from big things little things grow
knitting in public
A biologist by degree, US knitwear designer Norah Gaughan focuses on the connection between knitting and biology in her new book Knitting Nature. Australian-born knitter Debbie New, also a biology graduate and former biomedical engineer, tapped science for inspiration in her book Unexpected Knitting. US knitting author Cat Bordhi refuses to accept the 'pessimistic' advice of mathematicians that the zero-volume container called a Klein bottle cannot be knitted (see Q&A); while Catherine Fargher, studying a Doctorate of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong, has created an installation featuring knitted DNA. Why the scientific spin on knitting?
Perhaps one of the attractions is, not surprisingly, patterns. Spirals, spots, stripes, branches and honeycombs are the result of small interactions between parts the way a stitch repeated results in a garment. In nature, similar patterns might occur in different ways: forks of lightning mirror the branches of a tree, ripples of the desert resemble a zebra, seashells spiral like water going down a drain. In his book The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature science writer Philip Ball explains that such patterns aren't a coincidence and why these patterns occur from commonalities ('laws') of nature.
When Norah Gaughan discovered the book, she knew she was on to something. 'I tripped across Phillip Ball's book and when I saw the patterns, knew that I could instantly expand on what I'd been doing.'
Norah had been experimenting with circles in sweaters and odd constructions for her book Knitting in Nature. 'I loved the idea that so many varied patterns in nature come from relatively few laws of nature', she says.
Debbie New finds her current work as a knitting author, designer and teacher is bolstered by her scientific experience, and her love of biology is dotted throughout Unexpected Knitting, from knitting a brain on a plane, knitted seashells, to transforming a human into a butterfly. Says Debbie: 'The processes of living things can be related to processes available to knitters. Considering the way living things have built up their forms can inspire the way we create a knitted piece.'
Catherine Fargher has had a different form of inspiration while working toward her doctorate, literally combining knitting with science by knitting chromosomes. 'As part of my doctorate of creative arts, I was able to experience hands-on biotechnology practice: extracting DNA from pea seedlings, creating a genetically modified 'glow in the dark' bacteria, culturing live cells from a pig's hock.' She also learned she could literally knit with the dried strands of DNA extracted from salmon testes. (Ed: nup, that's not a typo.)
She has found motherhood to be an intersection of science and knitting, seeing artistic possiblity in the form of chromosomes and at the same time indulging in motherly crafts. 'I knitted a jumper while pregnant, and now my little boy is into crafting with me', she says.
Catherine also considering making the science of childbirth accessible through selling customised knitted dolls. 'When I had amniocentesis [chromosome analysis of the fluid around an unborn baby to help determine health], it struck me that the chromosomes look like dolls, little roman figurines. I've worked with the possibility of marketing the concept—the soon-to-be parents could submit a sample and have a custom doll created...it's a tough thing, but you have to look at where you're inspired, and that's it.'