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I've gotten into knitting over the past couple of years. (By the way, if you are a software type, I would highly recommend knitting. It's an excellent hobby. I

I've gotten into knitting over the past couple of years. (By the way, if you are a software type, I would highly recommend knitting. It's an excellent hobby. I can explain more why if people are interested.) I'm well aware of the Emotional Support Chicken, though I haven't made one myself. I think what we're witnessing here is simply another example of power laws[1] in effect. Say you have a set of objects that vary in desirability. Then you have a forum where people can talk about which objects they like. People will end up talking about the objects they like more, which will make them more visible to other people, who then end up also talking about them more. Meanwhile, slightly less desirable objects get talked about slightly less, which means fewer people discover them and talk about them. Turn the crank on that iterative process many times and what was originally a linear distribution in object popularity will quickly become a huge spike on the few things at the top with a long tail of forgotten stuff. In this case, Ravely is the center of the knitting world and has incredible impact on the fiber arts community. I'd guess that it's literally where most knitters across the world go to find patterns. Emotional Support Chicken is currently the 3rd most popular knitting pattern on the site. It got there, I think by being cute and hitting the mental health zeitgeist at just the right time during COVID and then having the power law math work its magic. Another pattern that hit the zeitgeist at just the right time and rocketed to popularity is the Non Cooperation Brick, released just after Trump was inaugurated. For those who are curious, the top pattern is YSolda Teague's Musselburge hat. It's extremely common but also sort of generic looking so you probably don't realize how often people make and wear it. It's a good, simple start project, and Teague is a knitting celebrity. Number two is PetiteKnit's Sophie scarf which is, honestly, not a very good article of clothing, but it is a very good tutorial project on how to knit. I suspect there are thousands of unworn Sophie scarves sitting in closets, having already completed their purpose of turning its owner into a knitter. If one were to want to absorb knitting culture and be able to come across as "in the know" as quickly as possible, skimming the top patterns page on Ravelry is an excellent shortcut to get there. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_law

