I love astronomy, but I have very little native talent when it comes to things like sewing. I tried a few times when I was younger, and I think the bleeding has mostly stopped.
However, lots of folks out there are far more adept at such things than I am and are very clever as well. Also, artistic. For example, on the blog A Beautiful Mess, they have instructions on how to make a scarf with constellations on it!
Photo by A Beautiful Mess
That looks simple enough that even I could do it without a trip to the emergency room (probably).
Not only that, but BABloggee Diana Foss sent me a note about a knitting pattern where the stars are woven into the shawl. There’s even a second pattern with southern stars in it.
That sort of thing amazes me. I have a pretty good 3-D spatial reasoning and a decent sense of topology, but it still baffles me how such things get made. If I tried this, I’d wind up making a Klein bottle or something. Disaster would ensue.
But I know a lot of you out there are crafty. Something like this would make an excellent conversation piece at the least and a fantastic gift for the geek in your life (which includes yourself, no doubt) as well.
Tip o’ the thimble to Fashionably Geek.
