[Noisebridge-discuss] Full-fashioning & knitting machines.

[Rachel McConnell]

This is at least two machines, the knitter and the linker.  The process
is not (yet, to my knowledge) fully automatable, as a human has to line
up the knitted pieces and feed them to the linker.  The linker is quite
comparable to a sewing machine, with the differences that the stitch
produced is different, and it can use the yarn that the body of the
sweater is knitted from for a more cohesive whole.

It's possible to get a home knitting machine for a few hundred dollars.
In fact I have one.  I lent to a friend a while ago and kind of lost
track of it but I could probably track it down, bring it in to NB and
demo it if there is interest in the process.  I don't have a linker; for
home use a needle and thread is vastly more cost effective.

Rachel

Jason Dusek wrote:
>   A "fully-fashioned" sweater is one where all the pieces (or
>   "panels") are knitted in such a way that their edges line up;
>   they are then knitted together. A fully-fashioned sweater is
>   not sewn and the fabric is not cut; the seams are both flat,
>   durable and very attractive.
> 
>   Some kind of powerful machine does this work; especially for
>   items made with fine thread, like silk sweaters, doing the
>   work by hand would be too expensive (it if is even possible).
>   Do any of the sewers and crafters on the list have any
>   visibility into this process? Are there two separate machines
>   for panel manufacture and panel assembly? How expensive are
>   these machines? The idea of completely programmable clothing
>   assembly is compelling.
> 
> --
> Jason Dusek
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