I spent a couple of days building staircases inside a rope factory, kinda thing that I would just add a glass wall and put in a coffee shop, it's an odd thing to watch something solid materialise out of a intricate repetitive motion that happens ever so slightly faster that you can track.
different rig than the wind knitter but both I think are clasified as braiders
I'm curious about how you 'harvest' a section of tube without it unraveling.
Maybe cut it around, remove the little bits of yarn, then unravel a ways on purpose, and knit the unraveled yarn through the edge like a normal bind-off?
Thread a flexible needle (usually called "circular") or a wire through a full row near the cut, unravel the remaining rows, then take a fine crochet hook to chain the loops together.
Or just hem it, but that doesn't look like what she does.
Circular knitting typically uses a technique called "grafting" or "Kitchener stitch" to close tubes seamlessly without unraveling - you'd temporarily secure stitches on holders, cut one strand, then use a tapestry needle to mimic the path of the yarn through the live stitches.
It's been about fifteen years since I visited, but they had a big section on the evolution of the techniques. It started from hand lace making, then progressed through periods of different looms. From memory, I'm pretty sure they had a punch-card loom about 200 years old, that was actually operating while I was there.
As an off-topic observation, whenever I see something like the phrase “operates between the public and the private space” I immediately think: this person definitely went to art school :P
International Art English is a well-documented, and mercilessly mocked (and deservedly so!) phenomenon, which thrusts the creator's image of self into the spotlight and questions assumptions about their ability for self-expression at the intersection of rational thought and plain language, through pervasive use of meaningless and tortured constructions, abject puffery, and run-on sentences.
This is a great idea .. I wonder if it can be adapted to using recycled plastic threads, so that a fleet of these could be deployed into the ocean to recover plastics, turn them into nets, and use those nets to .. recover more plastic?
If I were shipwrecked on a tropical island, I'd make it my daily task to work out how to build something like this, into which I can feed plastic bottles, and get a brand new material that could be used for more construction.
Sure, knitting scarves is neat. But knitting a weather-proof shelter? Hell yeah!
To recycle plastic, the only viable way is to melt it. And the plastic must be very clean before it can be remelted. If it even is a kind of plastic that can be reheated multiple times. I am afraid the short answer is no.
In the context of ocean plastic recovery/harvesting, I don't know that the purity is all that important - the more important factor is, collection. Being able to take plastic bottles and turn them into a kind of string, for example, seems more viable - if a hopper could be designed which takes a plastic bottle, rotates it around a stripping knife, and the output is a long twine - this could then be fed into the knitting machine.
I imagine this rube-goldberg'esque strandebeest-like contraption sitting out there harvesting wind and waves, slowly turning every bottle it gorges on into a finely woven matte of materials .. maybe even reproducing itself, who knows ..
EDIT: I asked Grok to design a self-replicating ocean weaver, and I have to say .. it seems like a viable idea to me. Perhaps we will see this kind of plastic harvesting in the near future .. at the very least, were I to be stranded on a plastic-laden island, I'm pretty sure I could work out a way to build a raft with sails ..
He retired the format a few years ago. Now he just does game shows and random projects with his friends, which...fair enough, that's what I'd do with a pile of passive YouTube income.
The reason is that the scarves in the online shop look very tight and possibly created by something else. There is nothing that would prevent the seller from doing this legitimately if that is the case, because Wind Knitting Factory may just be the brand.
I’d like to think the scarves in their online shop are fully knitted by the wind, though.
The circular sock knitting machines, as pictured on the site, absolutely make high quality socks. My wife has a niche business teaching classes on how to use those machines, making and selling socks, etc.
The part that would be missing from a wind-powered solution is the actual shaping of the sock. She spends a lot of time as she works futzing with the hooks on the machine to create the heel, toe, ribbing, etc. I'm not an expert in what she does, but I see enough to know that if this is just a turbine spinning the machine, you'd get a uniform tube, which would then be post-processed into individual fairly shapeless socks. Hand-crafting would shape the socks better, but the basic tubes are high quality even if unshaped.
