My Mamaw (that’s grandmother for you yankees out there) used to knit all the time. She was big on making blankets with yarn that had enough open space to be terrible at keeping you warm, and were itchy enough to drive you mad. Thankfully she was never into knitting sweaters so I never had to wear that itchy stuff all day long.
An interesting new device has turned up on Kickstarter called the Kniterate, and it could make Grandma’s knitting obsolete.
The computer-controlled knitting machine can make all sorts of stuff like dresses, sweaters, and even shoes, from a wide variety of yarns. It can knit garments in any pattern you can imagine, and is ideal for making one-off fashions or prototype designs for production.
Kniterate’s design application will include pre-made templates for a variety of garment structures, or you can design your own from scratch.
It’s not exactly cheap, with the first batch of machines selling for $4,699(USD). Despite the price, the campaign has already blown through its crowdfunding goal. Shipping is expected to start in April 2018. I only hope its blankets will keep you warm, and it uses yarns that aren’t itchy.