_caw 1y ago
I tried and failed to write a knitting interpreter that could take a written pattern and generate a visual representation. You could have variables that expand into larger expressions, and some kind of "syntax highlighting" or verification step to make sure things are consistent. Interested to know if you've ever tried something like that? I also get that knitting is a hobby many people do to escape computers for a minute. Anyways, that got me into approaching the problem from a different angle (https://madhatter.app https://madhatter.app). A visual editor for hat patterns with layering, repeats, shapes, overstitching markers. Some stuff is broken right now and it doesn't look great on mobile, but I'm building it in real time whenever my partner expresses frustration in some aspect of existing paid software ;-)
- munificent 1y ago
  There is also https://stitch-maps.com/ https://stitch-maps.com/ which semi-pictorially shows the effect of a knitting pattern on the shape of the resulting fabric. I haven't tried writing a knitting interpreter, even though that it extremely within the Venn diagram intersection of my interests. I have spent some time thinking about trying to formalizing knitting pattern notation. Right now, it's, like mostly there, but every pattern tweaks things in ways that are often arbitrary and confusing. Knitting patterns are an interesting programming language. Ignoring the resulting fabric for a moment, one way to think of them is that they are an encoding of a linear series of steps the knitter is supposed to perform. As any programmer knows, there are a whole bunch of possible programs that produce the same output: print(1) print(2) print(3) print(4) print(5) Versus: for (i from 1 to 5): print(i) One of the challenges of designing a knitting pattern is coming up with a good encoding for the series of stitches to be created. You might think that the shortest encoding is best, but what you're really trying to optimize for is how easy is it mentally keep track of where you are. A knitting pattern that, say, has deeply nested loops, can require the knitter to hold multiple indexes in their head (or using external counters) and increases the odds of making a mistake. Unrolled some of those loops manually might be more verbose but less error prone. Or not! Maybe the extra verbosity of the long list of stitches makes it easier to lose your place. Even things like choosing where to place stitch markers can have an effect on how user-friendly the pattern is. It's an interesting design problem. You're trying to design a set of instructions to produce a good object, but you're also trying to design a set of instructions that yield a good experience producing that object.
nosecreek 1y ago
> It's an excellent hobby. I can explain more why if people are interested. I'm interested in your why. It's something I've considered for a while but haven't actually started on yet.
- gibspaulding 1y ago
  Not op, but I can jump in with a couple of my own thoughts: - Knitting is very technical. Similar to programming, you have a relatively small set of tools (stitches) that you can combine into virtually anything. - It has a fairly satisfying learning curve. Continually challenging, but with achievable next steps. - It’s an excellent way to keep busy without totally disengaging during slower paced social events. In other words it keeps me from constantly checking my phone while hanging out at my in-laws during holidays.
  - munificent 1y ago
    > - It’s an excellent way to keep busy without totally disengaging during slower paced social events. This is a really good point. I like knitting when I'm with family because it gives me something to do instead of just, you know, staring off into space, while still making me available for conversation. I find that if you have your face in a phone, it send sends a "don't interrupt me" signal. Even if you're just playing a dumb game, people don't know that you aren't reading or otherwise absorbed, so tend not to engage with you. But you can easily talk and knit, so I think it works well as an idle-but-available activity.
- munificent 1y ago
  I started writing a comment here and somehow it spiraled out of control into an entire blog post: https://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2025/05/30/consider-knitting/ https://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2025/05/30/consider-knitt... I agree with what gibspaulding says too.
gibspaulding 1y ago
> By the way, if you are a software type, I would highly recommend knitting. I can attest to this. I’m still very much an amateur, but have really enjoyed getting to the point where I can start to picture a shape I want and mold it with a combination of k2tog and kfb. That said do you have any suggestions on knitting resources for the more programming/engineering minded? Picking a pattern and the exact matching yarn and following along stitch by stitch is not terribly interesting to me. I’ve much more enjoyed figuring out how to design/size things from scratch, but that approach is not how most knitting resources I’ve come across are written. I would love to find some tutorials that focus more generically on things like various approaches to making an elbow or splitting one cylinder into multiple, etc.
DonHopkins 1y ago
Have you ever knitted any user interface widgets or gui dialogs? I carved an OPEN LOOK scrollbar out of soap once. https://ignorethecode.net/blog/2009/11/16/open_look_scrollbars/ https://ignorethecode.net/blog/2009/11/16/open_look_scrollba... An X-Windows Root Weave Boot Stipple Sweater would be cozy, with a nice big "X_cursor" on the front. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40936808 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40936808 https://matttproud.com/blog/posts/x-window-system-boot-stipple.html https://matttproud.com/blog/posts/x-window-system-boot-stipp... https://matttproud.com/blog/posts/x-window-system-boot-stipple/xfree86-startup.png https://matttproud.com/blog/posts/x-window-system-boot-stipp...
- munificent 1y ago
  I have not, but it does seem like a very large fraction of the cross stitch world these days is people stitching pixel art from video games. Stardew Valley is particularly popular. I guess that makes sense given that Venn diagram of people who like cozy farm sim games and people who like cozy fiber art hobbies has a lot of overlap.

_caw 1y ago

I tried and failed to write a knitting interpreter that could take a written pattern and generate a visual representation. You could have variables that expand into larger expressions, and some kind of "syntax highlighting" or verification step to make sure things are consistent. Interested to know if you've ever tried something like that? I also get that knitting is a hobby many people do to escape computers for a minute. Anyways, that got me into approaching the problem from a different angle (https://madhatter.app https://madhatter.app). A visual editor for hat patterns with layering, repeats, shapes, overstitching markers. Some stuff is broken right now and it doesn't look great on mobile, but I'm building it in real time whenever my partner expresses frustration in some aspect of existing paid software ;-)

