I am not really a sock knitter but I recently wrote a pattern for mathematical slippers and made several pairs in a few weeks. The front, sides and sole of the slippers are knitted flat; the cuffs can be knitted flat or in the round. Things with a small circumference, such as socks, can be …
Month: January 2019
French Flying Dragon
Yesterday I came across this video, on YouTube, of someone making Steve’s Flying Dragon Illusion on a shawl. It is in French so I am not sure what it all says but it is very detailed and I can tell that she explains a lot about the pattern and the yarns she used. The pattern …
Magician’s Chain
Several years ago, Colin Wright (mathematician/magician/juggler extraordinaire) showed me a Magician’s Chain. This is a toy made from metal rings where the rings cascade from the top of the chain. It was fascinating, fun, and quite intriguing. I have seen Colin’s chain, and others, many times since. Then, a few months ago, I was at …
One that got away
After I made my first 3D Curve of Pursuit I had a go at making a ‘skeleton’ version. The shape is good. This was my first time at using supports. The yellow bits you can see are the remains of the supports and it will take a lot more attention to get rid of them …
Mathematical Slippers
When the colder weather came I couldn’t wear my normal slippers, because I had an injury to my leg a few months ago and it was still strapped up. I decided to knit some. I looked at various existing patterns but then decided to design my own because I suddenly realised that feet are basically …
An Orchid
Steve recently completed a new illusion knitting design, called An Orchid. It is based on a drawing by Lodygin Sergey Pavlovich who was a Russian graphic artist and theatre designer. There is very little information about him and his name appears in several different forms. This is a very intricate design. It took well over …
Curve of Pursuit
Curve of Pursuit has always been one of our most popular knitting patterns so it seemed ideal for turning into a 3D model. This was Steve’s first attempt and it was very successful. Our original knitted Curve of Pursuit was made over twenty years ago. It was never my favourite because I used yarns I …
Spacers
Feeding the filament over the top of the printer meant that the lid could never be put back on. We made spacers from a file we found on Thingiverse. Problem solved. These spacers seem to be used mainly by people who want to prevent a build-up of heat inside the printer.
Improvisations
The helpful man at Box said it was never a good idea to remove a model from the printing surface while it was still inside the printer because the model could get damaged. He had various suggestions for surfaces that could be removed but none were immediately available, or were expensive, so we decided to …
First things first
The printer we bought is a FlashForge Dreamer. We originally intended to buy a less expensive printer but didn’t know enough to make a sensible choice until we stumbled across a company called Box. There are very few places where you can actually see printers in action and ask questions so we took a trip …