You might think a knitting pattern is a knitting pattern is a knitting pattern, but they’ve changed quite a lot over the years. From what I’ve seen, old knitting patterns seem to assume a lot of knowledge about knitting, and they use different terms than modern patterns. And, as the designer wrote, “we cannot call, text, e-mail, Tweet or otherwise harass Jane Gaugain to find out what she intended, because even the worms that devoured the worms that devoured her mortal body have long since gone to dust.”

But he worked it out. Ok, I don’t know that I *really* need a pineapple purse, but if I come across the right silk yarn, well…I might have to give it a shot.

If you’re having trouble imagining a pineapple purse, you must visit the Kyoto Costume Institute’s website, because they have a completely zoomable photograph of one from about 1800. And the blog that referred me to that picture has a link to another pattern for a pineapple purse. Wow. So many options.

The best social network you’ve (probably) never heard of is one-five-hundredth the size of Facebook. It has no video chat feature, it doesn’t let you check in to your favorite restaurant, and there are no games. The company that runs it has just four employees, one of whom is responsible for programming the entire operation. It has never taken any venture capital money and has no plans to go public. Despite these apparent shortcomings, the site’s members absolutely adore it.

My friend Lila told me about Ravelry soon after I started knitting, and wow, it’s amazing. I use it to catalog all my projects, so if I was really happy with that hat I made for Joanna and I want to make another one, I can go back and see what size needles I used. (4.)

I also use it to look for patterns – a couple of years ago I bought the yarn for this scarf, then when I wanted to start it last week I just searched for “scarf” on Ravelry, and it was the first one in the search results, out of 21,962. (If you go look at the guy’s blog post you’ll see why. It’s stunning.)

I’m sure this sort of site could be useful in other areas, too – the writer of the Slate piece mentions cooking, but there are so many hobbies where you can imagine people using a linked database.

Oh, and if you want to be friends on Ravelry, I am hey-helen. (Unlike this website, which is heyhelen. I wish I’d signed up on Ravelry as heyhelen…but I’ve been on there longer than I’ve had this URL.)

The writer seems to think “knit” and “crochet” can be used interchangeably, but as far as I can tell from the pictures, these are all crocheted.

The coral reef is at the back of the museum’s Ocean Hall. The organizers took all the individual pieces, submitted by crafters like me, from all kinds of yarns and done in all sorts of ways, and assembled them into one three-dimensional, multi-colored extravaganza of coral. It’s stunning. I walked around it for about 20 minutes, and while I was there several tourists stopped to admire it, then exclaim at the fact that it was made of yarn. (Most of them misidentified it as knitting, but oh well, guess you can’t expect everyone to know the difference. Or read the signs.)

Here’s what the whole reef looks like:

The genesis of the reef is a little complicated – I’ll try to give the short version. A mathematician who knits figured out that the easiest way to model hyperbolic shapes is to crochet them. Hyperbolic geometry is a kind of geometry that describes sort of ruffly space, like a leaf of kale or a piece of coral. A pair of sisters were crocheting these models in brightly colored yarn and noticed that the pile of objects looked kind of like a coral reef. Ta-da! The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef was born. Read about it here.

I walked up to it and saw one of my pieces immediately. Can you spot it in the picture below? (Refresh your memory here.)

It took me longer to find the others, but I eventually located four out of five. Another one is in this picture. It’s a little harder to pick out:

The above picture is from the “toxic” section of the reef, crocheted mostly out of trash. People used plastic bags, soda can tabs, and other unsavory materials. The piece of mine I couldn’t find was made out of audiotape. It turns out a lot of people had that idea. I think I found it, but I’m not sure. It could’ve been someone else’s cleverly crocheted audiotape.

My work is part of the Smithsonian Community Reef – called that because it’s made by crafty types like me. The exhibit includes several displays from other iterations of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, but the community reef is the centerpiece and the best-looking part, I thought. It’s on display through April 24, 2011. Look for my name in the list of contributors! Ok, it looks like this:

For all my Museum Tourist posts, click here.

The only addition since my last update is the brown-black one at top left – that’s the tape from one audio cassette. It is not the easiest material in the world to crochet with. The finished product sure is neat, though!

I’m pleased that I haven’t bought any new yarn for this. The caution tape is recycled, of course, and the bright orange and red acrylic yarns came from the great-aunt of a fellow science writer. They gave me the dark blue at the coral reef workshop, and the light edging on that piece came from the yarn stash of another fellow science writer. Good times!

A friend brought me a box of cassette tapes that she was about to throw out, so I may see what I can do with that next. When all this is done, I’ll drop it off at a local yarn store or take it to the museum, and it’ll all be on display starting in October! It’ll be fun to see if I can find my pieces on the community reef.

Read about the Smithsonian’s display of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef here.

The pattern is modified from this knitted stegosaurus.