Kniterate: Like a 3-D Printer for Knitwear

If you’ve ever used a knitting machine designed for home use you know how laborious it can be. You still have to do a lot of the work by hand, such as ribbing, increasing and decreasing, and of course all the pieces of a garment would have to sewn together once the knitting was done.

Industrial knitting machines can do all that automatically, but they’re much too large and expensive for home use. Brother used to make electronic knitting machines for home use that some people have hacked in really cool ways, but there’s not a good option for people who want to use knitting machines at home that are more automated than the currently available models.

That may change with the advent of Kniterate, an automated knitting machine that will use more industrial needles and software to allow for more professional and varied knitwear design for home use and maker spaces. A report on Make talks about how the machine might work, as a purchased unit possibly with open-source programming and the ability to share patterns among users.

The machine is likened to a 3-D printer in the way it might revolutionize knitwear production for hobbyists and making protoypes. It sounds really cool and will be interesting to see how it all works out.

[Photo via Make.]

When I discovered Kate Atherley’s book Circular Knitting for Beginners and Beyond, I wasn’t sure there was enough to say about circular knitting to fill a book. It’s a pretty short book (144 pages) and includes 10 patterns to practice working in the round on small projects, and it provides a decent introduction to the various ways of working in the round.

The book covers using double pointed knitting needles, flexible double points and circular knitting needles with cables. It talks about working using the full circumference of a circular needle and various ways to work smaller circumference projects, such as using DPNs, magic loop and knitting with two circular knitting needles.

In addition there’s a discussion of preventing problems like twists and ladders, swatching in the round without actually swatching in the round, grafting, blocking and weaving in ends.

More specialized techniques likes knitting from the center out, stranded colorwork, helical knitting and jogless stripes are also explored, as well as working pieces like socks or mitts two at a time.

There’s also some information about seamless sweaters, including the different sweater designs that can be worked seamlessly (and why you might want seams in your sweaters) and how they are worked from the top down or the bottom up.

There are 10 patterns in the book, including a basic stockinette stitch cowl and one with a deliberate twist, wrist warmers, mitts and a pair of colorwork mittens, a hat worked in a solid color or in helical stripes, toe up and top down socks and a beret. It would have been nice to have a basic sweater pattern, too, since the book does talk about working larger garments with circular needles, but it’s still a nice collection of basic patterns worked in the round.

If you’re already comfortable working in the round in different ways, I’m not sure there’s much for you to learn in this book, but it is a good reference for people learning circular knitting or who maybe haven’t tried all the techniques yet or need skill building projects to try.

About the book: 144 pages, paperback, 10 patterns. Published 2026 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.

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