When worlds collide

I love it when two separate parts of my life collide. Ruth Blau just posted this on the WeaveTech List

This past weekend, I attended a wonderful knitting workshop with Debbie New. One of her approaches to designing is based on the Sierpinksy triangle fractal. You can do it with color (either two colors, or better yet, with dark & light and then use any colors you want), with stitches (knit vs. purl) or w/ broader design concepts, e.g, cables. She calls it "rule-based knitting." At any given time, the stitch (or color or whatever) you use is determined by the stitch's surroundings. Here's an example. Assume you're ready to knit a stitch. Look at the three stitches below it (one directly below and the two on each side of it). Your rule is this: if one (and only one) of the stitches below is purl, then you purl. Otherwise you knit. It could also be this: if one and only one of the stitches below is light then use light yarn, otherwise use dark. You make this decision for every stitch in the row (yes, it's slow going).

If you happen to have Debbie's book "Unexpected Knitting," this is in the section called Cellular Automaton Knitting.