There is also definitely a niche-within-a-niche of people who work on these machines coming up with all kinds of non-sock applications for well-knit tubes of fiber. Scarves are an obvious one, but re-working different sizes of tubes to create stuffed animals is one of the more fun ones.
I doubt it would be difficult to make. You can buy the knitting machine on amazon. They usually have a handle you can crank unless it is electric. Just attach a turbine to the handle.
I spent a couple of days building staircases inside a rope factory, kinda thing that I would just add a glass wall and put in a coffee shop, it's an odd thing to watch something solid materialise out of a intricate repetitive motion that happens ever so slightly faster that you can track. different rig than the wind knitter but both I think are clasified as braiders
I'm curious about how you 'harvest' a section of tube without it unraveling.
Maybe cut it around, remove the little bits of yarn, then unravel a ways on purpose, and knit the unraveled yarn through the edge like a normal bind-off?
Thread a flexible needle (usually called "circular") or a wire through a full row near the cut, unravel the remaining rows, then take a fine crochet hook to chain the loops together.
Or just hem it, but that doesn't look like what she does.
Circular knitting typically uses a technique called "grafting" or "Kitchener stitch" to close tubes seamlessly without unraveling - you'd temporarily secure stitches on holders, cut one strand, then use a tapestry needle to mimic the path of the yarn through the live stitches.
Take a look at the next T-shirt you put on. Or socks.
Can I ask you to expand on this?
I've never worn knit socks, and I don't think I've ever seen a knit T-shirt, so I'm not quite sure what to look for (or at) :)
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They might be sergering the edges.
Most recent archive of the website: https://web.archive.org/web/20250614200747/https://www.merel...
This is delightfully weird, I love projects like this.
Knitting is programming. Read a knitting pattern and it's low level programming - knitters do not get enough credit.
Same with weaving, especially the way symmetry is weft in.
Jaccard looms are too general, too unconstrained. I like shaft looms more gratifying. Their restrictions make it more interesting.
Then I have to advertise the work of my father: https://oliviermasson.art/en/4-publications
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My dad and my brother are both working on textile industry. There is a world on engineering a fabric, with mathematical algorithms and calculations.
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Maybe the closest match to the current thread:
Tempus Nectit Knitting Clock - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=691175 - July 2009 (2 comments)
Thanks so much for killing my next couple of days :)
https://hn.algolia.com/?q=weaving
For some more. Not all are related to fabrics.
If you happen to be there and like this sort of thing, the lace museum in Calais is definitely worth a visit:
Cité de la Dentelle et de la Mode https://www.cite-dentelle.fr/en/
It's been about fifteen years since I visited, but they had a big section on the evolution of the techniques. It started from hand lace making, then progressed through periods of different looms. From memory, I'm pretty sure they had a punch-card loom about 200 years old, that was actually operating while I was there.
Knitting is more like executing a program. Designing a knitting pattern is programming.
By that logic any instructions is programming and everyone on earth are programmers.
Instructions to machines probably are. Instructions to humans aren't because humans interpret things themselves and exercise free will in execution.
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I’m not sure that I’d say that it’s programming, but it is a pretty neat DSL
To an extent, yes (to the first part). For instance, the list of events scheduled for a performance is called a program.
Sources say God is actually a software engineer
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Sure, why not?
Beautiful work.
As an off-topic observation, whenever I see something like the phrase “operates between the public and the private space” I immediately think: this person definitely went to art school :P
International Art English is a well-documented, and mercilessly mocked (and deservedly so!) phenomenon, which thrusts the creator's image of self into the spotlight and questions assumptions about their ability for self-expression at the intersection of rational thought and plain language, through pervasive use of meaningless and tortured constructions, abject puffery, and run-on sentences.
I'm surprised it doesn't also operate at the intersection of art and technology.
boundary betweeen public and private space is an elementary object of social studies in general
Is this something that can be seen in person?
Oh that device should look familiar to fans of Hand Tool Rescue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOCNaHMo2EI
This is a great idea .. I wonder if it can be adapted to using recycled plastic threads, so that a fleet of these could be deployed into the ocean to recover plastics, turn them into nets, and use those nets to .. recover more plastic?
