Abstract

Knitting is culturally embedded within our society and wardrobes; it takes the form of the craft object to the avant-garde garment. It has a duality of making that of hand and machine, which parted ways at the onset of the European industrial revolution in the sixteenth century. In the last twenty years the machined has come full circle back to its craft roots, with the capability to produce objects on "the round" through seamless knitwear technology. Seamless knitwear technology is a product of a postmodern, technologically based society, enabling the mass production of knitted garments producing no waste and requiring little post production finishing. This unique design capability of being able to produce a three dimensional garment with no seams has been questioned as being too limited in design scope. The ubiquitous nature of the design outputs is the focus of this practice based research. This paper outlines an experimental design practice which asks if it is possible to create knitwear which takes the form of an individualist design output, utilizing the standardization that is inbuilt into seamless knitwear technology. This paper concerns the move from two dimensional design to three dimensional design thinking through the production mode of seamless knitwear.