Week 13 - Wild card - Knitting

So this week decided to try out the knitting machine week mainly since this device sounds super cool. Currently have zero intention to integrate this into my final project.

We are using a Shima Seiki WholeGarment SWG091N2 with 15 gauge needles. This is a knitting machine capable of integrating multiple strings and can print the front and the back of an item simutaneously for 3D printing.

Since we have only 1-2 hours with this machine, I decided to make a printed pattern on fabric, which seemed relatively easy over doing complex knitting patterns. So, decided to try to find a image that I would like. Taking from geometric shapes that I was interested in back on castings week, I decided to make a penrose triangle. Since this is just a triangle, I thought that I could do a repeating pattern for something like a scarf (one of the suggestions that Alex said we could make for this weeks assignment). Below is an exmple of the pattern I created in photoshop.

After completing this, we needed to convert the image into a visual prgramming language that the Shima Seiki machine could interpret. Below is an exmaple of the penrose pattern in the visual language.

In this language, everycolor represents a command associated to the knitting process. And every line representing the commands for one pass of string. We didn't have much time to learn this language, so I cannot go in any detail.

We mainly just took the visual code and stuck in the image of the pattern we wanted to knit. Next, we sent the image to the kniting machine. Below is an example of the machine going at it!

In my first hour session, we created a test print roughly a 4X8 inch of the pattern, which looked awesome! Some details to note was the edges opened up where the red and beige didn't switch from kniting from the front to the back. For example, the red negative space is not attached to the back knitting, so it can be opened up on the edges. For the real print, I decided to make sure all edges of the scarf would include an alternating red and beige pattern to prevent the edges from opening up.

Here are videos of the machine in action!

and here is the final product! Now time to sell on Etsy! ;P