Three two-component torus links
Materials and Methods: Knitted from DK wool dyed with Easter-egg coloring tablets
Designer & Artist: sarah-marie belcastro
Year: 2013
A (p,q) torus link traverses the meridian cycle of a torus p times and the longitudinal cycle q times; when p and q are coprime, the result is a knot, and when not the result is a gcd(p,q)-component link with each component a (p/gcd(p,q), q/gcd(p,q)) torus knot.
This set contains a (4,2) torus link, a (6,4) torus link, and an (8,6) torus link.
They were made as proof-of-concept for the methodology for knitting torus knots and links that the artist is speaking about in the Special Session. Essentially, each component of each link is constructed by casting on a number of stitches to a long circular needle, algorithmically wrapping the needle into the correct knot, and working in the round. Thus, both the knotting and the linking are intrinsic to the construction, rather than being induced afterwards via grafting.