Wednesday, August 10, 2005

They think of everything



What do you think this is?

An English design graduate has created a device to help knitters keep track of the number of stitches they have knitted.
Rebecca Spender's "KnitWit" device automatically counts the number of stitches in each row by detecting the movement of the knitting needles.

The project was her final-year assignment for a product design degree at Brunel University in west London.

Inspired by her grandmother and aunt, both of whom are keen knitters, Spender wanted to create something to help eliminate mistakes, which can ruin a design.

The knitting needles are fitted with a tiny 5mm x 5mm "accelerometer" motion sensor chip, which uses the Earth's gravity to monitor the tilt or angle of the needles.

Manual counters currently on the market can monitor the number of rows knitted but because a button has to be reset after a row is complete, the knitter can forget and the device becomes useless.

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