Collaboration in textile technology thanks to 3D Robot Knitting Winter School
The second edition of the NewTexEco 3D Robot Knitting Winter School 2025 brought together textile professionals and students to explore the limits of advanced knitting technology. Participants had the unique opportunity to work with the advanced Shima Seiki WholeGarment 3D knitting machine. Special about this winter school is the diverse background of the participants, which allowed knitting technology to be approached from design, technology and materials.
Sustainable and technologically advanced textile production
Leslie Eisinger, lecturer-researcher at the Fashion Research & Technology lectureship, emphasises the importance of interdisciplinary cooperation: ‘We had students from different courses, including Fashion and Textile Technology (Saxion), N.I.O, Fashion and Design (AMFI), as well as a weaver from Enschede Textielstad and a researcher at TU Eindhoven. As a result, the NewTexEco 3D Robot Knitting Winter School not only offers hands-on experience with innovative textile technology. By bringing together students, researchers and professionals, the programme contributes to the further development of sustainable and technologically advanced textile production.’
Programming in SDS-One Apex 4 and knitting on the Mach2XS153 wholegarment knitting machine
Participants started by programming a knitted mini jumper themselves. They then experimented in teams with materials and the technology, resulting in two community jumpers called Onkruid (Weeds) and E.N.T.
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Community jumper: Onkruid
Esra Sariyürek (Enschede Textiel Stad), Kristina Andersen (researcher at TU Eindhoven), Erika Butcaru (Design student AMFI) made the jumper Onkruid. They used traditional weaving and embroidery patterns in their experiment and noticed that these produced a difference in stretchability, which they used in the fabrication of the jumper. The sleeves and waist are stretchy and close to the body, the upper body and shoulders fall generously and allow for growth.
Community jumper: E.N.T.
The jumper titled “E.N.T.” by Emma van der Herk (AMFI knitting assistant), Nina Schilthuis (Saxion student) and Tirza Brems (from our partner New Industrial Order) is inspired by their own knitting knowledge. They applied their theoretical knowledge to the jumper. Tirza loaded her own signature designs from bitmap into the jumper. And Nina and Emma worked out the theory of billowing knitting stitches together. This jumper also makes clever use of stitch density and tells the story of their group.
This successful implementation of the 3D Robot Knitting Winter School, by bringing together students, researchers and professionals, contributes to the further development of sustainable and technologically advanced textile production.
More about sustainability and fashion
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You might also find this article interesting: Keeping it Local, With a mix of traditional and computer-generated patterns, these jumpers tell about life in Amsterdam and the future of fishing, the fashion industry, ICT and cultural heritage anno 2023.
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