In a lot of ways hand-knitting can be seen as the original form of 3D printing: strands of material are fed through knitting needles that fashion the material into an object according to a predetermined design. So it makes perfect sense that artist and designer Gerard Rubio, with some help from Knitic creators Mar Canet and Varvara Guljajeva, made this incredible open-source, arduino-controlled, knitting machine called OpenKnit.



You can see a detailed explanation of how the knitting machine works in this video by Sergi Rubio and Estel Roman.


Of course, machines like this have existed for a while, but they have never been so affordable or accessible to anyone who wants to use them. If you are a knitting- or a 3D printing-enthusiast, OpenKnit could be an opportunity for you to get involved with the local digital fabrication of knitted garments.

OpenKnit is an ongoing project that waits to evolve organically with/for the community. There’s a long and exciting way full of possibilities to be developed, I can think about many of them, but happily some are still unknown.