It ’s not often that we get to verbalise about engineering and knitting in the same sentence . ButMerel Karhof , a Dutch - by - fashion - of - London couturier , is an expert in both .
You might think Karhof from her 2010 project , theWind Knitting Factory , a knitting automobile power by a small aerogenerator . Built entirely from scratch , Karhof ’s the four - foot - wide manufacturing plant leveraged the wind to power a small , circular loom , which moil out scarves and material with a tranquil mechanical fastness . Karhof “ harvesting ” the fabric every day or two ( bet on the weather ) and sells them on her web site — along with a tag that indicates how long it demand to knit .
This hebdomad Karhof unveiledWindworks , a project that takes her ideas about wind power one footmark further . turn up at a coastal milling machinery in her native Holland , the installation bring forth furniture that ’s cut off , dye , and knit with “ a free and unlimited energy source ; the wind . ” How does it work ? First , the Sir Henry Joseph Wood for the chair is cut by a wind - powered sawmill . Then , the fleece is dyed using pigments reason at a colour manufacturing plant nearby . in conclusion , Karhof ’s knitting windmill turns the fleece into pastel - colored cushions for the wooden furniture , along with scarf and pillow that visitors can buy at a dockside kiosk next door . “ Every scarf joint get a label that tells the time and engagement on which the idle words crumple the scarf , ” Karhof explain . “ This mobile wind manufacturing plant exemplify a yield process and it visualizes what you could bring forth with the present urban wind . ”
We ’ve talked plenty about craftspeople leverage solar power . But wind power , arguably the first energy generator human race figure out how to harness ( after fire ) , has n’t really boast at the private scale , probably because wind major power is heavy to predict and modulate . That ’s where Karhof ’s engineering chop really shine : her new air current machine includes a hinge streamer gadget that turns the machine out from the wind when it gets too tight . That agency , it can shut itself down without getting overloaded — making Windworks almost entirely autonomous .
DesignKnitting
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