If you have a Palm, you may have tried out the program called “Palm Life”. This is one of a number of programs designed to demonstrate the idea of a cellular automaton. Based on a set of rules, a cell either reproduces or doesn’t. The rules are there to keep the organism from reproducing too quickly, using all of it’s resources, and dying off.
Debbie New introduces this idea to your knitting. You can make up some rules, and then apply them to each stitch as it is presented as you are knitting. What a fun class! You end up with cool fractal-looking designs in your knitting if you use two or more color knitting. But you don’t have to stop there, you can use YOs instead of colors. Or cables – twist to the left if the rule applies, or twist to the right if it doesn’t apply – or have more than one rule and test each rule as you get to the next stitch.
The class was a bit unstructured, sort of like a lab, where she gives you some rules and then lets you go as she wanders the room to see what you come up with. She offers some guidance as she travels the room and it really feels like you are experimenting. It was a very different experience than the other classes I took while at Stitches. I really liked it. Ms. New is the kind of teacher I loved in High School, the kind that led you to an idea but stopped short of showing you the result – but let you discover it yourself. Those were the kind of classes I loved in school, and I am discovering that I still like it that way.