Revisions and Decisions

At this stage, i am still thinking through and looking for materials to carve out the final prototype of the adjustable loom. The two main materials that i am debating through are acrylic or wood. I am probably going to settle on wood which is what i have been using throughout the iteration process. I have handled and looked up the characteristics of acrylic and i am realizing that the feel of it is too smooth and too fine. The problem with this is that the yarn will slide off when the process is initiated and when the patterns are being made with the yarn.

Wood on the other hand provides a formidable alternative because of its texture. So far, i have experimented with baltic wood in different sizes and thickness. I find that the thinner wood bends easily when the knitting is initiated and cannot withstand tension. Also the dowels in thinner wood starts to bend when knitting is being done on this type of material. The thinner wood i used was about 1/4inches thick. When i used thicker wood, which was about 3/8inches thick, the loom was much stable and the dowels stayed in place. It would be great if i could even use the laser cutter to cut even thicker wood, but unfortunately, the laser cutter is not able to cut much thicker wood. Since i am using the laser cutter in this process, i have decided to settle on this thickness.

Another alteration i have to make is to decrease the width of the placers that are secured on the top and bottom end of the main loom. I will need to decrease the size so that they fit securely within the space afforded by the dowel placements.

Additionally, i have settled on color coding the placers and the main loom to make it visually obvious where they are placed and which ones are placed together. The idea is that anyone who picks up the pieces will know how to place them and how it works. I will be testing different types of paint in the lab on wood to identify which type of paint will be suitable. ie. not rub off when the knitting is initiated. Lastly, i am working on a manual that will accompany the loom. The manual will take a hands on approach and introduce a novice to the loom and its usability within a number of minutes.

Moving Towards Adjustability

The move towards making the loom adjustable has undergone many alterations. The first sketches i came up with were quiet complicated and required several parts to be moved back and forth which was not really ideal. In thinking about more creative and alternate ways to not only make the loom adjustable but also efficient and easy to use, the idea about adjustability moved from attaching an extra loom to adding placers instead. The sketch can be found in the previous post.

During last week and this week, i focused on working out the hacks of the adjustable loom prototype by using Corel Draw and the laser cutter. The first cut was done on cardboard paper. The image above is a visual of what it looked like after it was cut. After seeing the physical representation of the adjustable loom idea, i realized that in order for the placers to work on this loom, a hole for a dowel should be placed on both ends of the prototype (initially, and as can be seen from this image, there was only one hole on one end). I preceded to add another hole for an extra dowel on the other end just as it was on the original prototype. In this way, 2 spacers would have to be constructed specifically for the ends of the loom to adjust for length and width and different sized spacers would be placed in the middle to adjust for level. The image to the left displays the adjustable loom pieces cut from the laser cutter in the lab.


In putting the pieces together, another opportunity for redesign became eminent. The dowel holes on the original loom are too far away from the edge of the loom. This will produce or create wide spaces in the knitted fabric. I will adjust the proximity closer to the opening side of the loom. The holes in the spacer were cut slightly larger than the holes in the original loom to allow them to be easily slipped over the original loom. The last figure displays the loom put together.

Whats Next? Cut the loom on acrylic perhaps and decide on how to design the dowels themselves so that the yarn does not easily slip off. Stay tuned...

Trial and Error

This week, I tried using yarn on the prototype loom that I made out of Baltic Birch. Using Yarn brought up a few interesting problems that i have to keep in mind when working on the final prototype. First, the dowels i used were too skinny and too short. When knitting on the loom, using yarn, the yarn kept slipping off the dowels and it was very difficult to keep the pattern and yarn from slipping off (see image 1 below). Secondly, using Baltic Birch was another challenge as the pressure on the wood from the knitting constriction allowed the loom to start "caving in."

In terms of the product that the loom produced. It turned
Image 1 out pretty well. The knitted fabric was close to what i expected. Some unexpected surprises were that the spaces between the dowels which were marked at an inch away from each other was too wide. This led the finished product to have unnecessarily wide gaps between them, which are undesired. In addition, the braid looking part of the knitted product is not very neat. It can be seen in the above picture that the "braids" are at times crooked.

How do i intend on fixing these problems, as i move on to the next phase? For one, i have decided to either use corrugated dowels and/or dowels that have some kind of "stoppage" at the end. This, it is projected will help prevent the yarn from slipping off the dowels when i am weaving the yarn around them.

