I'm not positive, but I think this is the first post I've written where things didn't work out (it's not that this doesn't happen on a fairly regular basis but I don't usually spend the time to detail it!) During the summer I was downloading and exploring apps for my new Android phone and one of them was a QR code reader. A QR code is a type of bar code that can cram a lot of data information into a pattern of squares. Companies and retailers are using them to provide additional information about themselves or a product - usually by directing you to a web page. To use a QR code reader, you point the camera of your phone at a QR code and the image is scanned and the data is interpreted. Below is a QR code which is a link to my ladynthread blog:
The crafting/design side of my brain immediately started thinking of different projects where I could use a QR code motif - maybe a bag or a scarf ? Translating the QR code into knitting seemed interesting so I started with worsted weight yarn and knit one stitch for each white and black square. I experimented using intarsia knitting on the corner squares and for the long left and right vertical edges but the bulk of the design is knitted with the stranded method.
The knitting is 'ok', a little ragged in spots (hey, it's a first prototype!), but unfortunately the stitched "squares" were mostly "V's" formed with the stockinette stitch and the QR reader couldn't read it, except for one time where the light and the angle must have been perfect, Using a fingering weight yarn and making each square of the QR code a block of four stitches might make it readable or maybe cross-stitching would work. Printing to fabric transfer paper is probably the most straight forward approach, but for now, the whole idea is shelved until further inspiration.
