Oct 13, 2011

Chemistry = Knitting?

I am not a chemist.  In fact, when I tried to help my teenage son during a rather fraught and tiring homework session for his AP chemistry class last month, I felt completely useless.  The words were in English and individually, I understood what the words meant.  But strung together in a sentence, I was lost.


As many of you know, the Noble prizes are being announced this month, and I recently saw a few articles about Daniel Shechtman, the 2011 Noble Prize winner in chemistry. I was mesmerized by the images of the quasicrystals that he has been working on. It got me to thinking about how we knitters are constantly engaged with little networks of shapes, sizes, and colors.  These images of quasicrystals remind me of Islamic tiles, but it also reminds of the many mind-boggling knits I've seen some of you design and create.
When I see images like this one, it reminds me of so many gorgeous projects I have ooh'ed and aahh'ed over, some of which I've included below. So while we knitters are not chemists, there's a little bit of us that are like scientists, where we can see beauty in the smallest of details.  Enjoy!
By Glenna C

By Andi

4 comments:

  1. You have no idea how stunned I am at this moment! Babette is a bit further along now, I must update my Ravelry pictures. I feel very honoured to have my work included by you, and in such great company, thank you.

    I always remember the Physics homework which my dad helped me with - 2/10. I think we both learned something that day. Chemistry always eluded me - everything was too darn small for a short-sighted girl - but I love the pictures you have shown.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for posting my hexis. It reminded me that I really need to work on them. :)
    Kate's babette is just fantastic, Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow what an interesting distinction! It would be interesting to try and modify those quasicrystals for knitting patterns...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Evelyn! I love that you are posting daily. How taxing has it been for you? I am enjoying it, especially because it forces me to be brief and to the point!

    ReplyDelete