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Discussion on: Knitting as Programming

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Abbey Perini • Edited

I say knitting pattern designers follow DRY like I would say programmers follow DRY. Good pattern designers try to cut down on the repetition of instruction (code). You are correct in that the act of knitting and a knitted garment involve a lot of repetition themselves, but they're execution and output respectively.

You can tell when a pattern is written by an experienced designer trying to cut down on repetition. The best examples are the kinds of for loops and while loops I described, but it also includes intelligent use and creation of charts, a set of rows repeated until the fabric is a certain length, and how the instructions for different sizes of output are notated, among other things.