[HN Gopher] We're Knot Friends
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       We're Knot Friends
        
       Author : edo-codes
       Score  : 135 points
       Date   : 2023-04-03 11:56 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (jeremykun.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (jeremykun.com)
        
       | woooof wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
       | durkie wrote:
       | This is a really lovely post about community, math and art. Has
       | me interested in making my own bracelets or mini-tapestries.
       | Thanks!
        
       | joshvm wrote:
       | You can do some simple multi-colour work if you knot
       | symmetrically and you have appropriate length threads (one super
       | long base colour, usually). For seldom used colours in the
       | bracelet, it's a bit like multi colour 3D printing with purge-to-
       | infill. You just go back and forth with the background to hide
       | the colour you're going to use later and the background just
       | weaves back and forth over the threads (instead of adding a knot
       | on each thread each time). The knots are the same as usual, but
       | you do a mirror image to reverse the direction. It's less pretty
       | than these, but you can easily do single colour pixel fonts. It
       | requires a bit of planning if you need to move colours around to
       | different columns though.
        
         | WorldMaker wrote:
         | Fiber arts were definitely the original and oldest "3D
         | printing". Automated looms were computers (with punch cards)
         | well before the rest of computers. My mother has a computer-
         | controlled embroidery machine and it is definitely a "3D
         | printer" to watch it in action. Sometimes I think there's an
         | obvious blindness in the way the term "3D printer" gets used
         | that overlooks a very rich history in textiles (much of that
         | history itself direct predecessors to the same tech).
        
       | czbond wrote:
       | You humans and your artsy, questionably useful hobbies outside of
       | work ;)
        
       | akeck wrote:
       | * * *
        
       | waboremo wrote:
       | Loved the bracelets, reminded me a lot of ones I used to make
       | with friends growing up but were based off those plastic flat
       | strings.
       | 
       | Another I see growing in popularity are bead painting.
       | Inexpensive, slow paced, and can be communal since you can share
       | your works or bead paint together since it doesn't require full
       | concentration - some even sell their creations on etsy. If you
       | don't want to deal with the daunting aspect of a blank canvas,
       | paint by numbers also exist and is probably the ideal way to bead
       | paint together. So if you're looking for an option with friends
       | and family and bracelets aren't really your thing, try it out.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | there was also the trend of using phone cables with the color
         | coded patterns
        
       | yowzadave wrote:
       | My daughter (age 8) is fascinated with these kinds of bracelets.
       | It's been fun to have her find an image of one that she likes,
       | and then reverse-engineer how it could have been put together to
       | help her make one of her own. YouTube has made this kind of
       | learning so much easier than when we were kids.
       | 
       | Like OP describes, it's an enjoyable communal activity, one that
       | helps her get better with her hands and learn patience/focus, and
       | is something she likes to show off to her friends when she's
       | done.
        
       | hahajk wrote:
       | > Thinking of this makes me realize me how little I've
       | experienced communal activities since then. It has the same
       | feeling of a family sitting together making Christmas cookies, or
       | a group of artists sitting together sketching. People complain
       | about the difficulty of making friends in your thirties, and I
       | wonder how much of that is simply because we don't afford
       | ourselves the time for such communal activities. We aren't
       | regularly around groups of people with the sort of free time that
       | precipitates these moments of idle bonding.
       | 
       | Isn't this what lunch is for? (I know not all organizations have
       | a culture of "taking lunch")
        
         | WorldMaker wrote:
         | Work isn't always the best place to make or maintain
         | friendships. In some ways this seems another lament for better
         | "third places" in our lives (places that aren't home or work
         | where friendship and socialization and community can better
         | happen; without the strictures of work or the structure of home
         | life).
        
       | munificent wrote:
       | _> Thinking of this makes me realize me how little I've
       | experienced communal activities since then. It has the same
       | feeling of a family sitting together making Christmas cookies, or
       | a group of artists sitting together sketching. People complain
       | about the difficulty of making friends in your thirties, and I
       | wonder how much of that is simply because we don't afford
       | ourselves the time for such communal activities. We aren't
       | regularly around groups of people with the sort of free time that
       | precipitates these moments of idle bonding._
       | 
       | I've been thinking about this for the past couple of years,
       | especially since the pandemic. I was locked down with my wife and
       | two kids the entire, but we spent less time than you'd expect
       | just _being_ together.
       | 
       | We were either:
       | 
       | 1. Doing explicit demarcated activity together like eating
       | dinner, watching a movie, or playing a multi-player videogame.
       | These are nice, but require coordination and don't provide much
       | opportunity for idle chat (except for dinner).
       | 
       | 2. Doing our own completely mentally-emcompassing things, usually
       | involving separate screens. These also don't lend themselves to
       | idle conversation. We may be spatially colocated, but we are all
       | effectively worlds away.
       | 
       | Ever-present electronic devices connected to the Internet with an
       | infinite feed of new media to consume has essentially destroyed
       | all middle ground between those two poles.
       | 
       | It's horrible and horribly unhealthy. People need time to just
       | idle next to each othere with our minds free to wander and free
       | to peridically bounce off each other.
        
         | [deleted]
        
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