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