Another thing i want to try to do on the next prototype is to make the knitting loom adjustable for different width sizes. The length size is already in place as the knitter can judge either to keep knitting a long strand or knit a short strand. In terms of adjust-ability by width, I first talked to my Lab Professor, Paulo Blikstein and he proposed the following idea that can be seen in the sketch to the left. In this sketch, two proposals are illustrated. The idea at the furthest top brings together two looms that are somehow attached. The top loom being the original and the bottom loom being the one that adds width variations. The next idea, illustrated with the arrow pointing towards it presents a loom that can open up, and a second piece, a leveler added for extension. After this ddiscussion, i drew my own versions of the two ideas, which is found here <--.

In these sketches, the furthest top represents the adjustable two tiered loom with extra pins that can be inserted depending on length preference. The second sketch shows the second loom idea that adds a third piece for extension.

Although these ideas looked very plausible, they require pieces that have to be constantly moved and adjusted. This could wear and tear on the material that is used. Thus there is a third idea, which came about with the help of a friend in the lab who specializes in mechanical engineering. The sketch below illustrates that idea:
In this sketch, there is one board that is at "maximum length." Placers with two holes on each side and a dowel in the middle are used to adjust the different width sizes. The placers go over the width preference desired, and the dowels on the main board go through the two holes. Separate placers with holes are also used to adjust for leveling.

This means that the main board has to be very solid. This coming week, i am experimenting and investigating what type of materials to use to attain stability in the next prototype.

First Prototype

This week, i focused on how to make my first prototype come to reality using a laser cutter, a saw and some wood/wood pieces. I got this piece of wood (see image 1) from the Maker's club, which i decided to use for my first prototype. After the first couple of preliminary sketches, I settled to make the first prototype out of wood as it is much steadier than cardboard or paper. I initially drew the area i wanted to cut out of the piece of wood to create an opening where the knitted yarn would feed through as the pattern was being created.
Image 1 with marked dimension of cut out.





Using the laser cutter, i marked this area on corel draw to be cut out and also the small cut outs that were to be made on each side of the board, including the upper and bottom corners. (See image below to review original sketch on illustrator).






After cutting out the marked area of the wood, the laser cutter was also used to cut the small markings on each side of the wood and at the upper and bottom sides. (See image below)

As can be seen here, the wood has a cut out in the middle, (the cut out is about 1.5 inches away from the edge of the wood, the dowels are exactly 1 inch away from each other) the little cut outs have been made on each side of the wood and at the upper and bottom sides.



At this point, the pieces of dowel were inserted into the grooves but i soon noticed that they were not snug enough. Knitting on an unsteady board could lead to faulty patterns and could make knitting very frustrating. Because of this, i decided to use wood glue to secure the dowels.













The result look like this
Result of first prototype (cut out with pins inserted) and ready for first trial of knitting!












Initially, i did the knitting with a piece of elastic string which was not only difficult but kept slipping of the inserted dowels. Right then and there i discovered my very first iteration, that the next prototype has to include and the edge of the dowels a form of stoppage that helps the yarn stay onto the the knitting board. The image can be seen below.
At this point it is hard to see the pattern because i am using elastic cord. The next examples and trial will be with real yarn.

Where to Start?

Over the past few months, i have been thinking about an old past time of mine. Something i used to do when i was a kid. Between the ages of 10 and 14, in my life skills class, we were each asked to take up a hobby that would allow us to be creative. I took up knitting! My beginning knitting experience was very basic and consisted of knitting simple strips of material that i then joined together with needle and thread to construct larger pieces and interesting shapes. I began knitting with the basic two knitting needles and yarn. (See Image 1 below). However, this type of knitting was very slow for me and i often wondered how i could knit scarves faster and better, a way to maximize the time and energy i was using to knit scarves.

I am not quiet sure but i was introduced to a knitting board sometime during my teenage years. Knitting boards made knitting scarves faster and more fun. My memory and curiosity about knitting boards has led me to this blog.

Knitting looms, and boards have been used during the middle ages in France, Germany and other parts of Europe where the weather is chilly and thus the necessity of hand made wool fabrics has been essential. They can be used to knit caps, scarves, blankets, bags etc. There are also three main types of looms, round, rake and the knitting board. The round loom can be any shape, circular or triangular. The rake works the same as you would for a round loom except the rake is a single line and there is a starting and ending point to knitting. Lastly, the knitting board, or at least the one i am trying to recreate and detail the development in this blog is a board with two parallel rakes used together to knit across. The reason why i am interested in the knitting board is because it allows one to create double knit fabric.

This blog will serve as a sort of journal or workbook that details my journey on my recreation of a knitting board from memory. I am working on an independent study basis with Professor Paulo Blikstein at Stanford University's Maker's Club. Below are some of the first sketches that illustrate my vision for the knitting board. First Step, Sketching and Prototyping!

SKETCHES

IMAGE 1 First Sketch














IMAGE 2 Second Sketch
My best attempt at a three dimensional drawing











Illustrator drawing and Markup