Science meets crochet

Did you know that while you’re hooking a flower, you’re using geometry? At Sheffield University’s Festival of the Mind exhibition, artists and academics are using crochet to help explain hyperbolic surfaces – surfaces which don’t lie flat, and which curve outwards at every point, like mushrooms, pinecones and ferns. Says organiser Kerry Rose: “This can be replicated with crochet by increasing at the same rates at regular intervals to achieve a variety of shapes. Crochet is unique in that it is the only tactile 3D format to demonstrate these principles!”
So people can learn about the geometry in nature, Kerry is creating a “tactile crochet hyperbolic forest”. The installation is at Bank Streets Arts from 14–25 September. Kerry is inviting crocheters to send in their creations, or share them on Facebook – just search for crochetukhyperbolicforest.
www.festivalofthemind.group.shef.ac.uk