In the Tinkering Studio, we like to say that the process of tinkering will get you stuck, then you'll find a way to get yourself unstuck. I was feeling pretty stuck with our current sound prototyping so I decided one way I'd try to work through that was by taking a break to work on something completely different. Which brings me back to weaving. It's been a while since we last prototyped this idea, and I've been wanting to return to finding a way to use Scratch to help generate a pattern.

The image below shows a quick bit of Scratch code I put together that creates a series of 10 different colored circles based on randomly picking a zero or a one. The color of the circle represents what would show on my final woven pattern. A orange circle means weave over the warp thread and a blue circle means weave under the warp thread. (Quick note: warp are the vertical threads, weft are the horizontal ones.)

By re-running the program over and over again, I could get "instructions" on what to do with my woven project. One rule I set for myself was to do whatever the program generated, even if it wouldn't be the best for the overall look of the final product. One thing that surprised me is that random means there will be some some unusual outliers. For example, one line got four orange followed by six blue. Another was a perfectly symmetrical pattern.

Then there was the really weird one that was all orange except for one!

What I liked about this process was that it allowed me to use Scratch in a way that was meaningful for my goal and outcome. It also really made me rethink my understanding of what randomness means. I expected there to be a lot more basic over-under patterns generated, but in actuality the results were way more varied than that.

As a next step, I'd like to explore what tinkering with a starter set of code could look like for translating what's on the screen to a physical object. This was significantly easier than past mapping strategies I've used, so I think there's potential to keep going with these experiments!

This project was made possible through the generous support from the LEGO Foundation

Since my last post about weaving way back in December, we've been continuing to try different approaches to tinkering with textiles. It's been an interesting journey, with lots of discoveries (and challenges!) along the way. Here's an overview of some of the big ideas we've experimented with.

Incorporating Technology
My initial excitement for exploring weaving as a topic came from its connections to computational thinking. With that starting point in mind, I did some research into computational connections and stumbled across this post on Medium that linked to a Processing file for a "digital loom." With this code, you can play with changing variables to adjust color and pattern. My knowledge of Processing is pretty limited, so most of my exploration was around linking changes to variables to noticeable outcomes that affect the pattern. I definitely made some mistakes along the way, but eventually got the hang of knowing which variable to change to get the outcome I was looking for.

These examples show some glitches in my first attempts at playing with the variables.

These show some before and after examples of more successful tests in playing with the code for more purposeful outcomes.

While the digital loom was a fun foray into incorporating technology, the question remained, how could we turn these patterns into physical woven objects? For help on that, I turned to our longtime collaborator Stacy Speyer. In addition to designing playful ways to explore polyhedra, Stacy is also a talented weaver and knows tons about ways to make connections between math and the physical world. She introduced us to a software platform iWeaveit that allows you to create digital designs that can be easily translated on a loom. We spent a few afternoons tinkering with designs on the software then using her table loom to translate them to a woven piece of cloth. Which brings me to our next phase of prototyping...

Playing with Real Tools
Having the opportunity to prototype with a real table loom was one of my favorite parts of the process. Using the loom makes creating fabric go really smoothly and quickly. It's amazing to me that lifting and lowering levers can make patterns appear so quickly. Our friends at MAKESHOP at the Children's Museum Pittsburgh have a floor loom they keep out all the time for visitors as an exhibit; they use all sorts of interesting found materials for weaving, and keep the experience very open ended. I'd love to be able to try something like this in the Tinkering Studio someday.

Making the Materials Accessible
Since at the moment we're not equipped to have a workshop full of real looms for visitors, we brainstormed other ways of making the process more accessible by using simple, everyday materials. One idea we came across was that of a cardboard loom. By cutting evenly spaced notches into sheets of cardboard and looping threads of yarn into those spots, you can effectively make a simple loom structure for needle weaving. The photo below shows an early prototype where I sketched a pattern by hand, then wove it using a cardboard loom. There are sections of plain weave above and below the zigzag pattern.

While the process of needle weaving is much more accessible in terms of tools and materials, once you've tried a real loom it feels a lot more...tedious. I tried to design a pattern on iWeaveit then create it in real life using the cardboard loom, but I only got a few layers in before deciding to take an extended break because it took forever.

One material that helped solve this for me was chunky knitting yarn. It's really bulky, so the process goes a lot faster. One good discovery we made was that the narrow looms are good for plain weave, but are less helpful if you want to develop a pattern since there's limited space to work with.

As a next step, we'll be trying this process on the floor with visitors sometime this summer after Maker Faire. I still have lots of questions about this activity. How can we make it more tinkerable? Are there ways to make the connections between weaving and computation clearer without making it feel like a force fit? What's the line between exploring a process and following step-by-step instructions for this activity? How can we relate this practice to the cultural traditions of weaving found all over the world? Even though we don't have these questions answered yet, I think this puts us in a good place for future exploration with visitors to the Tinkering Studio because we'll have so much to learn!

This project was made possible through the generous support from the LEGO Foundation

Although most of our recent explorations have been about sounds and mechanisms, a couple weeks ago I decided to take a detour into trying my hand at weaving. Weaving and looms are an ancient technology, and one thing that I find fascinating about them is how they are inherently computational. We have some Cricket looms I pulled out of storage to experiment with. The first step was just getting it set up and trying a simple over-under pattern for making an even textile. The loom keeps one set of threads at the center level (blue yarn), and moves a second set above or below them so when you pass the shuttle through (green yarn) it makes an even woven pattern.

I knew with some looms it was possible to make more complex patterns, which was the next challenge I set for myself. I marked out four threads that I would skip on each pass, thinking this would make a square. For my first attempts, I skipped those ones moving the shuttle both directions, but it made the pattern look messy. For the second attempt, I only skipped those ones when passing the shuttle right to left and it made a much cleaner pattern.

The next challenge was to see if I could make a checker board so I marked out eight different threads to skip. The pattern was six passes skipping the ones marked with a blue dot, then six passes skipping the ones marked with a red dot.

I like that the fabric shows evidence of my learning over time. The process of figuring out how to shuttle the green thread across, when to skip blue threads, and even some "bugs" of mistakes are all apparent when you look at the fabric itself. For future explorations, I think it could be really interesting to try making a simple Jacquard-style loom that allows you to manually choose which threads to "skip" and potentially make more complex patterns than just squares. Another option could be to try making a simple scratch program that could draw out a pattern you could then recreate with physical materials.