Automating the production of garments
We are looking at how to automated the knit process as much as possible so that it would eventually be possible for someone to import their design into a retail site, for the design to be loaded (automatically) into the Kniterate design software, along with the relevant instructions for size, tension etc and then for the design to be sent to the kniterate machine for it to be knitted.
In order to do this the kniterate backend would need to be fully API driven so that upload of a digital design along with relevant parameters could be automated.
Automating the transfer to the. kniterate machine is possible and then we of course need a real human to load the correct yarns etc. before starting the machine...
Is this something else that people would look for in a Kniterate machine, or is everyone here looking to create designs directly in the Kniterate software, and not to automate any of the process?
Interested to hear what other people are looking to do with their Kniterate machines.
Tim & Robert
EcoKnitware
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Hi Tim & Robert,
I'm very interested in this proposition. I imagined that my use of Kniterate would be to:
1. make soft sculpture artwork (me designing in the app)
2. make garments to sell or trade or giveaway (me designing in the app)
3. make custom garments for clients, this would work especially if I had a palette of yarns that were producing predictable results
4. knitting designs on spec for other designers in my city
I love the idea of Kniterate being a portal, where many people can share in it's capacity... a machine that can clothe my neighborhood in locally made garments. My real dream is to use local yarns to create a completely regionally specific product.
I trust that the slow start with the software is just that, and as the app gets more and more functional (and the help section is populated with more articles so we don't get stuck so much) we're gonna start seeing all that is possible with Kniterate! I love what you guys are doing with the protest scarves.
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Hi Tim and Robert,
This sounds like a great idea.
As a user I’d also be interested in a series of basic, sizeable templates (shapes) to which pattern and texture could be added. Have you seen the hand knitting app Bellish? As a flow chart of adjustable parameter with various options, it would be lovely to see something similar be possible in the Kniterate software.
A function that I’d appreciate for knitting multiple pieces (that would be bound off on a linker) would be the automation of a repeat without having to knit a complete new bind on between pieces, but rather just a few rows of waste yarn. This is important for me as I envisage doing short production runs of up to 50 repeats. At present it seems that you can only do this manually by copy and pasting, if you are not importing an image, as the image limits the size of the canvas. Unless perhaps you have fathomed a work around for this? I suppose it would be possible to create an image with multiple repeats and import it, but then you’d have an awful lot of parameters to input - stitch size, speed etc!
Debbie
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Cadenzaclothes
Hi - Loving the Bellish app - so many ideas running through my head now.And like you , being able to run multiple runs of items without having to bindon / bindooff would be a dream - Something we could really use today to be honest.
As you say, it all possible at the moment but only with cut and past, and with using a linker instead of bind-off on the machine. We have run both items with bind-off and a linking row, and have moved towards the bind-off - It take just as much time to do the linking on a linker as having the machine complete the bind-off for us, so our time can be better used letting the machine do the linking..
Some great ideas there and I think we are all on the same page and have (along with Kniterate) some great ideas. I can imagine once the key features are in the app such as templating etc we will really be able to start pushing the boundaries of what we can achieve :)
Thanks re The Protest Scarves - It was a really hard project to get up and running as it really pushed the boundaries of the software, but the Kniterate team were amazing and we have now proven that its possible to knit both 2 colour and 5 colour garments at a almost 99% success rate with no issues in the knit at all - Quite an achievement for a machine that has just started launching its first production machines :):
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It sounds like you have perfected using the bind-off! I have not yet managed to do a bind-off without either dropping stitches or breaking yarn. I'd love to know if you have any pointers, please. I have tried editing the stitch size, but this doesn't really seem to help. Wondering if there is something counter-intuitive that I haven't thought of???
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Robert Ingemarsson
We currently don't have plans for an API. We believe that as our app develops, the software will provide many more possibilities not just with designing stitches but with patterns and shaping too, so you won't necessarily need to rely on other knitwear design software. Our app will provide all you need to create beautiful knitwear.0 -
In response to your question about whether the kniterate could run multiple runs of items without having to bindon / bindooff seperately for production of scarves for e.g. it is possible to copy & paste the same design over and over again in the design software. It really depends on the amount of pieces you have to produce. We had to do around 150 scarves for the Kickstarter, so what we did was to create a file with 10 scarves to knit at one go https://www.kniterate.com/2018/05/10/timeline-update-and-scarves/ see GIF at the bottom of the page (knitting time 8 hours).
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Thats vey cool going to try that with our scarves as we are having to produce 8 a day at the moment.
Tim
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I tried doing a copy and paste but when I upload an image the template automatically resizes to fit the image and I can’t paste outside the template. What am I doing wrong?
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Thanks Katy for the info on the joining of kCode files into one to make a 10 scarf run.
We updated out kCode last night and are now running our first knit of 10 scarves with no user intervention.
Bindon -> Scarf -> Bindoff -> Bindon -> Scarf ... etc
Its working great and really speeds up the production to allow us to do 10 scarves a day
Tim
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Here is a picture of our multi scarf production with no manual intervention between scarves..
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That's great! Bet you are saving time! Robert Ingemarsson In order to do this did you open the text file and copy and paste the design code, rather than copy and paste it in the app?
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Its amazing the time saved and much less stress as well having to be there every time the machine needs 'feeding'...
We did this in an editor
Basically moving the feeders back to the initial start point (As of course the draw thread is on the right hand side) and just started again with the bind-on.
You can see what we did here..
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Thank you for this! I'm not quite there yet, as I am still battling with dropped stitches in bind off, but I will file this for later...
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