This project places itself in the field of textile design within flat knitting textiles intended as prototypes for interactive textiles with multifunctional purposes and aesthetics. The purpose of the project is to suggest alternative design solutions towards knitted textiles in the field of sportswear that not only acts as a second skin both in terms of appearance and functionality, as well as aesthetic details once the knit interacts with a moving body. The aim of the project, but also offers visual and contrasting functions such as expandability, rigidness and stretch, as well as creating aesthetic details caused by movement of the human body. The design process was conducted in experimental knitting on both industrial and domestic knitting machines, workshops entailing the relation between the knits and the body as well as technically developing the proper bindings to work in unity. Analysis of the knits were made which led to the solely use of these bindings: rib, spacer, links links, ripple and mesh. The outcome of the projects resulted in four knitted textile prototypes, where one of them is designed as a product in the shape of a top, and the others as knitted fabrics each representing two opposing functions. The conclusion drawn in retrospect of this project that by placing opposing bindings parallel, such ripple and links links, it is possible to achieve two opposing functions as well as different visual perception within the same area of a knitted piece.

Balls Form Knit explores the relationship between spherical objects as a filling material and knit to design transformable objects that offer an alternative perspective on what anatomical support can be, based on bold interaction. The expressive possibilities of weft knitting have been investigated from the perspective of generating form using the tension created by the filling. The elevation of the textile and fillings role from passive to active within the context of seating objects has been the starting point for this work. Both filling and knit have been worked with simultaneously to let them contribute to the expression of the design and let the meeting between their properties influence the form and the way an audience interacts with the objects. As a final result, the collection consisting of six textile objects presents ways in which different knit techniques and filling can be combined to create transformable objects that offer different interactions and supports for the body. Balls Form Knit engages the user to interact and be playful while finding support in a way that is intuitive and accessible.

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In this project a collection of clothing, based on the handicraft of knitting and crocheting, has been developed. Today most garments are produced on industrial machines, cheaply, fast and with a low quality. An alternative to this is slow fashion which aims for long-lasting, locally manufactured clothing, primarily made from sustainably sourced fair-trade fabrics. The aim of this project is to raise awareness of slow fashion by working with the handicraft of knitting and crochet. The work has a slow process of making, and the items are carefully made by hand which raises the value of the garments and is a more sustainable way of using the materials.  Traditional flat pattern construction is based on symmetrical squares and vertical and horizontal lines. This work's construction is based on diagonal lines around the women's body, as a suggestion that it fits the knitted fabric property and the women's body better. Design decisions were made by looking at renaissance fashion and paintings. To highlight an older way of making fashion and to push the expression in knitwear and show the potential in the craft.

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This work positions itself within the field of non-woven material design in a light and interior context. The aim of KNIT-NET is to design watermarks for papermaking through knitted textile structures. Watermarks are conventionally produced by creating a variation in the thickness of the paper fibres during the wet-paper phase of papermaking. This design is clearly visible when the paper is held up to a light source. Usually weaving techniques are used in order to filter out the water from the cellulosic pulp. Prior knowledge of plant fibre papermaking and traditional watermarking techniques was during the summer 2020. Subsequently, the ideas to explore the project further were raised during this degree project. The primary motive is to find other ways to produce water markings and texturizing to non-woven materials, by investigating knitted surfaces and yarns that will be functional in a wet process in papermaking. The material should provide organic structure and shaded pattern to the non-woven cellulosic textiles. Several cellulosic fibres were explored during this study; long staple cotton and sisal hemp fibres were the final materials of choice. The fibres were boiled and beaten into pulp, then applied on top of the knitted net designs in order to shape the paper sheets. The various knitted structures guided the choice of fibres, since the textiles affected the material properties and aesthetics of the final paper designs. The result is a collection of paper artefacts that visualise the value of non-woven paper material in an interior and light context. The muted colours becomes more visible and stronger when light is shining through. The knitted structures, in combination with the opaque and transparent cellulosic fibres, are perceived differently depending on the source of light, the direction of the light, as well as what time in the day. KNIT-NET is also a contribution to the method of utilising knitted textile structures to design watermarks for papermaking

In a dialogue with Catherine Dormor’s book, A Philosophy of Textile (2020), this paper argues that knitting has a unique position in the sphere of textile. To understand the technique as both practice and theory is not only to acknowledge its potency as expression and reflection, but also to perceive textile in a broader perspective. Starting with the article Offset, Buch- und Werbekunst (Offset, Printing, and Commercial Art) written by one of the key figures of the Bauhaus weaving workshop, Gunta Stölzl in 1926, I outline the historical context, and justify the significance of my research. Employing the concept—championed by the artist/psychoanalyst Bracha L. Ettinger—, the Matrix, in particular together with (Inter)relationship, Techne as Dormor suggests, I navigate knitting in general as well as my own practice. By closely inspecting knitting as a mode of both making and thinking, this paper proves that knitting has a capacity to embody multiple layers of time and space, and by doing so, becomes a meaning-making device whose production questions, challenges and overturns hierarchical and binaristic modes of thinking.

