Digital knitter

Customers who want to buy a piece from Raeburn’s collection when it launches in October, will be able to visit the Knyttan website, select a garment, choose the pattern and colour, then use an online tool to make further customisations such as adjusting the pattern’s placement or changing the width of lines.

The garments are then created using industrial knitting machines that have been reprogrammed to work in a way that is akin to 3D printers. ‘The lightbulb moment was realising that an industrial knitting machine could be turned into something approaching a 3D printer for clothes, but the barrier was software,’ says Hal Watts, CEO of Knyttan. 

‘By rewriting this software from the ground up, we can use these industrial machines in ways no-one else does.’

The Big Picture: Digital platforms such as Knyttan are reducing the time between inception and production. Learn more by reading our Print Me microtrend.