Wednesday 21 November 2012

Unknitting the Unravelled Sleeve of Care


A 22-year old student, Imogen Hedges of London's Kingston University, has invented a machine to ravel knitting and wind the yarn into skeins for re-use. I do have my doubts about how much time this unknitting machine would actually save. I've ripped out a number of sweaters and, when you do it, you do often hit tangles that would have to be undone manually, such as the joins where one ball or skein ends and another begins, or where the yarn just meshes to itself. And the knitted piece that is being ravelled out is almost certainly not going to cooperate by sitting still in one place on its little counter as it shows in the picture. That said, the machine, which is made out of a bicycle, is a very clever contraption and a lot of fun to watch in action, and its facility for steaming the yarn as it winds it is genius.

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