27 November 2013

Knitting and Science: It's a knitbot, but I'm so confused!

An article about a "knitting machine powered by tweets" came across my newsfeed this morning. "How cute!" I thought. "A knitbot! Knitting, technology, and tweeting? This is relevant to my interests!"

So I clicked through the link, and down the rabbit hole I went. It's a knitting machine cranking out Christmas-themed sweaters. Sweater-knitting goodness happens when someone tweets a particular hashtag, and it's sponsored by…BUDWEISER? Seems the hashtag in question is #jumpers4des, and the goal is to remind folks to have a designated driver over the holiday season.

So the message is as follows: promote designated drivers this holiday season by tweeting and making this robot knit a sweater! I'm a proponent of intersectionality among issues near and dear to my heart, but this seemed to be a rather obfuscated message. Perhaps if knitters were more likely to drink and drive, the logical leaps might make a bit more sense?

Once I accepted the knitbot as a somewhat ill-suited marketing ploy, I let myself wallow in the glory that is this steampunk inspired knitting machine. Check out those oversized gears! The modern flat-screen monitor embedded in a frame of copper tubing! OK, perhaps it is kind of clever.




Other posts in the Knitting and Science series: 

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