Knitting by computer? Wondered the LA Times in 1987, reporting from the Consumer Electronics Show and mentioning how Japanese video game maker Nintendo had displayed a rather bizarre system that consisted in draping yarn across a loom-like device that, interacting with the NES, allowed users to automatically knit pieces with intricate patterns.
The flyer advertising the system announced "Now you're knitting with power", explaining that the machine was capable of making sweaters.
Unfortunately, the device was never released and the project was soon abandoned.
It is currently unlikely the Nintendo Knitting Machine will ever be resumed: I contacted via email Nintendo Japan in March 2014 and they kindly replied they are not considering developing a new knitting device at the moment.
This is a bit of a shame, though, as there would probably be designers and knitting enthusiasts interested in such a device.
The knitting application wasn't the only project that linked video-games to crafts: the Mario Family cartridge for Nintendo Game Boy Color (released in August 2001 only in Japan) was for example developed to function with a sewing and embroidering machine manufactured by Jaguar, the JN-100 (released in 2000).
The machine received instructions from the Game Boy Color and with these instructions it would embroider special designs onto fabric.
Shortly afterwards, Kirby Family - a collection of 32 pre-set patterns forming the characters from the Kirby series - was developed by HAL Laboratory. The successor of Mario Family, Kirby Family never saw the light.
There is currently an interest in video-game graphics and patterns in fashion: while some designers and artists such as Nukeme have been hacking knitting machines, or developing the possibilities of neuro knitting, others have been integrating images inspired or borrowed from video games into their pieces.
Nelson-Blackle - winner of this year's Hong Kong's Young Designer Contest (and celebrated today during a special Sunday event at Hong Kong's Design Market @ PMQ) - showcased in February a highly creative menswear collection that included Pacman-shaped capes, knits with motifs of animated clouds and One Up symbols directly borrowed from the semantics of video games printed on shirts and trousers (not to mention the Game Boy cap...).
Maybe Nintendo should ponder a bit about the company's decision to kill too soon its dreams of developing a knitting machine and launch a more modern and updated version of this device that could allow designers and knitting enthusiasts to come up with designs incorporating pre-defined graphic patterns or create and customise their own characters and textures. (With many thanks to my video games obsessed nephews for inspiring me this post...).
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