Complete garment knitting technology is a method of producing knitted products, generally fashion garments, ready-made directly in the knitting machine without additional operations such as cutting and sewing. This makes it possible to manufacture a knitted fashion garment with fewer processes then with conventional production methods. In the fashion business customer demand is always changing due to fashion trends, so to be able to manufacture and deliver products rapidly is important. Mass customisation is a customer co-design process of products and services that tries to meets the needs of an individual customer’s demand for certain product features. In the fashion business this means that the customer can order a garment with a customised style, colour, size, and other personal preferences. The principal objective of this dissertation was to examine if and how complete garment technology can be applied to the customisation of knitted fashion products. It was pursued through several independent studies in knitting technology, mass customisation, and fashion logistics against a theoretical frame of reference in these areas. The papers in this thesis present various examples of how knitted fashion garments can be customised and integrated into fashion retailing concepts. The starting point of the research was the Knit-on-Demand research project conducted at the Swedish School of Textiles in collaboration with a knitting manufacturing and retailing company. The aim was to develop a shop concept built on the complete garment technology where a garment could be customised, produced, and delivered as quickly as possible. This initial idea failed due to the expense of investing in complete garment knitting technology, and so other avenues of research had to be found. The Knit-on-Demand project continued, using a business model similar to the complete garment concept but with the retail store and the production unit situated in different locations. The overall research question addressed in this thesis is: How can complete garment knitting technology be applied in a retail concept for customised garments? This question is then divided in two problems: What are the fashion logistics effects of combining complete garment technology and mass customisation? How does the co-design process function in the customisation of knitted fashion garments?The following is a qualitative study based on five research articles applying different research methodologies: case studies, simulations, and interviews. The empirical context is the area of mass customisation of fashion products and knitting technology, more specifically called complete garment knitting production technology. No prior studies describing mass customisation of complete garment knitting technology in combination with fashion logistics were found in the literature. The main contribution of this study is the demonstration that complete garment knitting technology can be applied in the customisation of fashion products. It also illustrates the importance of the co-design process between the company and the customer through which a knitted garment can be customised, produced, and delivered to the customer in three to five hours. The process of co-design and manufacture of a customised complete fashion product is examined, and the advantages and disadvantages associated with customisation of knitted garments are identified and described.

The aim of this thesis is to examine interactivity in the context of performance-based interactive art. The questions asked are: what are the conditions of interactivity, how interactivity happens, and what artistic results it may yield. The method is an analysis based on close studies of three performance-based interactive artworks by applying theories of interactivity, audience participation, and collaboration. First, current theories are outlined, after which, the three artworks are introduced in detail. Next, the artworks are examined, thematically rather than individually, expanding on parameters such as the degree of artistic direction of the artwork, the degree of agency allowed to the spectator in their interaction with the work, and the idea of the “passive” spectator as being “activated” by interactive art. It is shown that the actualization of the interactive gesture inscribed within the work depends on the spectator’s subjectivity and obedience to said gesture. Thus, the conditions of the interaction are not decided by the work/artist alone, but also and equally, by the spectator. Consequently, the actualized interactivity may not immediately correspond with the (possible) authorial intent and may even be unexpected or "infelicitous." The problematic of the thesis falls within the scope of current discourse concerning the striving for interactivity between the work of art and its spectator/audience. While that discourse has often been focused on authorial intent or has implied an ideal spectator, this thesis points to the significance of subjectivity with regards to interactivity and thereby adds increased complexity to the concept of interactivity.

The principal purpose of this essay is to research how the development of needlework education interacts and interconnects with consumption patterns. Iceland has been used as a case for this study but any country would be applicable. The point of departure is the assumption that when a society develops more and more into being a consumer society, the needlework education also will change – in drastic forms. And that tracing a development towards consumerism can be traced in the curricula regarding this specific subject. People’s changing attitude towards spending, wasting, and an extravagant living is an important feature which explains the shift between non-consumer societies to a consumer society. Society’s outlook on these features is best reflected by that policy the institutions society uses to form its citizens’ desirable (consumer) behavior. In understanding the development from a non-consumerist society to a consumer society the study on the Icelandic syllabi for needlework and textile education plays a prominent part. A presentation on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the period of time in question has also been used in order to see the general increase of the standard of living and rise of consumerism in Iceland. Also numbers on trade and unemployment have been enclosed in order to give a more telling picture of the development and the results. The spatial imprint of the development of the Icelandic educational system and the development of syllabi for the textile handicraft subject show that an established consumer society firstly can be found in Iceland somewhere between 1960 and 1977, thus slightly ensuing the most immediate period after the World War II. A society that educates its young ones to darn, mend, and knit with the explicit motive to help deprived homes and states that this is a necessary virtue for future housewives cannot rightly be called a consumer society. It is also worth mentioning that the subject was after this breakthrough also available for boys. Furthermore, this seems to coincide with the so called “haftatímanum”, the restriction era, which lasted from 1930 to 1960. During this time the Icelandic government controlled the market having an especially harsh policy on the import of consumer goods, with product rationing as a result. Both of these two matters - the syllabi for the textile handicraft subject and the haftatímanum - had an anaesthetized impact on the development of the Icelandic consumer society.