Mathematical Fiber Arts

A repository of resources relating to mathematical fiber arts. Will eventually include my own research, writing, and artistic creations.

Library

Mostly hyperlinks to digital resources about the intersection of mathematics and fiber arts.
Zeroes and Ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture by Sadie Plant
A must read for anyone interested in the shared history of women's work, weaving, computer science, and the internet.
A loveletter to Ada Lovelace, Enchantress of Numbers and Princess of Parallelograms.
Ada K. Dietz Algebraic Expressions in Handwoven Textiles
Incredible monograph in which she details her technique for deriving aesthetically pleasing woven designs from algebraic expressions.
Ralph Grisworld on Fractals in Weaving
Creating interesting textiles from fractal sequences.
His website is full of free patterns!
Ralph Griswold on Network Drafting for Double Weave
Applying network draft techniques to double weave creates incredible results.
Geodata Weaving
Does a great job demonstrating how fiber arts can embody any information.
Perpetua Digital Weaving Project
Example of digital weaving as a generative art.
Weaving to Code, Coding to Weave
Page for an artistic workshop about the shared history between weaving and coding. It links a few interesting reads.
mathgrrl - yarncraft
Fun online tools for computational fiber artists that really highlights the intersection between fiber arts, coding, and math.
Highlight is definitely her 'matrixweaver.'
""It's Just Matrix Multiplication": Notation for Weaving" by Lea Albaugh
Great YouTube video that explains the connection between weave structures and matrix multiplication.
She also details the basics of network drafting.
The Home of Mathematical Knitting
Great resource for knitting patterns as well as just appreciating how much beautiful mathematics can be represented and made tangibly accessible by the fiber arts!
Cellular Automata Rule 73 Scarf Pattern on Ravelry
Ravelry is a site where fiber artists share patterns for their designs. This one is meant for a knitting machine and is based on an elementary cellular automata.
Mathematical Crochet
Cute blog with some nice crocheted embeddings of various topological surfaces.
Planned Pooling
Nice website for visualizing planned pooling, a knitting/crochet technique in which multi-colored yarn with a repeating sequence of colors can be intentionally worked to create interesting patterns via modular arithmetic.
ICERM - Computational Textile Working Group Archive
Tons of lecture videos available on the mathematics of knitting and other textile arts.
ICERM - Illustrating Mathematics
Contians several exampels of mathematical ideas represented in fiber arts.
Topological Dunce Hat
A YouTube video demonstrating a topological dunce hat made from cloth and two zippers.
Craftinatorics
An amazing personal website dedicated to the mathematics of knitting and quilting.
Laverne Waddington's Backstrap Weaving Gallery
Blog about backstrap weaving. I've linked her gallery to show some examples of the beautiful geometries modern weavers are able to create with traditional technologies and techniques.