12 wonderfully geeky knitting projects (pictures)

Knitting social-media site Ravelry is full of yarn crafters who love to get geeky. Here are some of our favorite projects from that site.

This pattern by Jennifer Olivarez includes instructions for an armature that allows the robot's wheels to spin and arms to articulate.

The code in Irene Birk’s QR pattern is both readable and customizable.

This pattern, part of Megan-Anne Llama’s year-long knitting project that will honor eight scientists, features a schematic for a Tesla coil.

A subset of knitting culture embraces yarny versions of viruses, bacteria and other biological nasties.

Here’s a salmonella by designer LizzieKnits.

The projects can get quite elaborate, as evidenced by this crocheted bacteriophage virus.

Designer Heatherly Walker, a self-described “daughter, wife and sister of computer geeks,” grew up attending Atari BBS conventions with her father in the 1980s. She now works for a knitting software company.

This design was inspired by the beauty and symmetry of circuits.

Designer Laurel Jorgensen created this pattern to cheer up a nephew abed with strep throat.

Here’s a knit version of an energy-storing capacitor.

Crafters occasionally knit the capacitor with two other patterns, Resisty the Resistor and a yarn light bulb.

This sock by Whitney Gegg-Harrison has a neuron running down the leg.

Moore’s Law (which posits that microprocessor components double every two years or so) is likely being pushed to its limits with Anna Hrachovec's knitting pattern.

Emily Stoneking knits dissected creatures such as bats, lab rats and frogs, and sells them, complete with dissection trays, at her Aknitomy Etsy site.