As both a knitter and a web / interactive stuff designer, i’m fascinated by the space between interaction design and craft.

Leah Buechley invented the lillypad (a kind squidgy version of the arduino), and in the talk below speaks about getting knitters and grannies and the like involved in innovation and interaction design.

Design Futures: Leah Buechley (MIT Media Lab) – New Craft – A Marriage of High and Low Tech from Elizabeth Goodman on Vimeo.

We are not quite at the point of getting my gran writing processing just yet, Leah admits, but i genuinely love the idea of technology as an extension of craft. Also a common theme of the work she shows seems to be exposing the circuit and making it part of the asthetic, see this flickr set on the paper circuit, or have a look at the things people are making with conductive embroidery.

Conductive embroidery from make magazine

Interactive paper

Do your socks look like this?

If so, you might like to go and see Michael Swaine, who is going door to door fixing peoples clothes and talking to them about sewing. Most of us could make things last a little longer and throw away a little less if we bothered to learn the basics. In this clip Swaine explains that the project has just as much to do with the community as the clothes:

Find out more about Door to Door darning in London here and here