Now, digital knitting machine for personalised clothing

A digital knitting machine, Kniterate, is all set to revolutionise fashion by giving brands an opportunity to go for personalised clothing in an affordable way. It uses yarn to 'print' digital clothing files and via an easy-to-use internet platform, users can design garments from scratch, edit templates or upload their own images and press 'knit'.

Kniterate has hundreds of needles that are computer controlled to create loops, which combined create knitwear.  The products can be made ready to use, like scarves and beanies, or may require assembly, like a sweater. 
 
Kniterate is the brainchild of Gerard Rubio, who four years ago started OpenKnit, an open-source knitting machine. In 2015 it was selected to be part of HAX, the first and largest hardware accelerator, in Shenzhen, China. After showing their HAX prototype in Maker Faire Bay they went on to partner with an industrial knitting machine manufacturer. Since then they have been working with London designers to create samples to show Kniterate's potential, although the machine's software is still in development.

Rubio said, "Until now the production of clothing has been in the hands of a few companies or skilled individuals. Kniterate was born to change that, and to democratise clothing manufacturing, allowing anyone to create personalised garments and accessories."

Nat Hunter, strategic director of Machines Room, said, "Rather than someone having to make 20,000 jumpers in China, and then ship them over to sell them, you can make much smaller batches, and you can also make them local to where you are, preventing garments from ending up in landfill."