had left after the war. I was a bit taken aback, since we're 100 km inland and have only lakes and a river which is definitely not navigable by submarine. The prosaic explanation was that the netting had been used as blasting mats. Anyways, the garden was properly secured against subs.
posted by Harald74 at 1:27 AM on September 18, 2019 [3 favorites]


God, I've been seeing this fence all over and I love it to bits. It's just so cool and such a creative use of materials.

That is really beautiful and i want to see one made from copper wire.

I'm not sure copper wire would work very well, in part because tension and a certain amount of springiness are both really essential to knitting. I think copper wire wouldn't fall into place when it came off the needles--it holds its shape too well, and it seems like it isn't nearly sensitive enough to tension and gauge.

I am really impressed rikschell even tried with silk-wrapped steel; that sounds like a really cool fabric and an absolute nightmare to work with. Definitely a product-focused (rather than process-focused) project!
posted by sciatrix at 5:53 AM on September 18, 2019


These were made from the twine used to make fishing nets which is quite flexible. They are hung from wire.
posted by Botanizer at 5:59 AM on September 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


I once knitted a bracelet with fine copper wire. I only did it once, so I can't claim any real expertise. I found it challenging both to make the stitches and to keep the stitches even.

OTOH, you can stretch or squeeze the project to shape it once it's done.
posted by Archer25 at 8:20 AM on September 19, 2019


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