Nearly every source of attribution for old crochet patterns found on the web remains a mystery. There exists a dark web of pattern swapping enthusiasts fostering a contagion spread that conceals its origin. But one source identified is the old Russian language Duplet Magazine – worth singling out for its graphic ordering of patterns in optical monochrome cells configured to its own space-filling logic. Close-knit windowpanes create a comic strip story of evolving symmetry – a biological taxonomy of tiny skeletal organisms – Haeckel’s Radiolaria or Baricelli’s number-shaped organisms? Duplet really leads a double life as a handbook of space-group morphologies for symmetry fetishists.



Note: At some-point we will revisit that story about KGB spies using crochet to encrypt secret cold war messages.

Reverse engineer crochet patterns and we find all those familiar mathematical forms dear to the modern visualist – grammar-tree systems; iterative branching structures; fractals; symmetry groups – hook and needle code embedded as form. Spot the space-filling curves and the hyperbolic plane in the images above. Here’s a small selection of links to literature on algorithmic crochet and knitting techniques:

Evolution of Lace Knitting Stitch Patterns by Genetic Programming – Anikó Ekárt

Algorithmic Form Generation for Crochet Technique

Knitting for Fun: a Recursive Sweater

Design of a Nature-like Fractal Celebrating Warp-knitting

Computer-Aided Weaving:From Numerical Data to Generative Textile

Algorithmic Form Generation for Crochet Technique

Related Posts:

René Binet – Esquisses Décoratives & the Protozoic Façade of Porte Monumentale

Nils Barricelli’s 5 Kilobyte Symbiogenesis simulations and ‘molecule shaped numbers’ – A precursor to DNA Computing

The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef & other non Euclidean Miscellany