Knitting Successfully

After threading up the alpaca yarn, we began knitting. However, it took several tries to successfully knit a sample that we programmed during class. First, a technical yarn broke. Technical yarns are not part of the finished fabric, but due to the nature of machine knitting, there are some pre-programmed starts that are utilized to get the fabric started. The second run resulted in an error because the speed at which the fabric was pulled down, was too fast for this natural animal yarn, something that we needed to adjust. On the third run, one needle latch got stuck and no longer knitted correctly. All three runs resulted in an aborted run, clean up and troubleshooting until we finally got it right the fourth time. We successfully machine knitted the Jacquard sample! What a triumph! On to knitting new programs.

We will continue to run samples during the development phase until we are pleased with the results. Once a program is adjusted to run smoothly repeatedly, the machine can go into production and knit as long as the power stays on.