OK, maybe I’ve been around computers too long, but have you ever noticed that knitting is really just like binary code, knits are the "1"s and purls are the "0"s. :teehee:
I explained it that way to my husband and he understood…that I needed therapy. LOL!
Lu
want to knit in binary?
google “hex and bin meet my friends knit and purl” for an essay and perl script download for converting ascii code (computer code expresed in hexadecimal numbers --that are just short hand for binary bits) into knit and purl patterns.
you could “knit” someone a secret message–
you can also sub colors for knits/purls, and make an abstract ‘fair isle’ design
there is also a binary scarf on Knitty.com, but it doesn’t spell out a message (no reason why you couldn’t change that!)
there are lots of geek sites (you might want to start with the page of mathmatical knitting:
http://www.toroidalsnark.net/mathknit.html
(you can find a link to hex and Bin… on that page too, or on thomasina’s geek knitting Page (there is a link to thomasina’s page at bottom–)
there are endless bits of mathmatical, (and scientific) knitting.
Maybe this is why I “get” knitting. I never understood why I caught on so fast! Thanks for the revelation! 
another similarity of computers to knitting that i have never seen anywere (printed anywhere) is:
to ‘multiply’ a computer take a the the bits in lower register
[color=blue](take the next X stitches)[/color]
and puts them in a storage register
[color=blue](put the X stitches onto a cable needle)[/color]
then it ‘processes’ the bits in the upper register
[color=blue](knit the next X stitches on needle)[/color]
then it retrieves the bits from the storage register
[color=blue](pick up the cable needle)[/color]
and places those bits into the upper register
[color=blue](knit the stitches from cable needle)[/color]
NOTE: the process of multiplication is almost identical to cabling!
knitting is more versitial, (computers come in 8 bit, 16 bit, 32 processors, but we knitters can knit anysize cable! (from 2 stitches (twisted/cross stitches) on!)
and while disks (who uses floppies?) come preformated now, when a disk (soft/floppy or hard drive) is being formated, what happens is the drive head runs an A/C (alternateing current) signal which results in a series of 1’s (positive) and 0’s (negative) reads. (if there is an error, (two 1’s in row, or 2 0’s in a row, there is a ‘bad sector’ (we’ve all seen that if we have cleaned a drive)
so drives are formated by ‘ribbing’ (1 (knit), 0(purl) repeated over and over!) just a knitters set up knitting (often ) by doing ribbing.
Veeeeeery cool! Thanks!
Lu
what a fun way to think about it! No wonder I love knitting so much. When I saw that binary scarf I was instantly inspired. I want to do a binary blanket like they have on www.thinkgeek.com in a soft fluffy yarn and then maybe a door mat in binary. hee so many ways to be geeky, I love it!
In case anyone finds this from a search like I did - I’ve just put together a web page which helps you work this out: just enter your message and it will give you the pattern! It’s http://www.lochan.org/keith/knitting/asciiknitting.html