May 2, 2022 was a small knitting tutorial given by Hsiang-Lin Kuo at her studio. Even though I knew how to use the single-bed manual knitting machine, double-bed knitting machine is a little bit more sophisticated and extra functionalities. The distance between the upper and lower bed can adjust the size of each knit. The relative position between the upper bed and the lower bed will allow the knitter to create a tilted fabric without manually increasing and decreasing knits on each side. Also the fabric become double thickness because the upper and the lower bed are creating purls in the opposite directions, meaning: knit side out, and purl side in. This creates an even force in the front and the back, so the sample doesn’t curl. Also, choosing to knit only the upper bed in one direction and the lower bed in the other direction, will create a tube. (Circular knitting). However, because the knitted piece will be in between the two beds, it’s harder to do manual manipulations such as inlaid (e.g. e-wrap another fancy yarn on to the current knitted parts.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We also briefly discussed about the freedom of manipulation when connected to a punch card system. When knitting without a punch card system, the needles are being manipulated depending on its position (in silverred: B, C, D positions). When a punch card system is installed, all the needles will be in the B position, and only being pushed out when the carriage runs over the needle. Therefore, without looking at the punch card, the user do not know what the machine will do. Then what if the knitting instructions are real-time generated from a computer, what can the user do to manipulate the machine a part from pushing the carriage, changing the yarns?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One thing to ponder on is that when the needle is set in A position, it will not knit. And if the needle is holding a yarn loop already, then it will create a longer knit. Such as what’s showing in this video: <\/p>\n\n\n\n