If I were shipwrecked on a tropical island, I'd make it my daily task to work out how to build something like this, into which I can feed plastic bottles, and get a brand new material that could be used for more construction.
Sure, knitting scarves is neat. But knitting a weather-proof shelter? Hell yeah!
To recycle plastic, the only viable way is to melt it. And the plastic must be very clean before it can be remelted. If it even is a kind of plastic that can be reheated multiple times. I am afraid the short answer is no.
In the context of ocean plastic recovery/harvesting, I don't know that the purity is all that important - the more important factor is, collection. Being able to take plastic bottles and turn them into a kind of string, for example, seems more viable - if a hopper could be designed which takes a plastic bottle, rotates it around a stripping knife, and the output is a long twine - this could then be fed into the knitting machine.
I imagine this rube-goldberg'esque strandebeest-like contraption sitting out there harvesting wind and waves, slowly turning every bottle it gorges on into a finely woven matte of materials .. maybe even reproducing itself, who knows ..
EDIT: I asked Grok to design a self-replicating ocean weaver, and I have to say .. it seems like a viable idea to me. Perhaps we will see this kind of plastic harvesting in the near future .. at the very least, were I to be stranded on a plastic-laden island, I'm pretty sure I could work out a way to build a raft with sails ..
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The page for buying a machine doesn't work :(
Not that i could likely afford it.
If you want a simpler version
https://www.amazon.com/SENTRO-knitting-machines-intelligent-...
Connect it to a wind powered generator or find a way to make a wind crank.
Yea, I know, it's not the same as a cool metal one and that video is from 2009
I'm very disappointed there doesn't appear to be a Tom Scott video on this.
This! That would be awesomesauce. I haven't seen his videos in a while.
He retired the format a few years ago. Now he just does game shows and random projects with his friends, which...fair enough, that's what I'd do with a pile of passive YouTube income.
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He retired: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DKv5H5Frt0
Now we just need wind spinning, wind carding, wind shearing, and wind husbandry. Lots of vertical opportunity.
I’d like to see a video of the full process.
The reason is that the scarves in the online shop look very tight and possibly created by something else. There is nothing that would prevent the seller from doing this legitimately if that is the case, because Wind Knitting Factory may just be the brand.
I’d like to think the scarves in their online shop are fully knitted by the wind, though.
The circular sock knitting machines, as pictured on the site, absolutely make high quality socks. My wife has a niche business teaching classes on how to use those machines, making and selling socks, etc.
The part that would be missing from a wind-powered solution is the actual shaping of the sock. She spends a lot of time as she works futzing with the hooks on the machine to create the heel, toe, ribbing, etc. I'm not an expert in what she does, but I see enough to know that if this is just a turbine spinning the machine, you'd get a uniform tube, which would then be post-processed into individual fairly shapeless socks. Hand-crafting would shape the socks better, but the basic tubes are high quality even if unshaped.
There is also definitely a niche-within-a-niche of people who work on these machines coming up with all kinds of non-sock applications for well-knit tubes of fiber. Scarves are an obvious one, but re-working different sizes of tubes to create stuffed animals is one of the more fun ones.
I assume there’s gearing to improve consistency.
There’s definitively post processing though as it’s knitting a tube. “Occasionally the knitwear gets ‘harvested’ and transformed into scarves.”
Yes it looks like it is felted afterwards
“Every scarf gets a label which tells you the time and the date on which the wind made the scarf.”
I think it’s real.
Is anyone else disappointed that you can't buy the wind-knitting device itself, only scarves knitted from the device? :)
I doubt it would be difficult to make. You can buy the knitting machine on amazon. They usually have a handle you can crank unless it is electric. Just attach a turbine to the handle.
I missed the (obvious) context and imagined an aircraft engine turbine attached.
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you could, but the (original) website is from 2009...so probably not enough interest to keep that up. The old link is dead: https://windknittingfactory.bigcartel.com/
I'd be surprised/impressed if the knitting machine itself was a DIY project.
I know this is art, but to be overly reductive, it's the same as buying your electricity from a wind farm and using it to power your knitting machine.
I'm disappointed it doesn't make socks.
Every HNer knows your startup needs to maintain a moat /s
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