munificent 1y ago
There is also https://stitch-maps.com/ https://stitch-maps.com/ which semi-pictorially shows the effect of a knitting pattern on the shape of the resulting fabric. I haven't tried writing a knitting interpreter, even though that it extremely within the Venn diagram intersection of my interests. I have spent some time thinking about trying to formalizing knitting pattern notation. Right now, it's, like mostly there, but every pattern tweaks things in ways that are often arbitrary and confusing. Knitting patterns are an interesting programming language. Ignoring the resulting fabric for a moment, one way to think of them is that they are an encoding of a linear series of steps the knitter is supposed to perform. As any programmer knows, there are a whole bunch of possible programs that produce the same output: print(1) print(2) print(3) print(4) print(5) Versus: for (i from 1 to 5): print(i) One of the challenges of designing a knitting pattern is coming up with a good encoding for the series of stitches to be created. You might think that the shortest encoding is best, but what you're really trying to optimize for is how easy is it mentally keep track of where you are. A knitting pattern that, say, has deeply nested loops, can require the knitter to hold multiple indexes in their head (or using external counters) and increases the odds of making a mistake. Unrolled some of those loops manually might be more verbose but less error prone. Or not! Maybe the extra verbosity of the long list of stitches makes it easier to lose your place. Even things like choosing where to place stitch markers can have an effect on how user-friendly the pattern is. It's an interesting design problem. You're trying to design a set of instructions to produce a good object, but you're also trying to design a set of instructions that yield a good experience producing that object.

nosecreek 1y ago

> It's an excellent hobby. I can explain more why if people are interested. I'm interested in your why. It's something I've considered for a while but haven't actually started on yet.

gibspaulding 1y ago
Not op, but I can jump in with a couple of my own thoughts: - Knitting is very technical. Similar to programming, you have a relatively small set of tools (stitches) that you can combine into virtually anything. - It has a fairly satisfying learning curve. Continually challenging, but with achievable next steps. - It’s an excellent way to keep busy without totally disengaging during slower paced social events. In other words it keeps me from constantly checking my phone while hanging out at my in-laws during holidays.
- munificent 1y ago
  > - It’s an excellent way to keep busy without totally disengaging during slower paced social events. This is a really good point. I like knitting when I'm with family because it gives me something to do instead of just, you know, staring off into space, while still making me available for conversation. I find that if you have your face in a phone, it send sends a "don't interrupt me" signal. Even if you're just playing a dumb game, people don't know that you aren't reading or otherwise absorbed, so tend not to engage with you. But you can easily talk and knit, so I think it works well as an idle-but-available activity.
munificent 1y ago
I started writing a comment here and somehow it spiraled out of control into an entire blog post: https://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2025/05/30/consider-knitting/ https://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2025/05/30/consider-knitt... I agree with what gibspaulding says too.

gibspaulding 1y ago

> By the way, if you are a software type, I would highly recommend knitting. I can attest to this. I’m still very much an amateur, but have really enjoyed getting to the point where I can start to picture a shape I want and mold it with a combination of k2tog and kfb. That said do you have any suggestions on knitting resources for the more programming/engineering minded? Picking a pattern and the exact matching yarn and following along stitch by stitch is not terribly interesting to me. I’ve much more enjoyed figuring out how to design/size things from scratch, but that approach is not how most knitting resources I’ve come across are written. I would love to find some tutorials that focus more generically on things like various approaches to making an elbow or splitting one cylinder into multiple, etc.

DonHopkins 1y ago

Have you ever knitted any user interface widgets or gui dialogs? I carved an OPEN LOOK scrollbar out of soap once. https://ignorethecode.net/blog/2009/11/16/open_look_scrollbars/ https://ignorethecode.net/blog/2009/11/16/open_look_scrollba... An X-Windows Root Weave Boot Stipple Sweater would be cozy, with a nice big "X_cursor" on the front. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40936808 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40936808 https://matttproud.com/blog/posts/x-window-system-boot-stipple.html https://matttproud.com/blog/posts/x-window-system-boot-stipp... https://matttproud.com/blog/posts/x-window-system-boot-stipple/xfree86-startup.png https://matttproud.com/blog/posts/x-window-system-boot-stipp...

munificent 1y ago
I have not, but it does seem like a very large fraction of the cross stitch world these days is people stitching pixel art from video games. Stardew Valley is particularly popular. I guess that makes sense given that Venn diagram of people who like cozy farm sim games and people who like cozy fiber art hobbies has a lot of overlap.