Reprogramming the hand: bridging the craft skills gap in 3D/digital fashion knitwear design

Designer-makers have integrated a wide range of digital media and tools into their practices, many taking ownership of a specific technology or application and learning how to use it for themselves, often drawing on their experiential knowledge of established practices to do so. To date, there has been little discussion on how digital knitting practice has evolved within this context, possibly due to the complexity of the software, limited access to industrial machinery and the fact that it seems divorced from the idea of 'craft'. Despite the machine manufacturers' efforts to make knitting technology and software more user-friendly, the digital interface remains a significant barrier to knitwear designer-makers, generally only accessed via experienced technicians

SERVice Oriented Intelligent Value Adding nEtwork for Clothing-SMEs embarking in Mass-Customisation [as a result of the Automatic knitting Sites pilot, Task D6.2a]. CORDIS.

Executive Summary: This report describes the outcomes of research and development work done by IFTH (France) and Nottingham Trent University (UK) to develop and evaluate the procedures for a business model to produce commercially customised fully-fashioned knitwear. It builds on the initial work done by Unicatum, RWTH and Hohenstein Institute (Germany). The purpose was to demonstrate the commercial potential for on-demand, localised manufacturing of up-market fashion products using new technology. The target market was upper-middle market knitwear for ladies, typical products being a jumper, cardigan or dress. As with the rest of the SERVIVE project, customisation has been assumed to be linked to style advice. Thus part of the overall product and consumer experience is the initial process of co-design. This is partly illustrated in the video of the demonstration [see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIodKyciJAM]. However as this could vary according to each retailer (e.g. web-based or personal style advisor, product category, etc.), this aspect is better covered in other SERVIVE project deliverables. The key technology assumed in the micro-factory is one or more whole-garment 3D knitting machines. It is recognised that this can be an option with circular knitting (e.g. Santoni), but in this instance the focus is on the multiple flat-bed technology such as is available from Stoll and Shima Seiki

A creative journey developing an integrated high-fashion knitwear development process using computerized seamless v-bed knitting systems

This PhD applied a participatory action research approach to address the organizational problems that compromise the use of computerized seamless V-bed knitwear systems in the high-fashion knitwear sector. The research is a response to a widely acknowledged conflict between high-fashion design processes and processes by which designs are developed on computerized seamless V-bed knitting systems. The social, organizational, and technical aspects of design and manufacturing using computerized seamless V-bed knitting technology in high-fashion knitwear design were analyzed as a socio-technical system (STS). This approach led to a review of the workflows, tasks and roles; identifying and testing new design and manufacturing processes, design methods, and garment solutions; creating a theory model of a new integrated design process; and developing and testing new design processes, design methods, and fashion design education courses that teach these new fashion knitwear approaches.The research was undertaken using a Shima Seiki WholeGarment® system, a current computerized seamless V-bed knitting design and manufacturing technology. The studio workspace, yarn, use of the Shima Seiki system; involvement in fashion projects, and associate supervision were provided by the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia (DAFWA).The research demonstrated a high-fashion knitwear designer can undertake all aspects of managing computerized seamless V-bed knitwear design and production to the completion of 1st sample, the first successful sample of a new fabric or garment, was produced using the computer knit data. This finding was developed into a new integrated design process and design methods that remove most of the problems of computerized seamless V-bed knitting systems in high-fashion and offers additional benefits including reduction in time to market and design costs, and increases in the creative solution space for high-fashion knitwear design.The researcher has called this new role, a ‘designer-interpreter’ to denote a professional knitwear designer with additional training in managing computerized seamless knitting machines. Within the context of ‘designer-interpreter’, this research also established the feasibility of a new form of a ‘post-industrial craft-based one-person knitwear production system’

Supporting Knitwear Design Using Case-Based Reasoning

Organised by: Cranfield UniversityKnitwear design is a creative activity that is hard to automate using the computer. The production of the associated knitting pattern, however, is repetitive, time-consuming and error-prone, calling for automation. Our objectives are two-fold: to facilitate the design and to ease the burden of calculations and checks in pattern production. We conduct a feasibility study for applying case-based reasoning in knitwear design: we describe appropriate methods and show how they can be implemented.Mori Seiki – The Machine Tool Compan

Digital Representation of Knitting Patterns in Traditional Costumes

The paper presents the application of a CAD system for digital representation of traditional knitting. The CAD system is oriented to hand knitting. As a software application the system is developed by using C# programming language and .NET platform. The paper focuses on the applied side of the software and its usage as a means of representing and storing ethnographic exhibits

Intelligent support for knitwear design

Communication between different members of a design team often poses difficulties. The knitwear design process is shared by the designers, who plan the visual and tactile appearance of the garments, and the technicians, who have to realise the garment on a knitting machine and assemble it. This thesis reports a detailed empirical study of over' twenty companies in Britain and Germany, which shows that the communication problem constitutes a major bottleneck. Designers specify their designs inaccurately, incompletely and inconsistently; the technicians interpret these specifications according to their previous experience of similar designs, and produce garments very different from the designers' original intention. Knitwear is inherently difficult to describe, as no simple and complete notation exists for knitted structures; and the relationship between visual appearance and structure and technical properties of knitted fabric is subtle and complex. At the same time the interaction between designers and technicians is badly managed in many companies. This thesis argues that this communication bottleneck can be overcome by enabling designers to produce accurate specifications of technically correct designs, through the help. of an intelligent computer support system that corrects inconsistent input and proposes design suggestions that the user can edit. In this thesis this proposal is elaborated for one aspect of knitwear design: garment shape construction. Garment shapes are modelled using Bezier curves generated using design heuristics drawn from industrial practice, to create curves that look right to a designer and can be easily edited. The development of the garment shape models presented in this thesis involved the solution of unusual problems in numerical analysis. The thesis shows how the mathematical models can be integrated into an intelligent CAD system, and discusses die benefits of such a system could have for the design process

Translating the Creative Process of Knitwear Design: from Manual to Digital Practices in a Material-driven Approach

For ages associated with manual work, in the paradigm shift through the Industry 4.0 knitwear is nowadays one of the industrial sectors that is most experiencing the dualism between craftsmanship and technological innovation. The article investigates the relationship between the creative process of knitwear and its tools, in a comparison between a traditional manual expertise and a constantly evolving technological knowledge. Through a case study, the article analyses the nodes that connect the creative and manual process to the production and technological ones, stressing the translation effort that a de-signer faces when switching from manual to electronic machines. A translation that requires a structured dialogue between designers and technicians, and that consists in evolutions that explore the possibilities and limits of the most up-to-date technologies, of traditional and innovative yarns and materials, of the processing techniques