The inaugural Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship were an unqualified success, with competitors from the US, Russia, Japan and beyond converging on Joensuu, Finland to thrash and knit: competitors such as Woolfumes, Bunny Bandit and 9" Needles thrashed to heavy metal music while knitting, for an audience of about 200. The winners were the five-person Japanese team Giga Body Metal. Scottish competitor Heather McLaren (a Ph.D candidate in engineering) told the AP, "When I saw there was a combination of heavy metal and knitting, I thought 'that’s my niche.'"
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You can make your own perfectly adorable chibi crocheted AT-AT Walker with this $5.90 pattern from Polish textile artist Kamila Krawczyk, AKA Krawka. (via The Stars My Destination)
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Irene Posch and Ebru Kurbak's Embroidered Computer uses historic gold embroidery materials to create relays ("similar to early computers before the invention of semiconductors") that can do computational work according to simple programs; it's installed at the Angewandte Innovation Lab in Vienna.
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This striking and immaculate cross-stitched Macintosh control panel is by Glenda Adams: "This took nearly 6 months, working on and off- so many little pixels to stitch."
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The Tentacuddle is another of Thinkgeek's not-April-Fools products launched on Apr 1 but seriously for realsies; it's $60, acrylic, 40"^2 plus five two-foot-long besuckered tentacles whose terminal apertures will admit your own appendages for eating or other manipulative/ambulatory tasks, and it's machine washable.
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As posted to twitter by Saima Mir, and likely sourced from Generation; but who's the artist? Read the rest
This is NASA's new "space fabric" in development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Read the rest
Beck Stern writes, "In 2008 I knitted a woolen cozy for my computer, and now it belongs to the internet. This new video is its story." Beck Stern is a national treasure. Read the rest
Penn State researchers funded by the Army Research Office and the Office of Naval Research have posted video showing their progress on "self-healing" textiles that use proteins similar to those found in human hair and squid teeth to allow fibers to coated in polyelectrolytes so that they can be set and bonded using safe solvents under ambient conditions. Read the rest
Public transit upholstery is a marvel of stain-resistance, long-wearing durability and bizarre abstract patterns meant to deny the shifting conventions of fashion: all these make it (semi-)perfect for "Bustour," German artist Menja Stevenson's 2008 transit couture project, which has her creating lovely -- if stiff and uncomfortable -- outfits out of transit fabric and then riding trains, documenting the reactions of people who encounter her chameleonsuit look. Read the rest
These facehugger facewarmers come from Brooklyn weird textiles queen Knitrocious (previously). They're made to order from acrylic yarn and cost $150 each: "Legs have clips so that they can be worn around the head (you know, during sexy time) or unclipped just hang out." Read the rest
They're a mere $110 from Opposuits, which is a positive bargain, espeically when you contemplate just how much daily use you can get out of it. (via Crazy Abalone) Read the rest
Slovakian artist Terézia Krnáčová produced a series of toast slices called "Everyday Bread," in which each slice is embroidered in a different pattern. Read the rest
Natalie Bursztyn created this fantastic pattern for a Wonder Woman sweater, which she has prototyped and modelled herself. Read the rest
Matthew "Gianteye" Borgatti, creator of the Guy Fawkes bandana and dangly lockpick earrings, has done it again with the $20 War Boy Bandana: "YOU WILL RIDE INTO VALHALLA SHINY AND CHROME!" Read the rest
