Balisage Paper: When women do algorithms: a semi-generative approach to overlay crochet with iXML and XSLT

Abstract

Crochet is what we call it when women do algorithms. A crochet pattern can be quite a complicated algorithm. For example, overlay crochet involves using two (usually contrasting color) yarns to create interwoven grids. Overlay patterns can be expressed as grids of squares, so they are very easy to represent using a coordinate system, which can then be translated into a visual representation.

Enter iXML! To translate textual material into an overlay crochet design, I first wrote a set of pattern specifications for the letter shapes of the Latin alphabet. Using iXML, I then processed a text to extract a list of capital letters, and inserted the patterns in place of their matching letters. An XSLT stylesheet extracted these pattern pieces as a text file, and a second iXML grammar joined the individual pattern specifications into a single scarf pattern. Transforming this into SVG with an XSLT stylesheet allowed manual tweaking to ensure that the letter-shapes sat well in combination with one another. The result is a scarf pattern with a hidden message, generated semi-randomly by patterns in the input text, with a little aesthetic tweaking to make it harmonious. And the result of *that* is a very nice, warm scarf!