Poster: Craft-Aligned Pattern Design for Mosaic Yarncraft, presented at UIST 2026.
The mosaic colorwork technique for yarncrafts produces intricate multi-colored designs resembling tile mosaics. Unlike most colorwork techniques, each row of a mosaic project is worked in a single strand of yarn. The crafter does not need to carry unused strands across the back of the work or manage numerous bobbins, so stitching progresses quickly and the back of the work shows tidy stripes. Mosaic charts can be used across multiple crafts, such as knitting and crochet.
With this simplicity comes a limit on the design space. Only two colors are used, and each row has a designated color. A "wrong-color" stitch is made by extending and connecting the anchor stitches above and below it, and the anchor stitches must be the correct color for their own rows. Therefore:
Every vertical span of a color must begin and end on rows of that color, and must have an odd number of stitches. Horizontal runs are unconstrained.
Few tools exist for creating charts that meet these constraints, and designing them by hand is tedious and error-prone.
MoYa ("Mosaic Yarncraft") is a browser-based application that helps yarncrafters create mosaic patterns. It combines craft-aligned, guided freehand drawing with image-based algorithms. Continuous chart validation gives immediate feedback so non-compliant designs can be fixed, and chart markup adds craft- and crafter-specific fabrication details.
MoYa is written in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. All data stays on the user's computer, and no AI is used at runtime. (Generative AI assisted in writing MoYa.) It is ongoing work, and feedback is welcome.
The Surprise Jacket is knit flat in one piece of garter stitch. Off the needles it is an odd, unrecognizable shape, until it is folded, origami-style, into a jacket and only the two shoulder seams are sewn. Carefully placed increases and decreases make the fold work.
Even simpler than the Surprise Jacket: essentially a garter-stitch square, with stitches set aside for the armholes and neck, then folded at key points and joined.
I haven't made a Bog Jacket yet, so the diagrams below are for illustration.
The whole jacket is one huge "circle," worked around and around itself. It is named for the ouroboros, a snake biting its own tail. With Debbie New's keep-going-until-it's-big-enough construction, it works at any gauge and in any yarn. Her original is knitted; my samples translate the construction into Tunisian crochet and into granny stitch.
This crocheted lace cardigan is built from hexagons. A six-petal pineapple motif makes one full hexagon for the back, and the same hexagon is cut in half to form the left and right fronts. The garment's shape comes entirely from the geometry of a single motif.
My version is worked in granny stitch.
Some of the blankets I've made for Project Linus:
