I touched on this idea with the Know-It-All bag and computational textiles, but I thought I would look into the web presence of this intersection of traditional craft and technology.

I’ll start with Ravelry, one of my favorite knitting resources. Ravelry is a knitting and crocheting forum of sorts that allow crafters to post their projects, yarns, and patterns in an online space with options for joining groups and shopping. I’m a fan of browsing the patterns that are organized by category (i.e. home, mittens/gloves, toys, naughty, etc.). Another feature that allows you to customize the site even more, is the knitting crochet, knitting, or crochet options that enable you to filter the site to your crafty tastes.  

Knitting groups online, particularly knitalongs (KAL), are quite popular and bring the traditional Stitch ‘n Bitch into the interwebs. Knitalongs being a group of knitters who pick a pattern and break it down into manageable chunks to complete each week.  One of my favorite yarn shops, KnitPicks, has an entire section of their website devoted to the “knitting community” featuring a number of KAL options (mittens, socks, colorwork, etc.) Joining these types of groups is helpful when you think your motivation may be lacking to complete an entire project or when you’re beginning a technique you’ve never tried.

Let’s see what else I can find…Craft: transforming traditional crafts, is an actual print magazine, but it has a fairly extensive web presence as well. Whereas Ravelry is mostly a traditional knitting/crocheting source, Craft offers a bit more on the subversive side. This side of the craft world is definitely addressing the ironic theme proposed by Minahan and Cox. Of course they’re talking specifically of the Stitch ‘n Bitch, but I think it applies here as well. They say, “We suggest that theirs [younger crafters] may be a playful, ironic comment and an unbundling/re-forming or even implosion of traditional associations and differentiations between time, place and gender rather than an earnest expression of a strongly-held desire for innovation, restoration, or resistance.” I would venture to say many of the crafts are a form of resistance; take for example, the Trashy Lingerie ensemble by Ingrid Goldbloom Boch. Others though do tend to blur the line between resistance and the “implosion of traditional associations” (see Dress Tents). Irony abounds and I kind of love it (see Fishing Lure Earrings and Mega Doily).

Finally, check out this video from MIT about e-textiles (note the use of the LilyPad Arduino!)  

Again, it’s fairly obvious that the intersection of craft and technology have huge potential to  encourage young women to pursue technology related disciplines…yes?