The reason is that the scarves in the online shop look very tight and possibly created by something else. There is nothing that would prevent the seller from doing this legitimately if that is the case, because Wind Knitting Factory may just be the brand.
I’d like to think the scarves in their online shop are fully knitted by the wind, though.
As an off-topic observation, whenever I see something like the phrase “operates between the public and the private space” I immediately think: this person definitely went to art school :P
This is a great idea .. I wonder if it can be adapted to using recycled plastic threads, so that a fleet of these could be deployed into the ocean to recover plastics, turn them into nets, and use those nets to .. recover more plastic?
If I were shipwrecked on a tropical island, I'd make it my daily task to work out how to build something like this, into which I can feed plastic bottles, and get a brand new material that could be used for more construction.
Sure, knitting scarves is neat. But knitting a weather-proof shelter? Hell yeah!
To recycle plastic, the only viable way is to melt it. And the plastic must be very clean before it can be remelted. If it even is a kind of plastic that can be reheated multiple times. I am afraid the short answer is no.
In the context of ocean plastic recovery/harvesting, I don't know that the purity is all that important - the more important factor is, collection. Being able to take plastic bottles and turn them into a kind of string, for example, seems more viable - if a hopper could be designed which takes a plastic bottle, rotates it around a stripping knife, and the output is a long twine - this could then be fed into the knitting machine.
I imagine this rube-goldberg'esque strandebeest-like contraption sitting out there harvesting wind and waves, slowly turning every bottle it gorges on into a finely woven matte of materials .. maybe even reproducing itself, who knows ..
EDIT: I asked Grok to design a self-replicating ocean weaver, and I have to say .. it seems like a viable idea to me. Perhaps we will see this kind of plastic harvesting in the near future .. at the very least, were I to be stranded on a plastic-laden island, I'm pretty sure I could work out a way to build a raft with sails ..
I spent a couple of days building staircases inside a rope factory, kinda thing that I would just add a glass wall and put in a coffee shop, it's an odd thing to watch something solid materialise out of a intricate repetitive motion that happens ever so slightly faster that you can track.
different rig than the wind knitter but both I think are clasified as braiders
I'm curious about how you 'harvest' a section of tube without it unraveling.
Maybe cut it around, remove the little bits of yarn, then unravel a ways on purpose, and knit the unraveled yarn through the edge like a normal bind-off?
Thread a flexible needle (usually called "circular") or a wire through a full row near the cut, unravel the remaining rows, then take a fine crochet hook to chain the loops together.
Or just hem it, but that doesn't look like what she does.
Circular knitting typically uses a technique called "grafting" or "Kitchener stitch" to close tubes seamlessly without unraveling - you'd temporarily secure stitches on holders, cut one strand, then use a tapestry needle to mimic the path of the yarn through the live stitches.
He retired the format a few years ago. Now he just does game shows and random projects with his friends, which...fair enough, that's what I'd do with a pile of passive YouTube income.
I doubt it would be difficult to make. You can buy the knitting machine on amazon. They usually have a handle you can crank unless it is electric. Just attach a turbine to the handle.
I’d like to see a video of the full process.
The reason is that the scarves in the online shop look very tight and possibly created by something else. There is nothing that would prevent the seller from doing this legitimately if that is the case, because Wind Knitting Factory may just be the brand.
I’d like to think the scarves in their online shop are fully knitted by the wind, though.
“Every scarf gets a label which tells you the time and the date on which the wind made the scarf.”
I think it’s real.
Most recent archive of the website: https://web.archive.org/web/20250614200747/https://www.merel...
Beautiful work.
As an off-topic observation, whenever I see something like the phrase “operates between the public and the private space” I immediately think: this person definitely went to art school :P
Oh that device should look familiar to fans of Hand Tool Rescue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOCNaHMo2EI
This is a great idea .. I wonder if it can be adapted to using recycled plastic threads, so that a fleet of these could be deployed into the ocean to recover plastics, turn them into nets, and use those nets to .. recover more plastic?
If I were shipwrecked on a tropical island, I'd make it my daily task to work out how to build something like this, into which I can feed plastic bottles, and get a brand new material that could be used for more construction.
Sure, knitting scarves is neat. But knitting a weather-proof shelter? Hell yeah!
To recycle plastic, the only viable way is to melt it. And the plastic must be very clean before it can be remelted. If it even is a kind of plastic that can be reheated multiple times. I am afraid the short answer is no.
In the context of ocean plastic recovery/harvesting, I don't know that the purity is all that important - the more important factor is, collection. Being able to take plastic bottles and turn them into a kind of string, for example, seems more viable - if a hopper could be designed which takes a plastic bottle, rotates it around a stripping knife, and the output is a long twine - this could then be fed into the knitting machine.
I imagine this rube-goldberg'esque strandebeest-like contraption sitting out there harvesting wind and waves, slowly turning every bottle it gorges on into a finely woven matte of materials .. maybe even reproducing itself, who knows ..
EDIT: I asked Grok to design a self-replicating ocean weaver, and I have to say .. it seems like a viable idea to me. Perhaps we will see this kind of plastic harvesting in the near future .. at the very least, were I to be stranded on a plastic-laden island, I'm pretty sure I could work out a way to build a raft with sails ..
I spent a couple of days building staircases inside a rope factory, kinda thing that I would just add a glass wall and put in a coffee shop, it's an odd thing to watch something solid materialise out of a intricate repetitive motion that happens ever so slightly faster that you can track. different rig than the wind knitter but both I think are clasified as braiders
I'm curious about how you 'harvest' a section of tube without it unraveling.
Maybe cut it around, remove the little bits of yarn, then unravel a ways on purpose, and knit the unraveled yarn through the edge like a normal bind-off?
Take a look at the next T-shirt you put on. Or socks.
Thread a flexible needle (usually called "circular") or a wire through a full row near the cut, unravel the remaining rows, then take a fine crochet hook to chain the loops together.
Or just hem it, but that doesn't look like what she does.
Circular knitting typically uses a technique called "grafting" or "Kitchener stitch" to close tubes seamlessly without unraveling - you'd temporarily secure stitches on holders, cut one strand, then use a tapestry needle to mimic the path of the yarn through the live stitches.
They might be sergering the edges.
This is delightfully weird, I love projects like this.
Knitting is programming. Read a knitting pattern and it's low level programming - knitters do not get enough credit.
Same with weaving, especially the way symmetry is weft in.
Jaccard looms are too general, too unconstrained. I like shaft looms more gratifying. Their restrictions make it more interesting.
Then I have to advertise the work of my father: https://oliviermasson.art/en/4-publications
Oh WOW.
It is from some summary of your dad's book that I had understood how shaft looms work.
Such beautiful weaves and such a small world. Happy meeting you here.
A reissue of your dad's book would be wonderful.
By that logic any instructions is programming and everyone on earth are programmers.
Instructions to machines probably are. Instructions to humans aren't because humans interpret things themselves and exercise free will in execution.
Written knitting instructions would benefit from a bit of standardisation and a system for depicting unusual stitches.
I’m not sure that I’d say that it’s programming, but it is a pretty neat DSL
Sure, why not?
Sources say God is actually a software engineer
https://xkcd.com/224
To an extent, yes (to the first part). For instance, the list of events scheduled for a performance is called a program.
Is this something that can be seen in person?
I'm very disappointed there doesn't appear to be a Tom Scott video on this.
This! That would be awesomesauce. I haven't seen his videos in a while.
He retired the format a few years ago. Now he just does game shows and random projects with his friends, which...fair enough, that's what I'd do with a pile of passive YouTube income.
He retired: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DKv5H5Frt0
Is anyone else disappointed that you can't buy the wind-knitting device itself, only scarves knitted from the device? :)
I doubt it would be difficult to make. You can buy the knitting machine on amazon. They usually have a handle you can crank unless it is electric. Just attach a turbine to the handle.
I missed the (obvious) context and imagined an aircraft engine turbine attached.
you could, but the (original) website is from 2009...so probably not enough interest to keep that up. The old link is dead: https://windknittingfactory.bigcartel.com/
I'm disappointed it doesn't make socks.
Every HNer knows your startup needs to maintain a moat /s