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'pedal powered un-knitting machine' by imogen hedges
built around an old bicycle frame, london-based designer imogen hedges has developed a 'pedal powered un-knitting machine',
that unravels unwanted sweaters into wool. through the use of a series of components, the contraption reclaims the yarn, where at
the same time, straightens kinks by passing it through the stream of a kettle. after the garment has been fully disassembled, the by-product
is then rewound into a ball by using a hand-cranked spindle.
'pedal powered un-knitting machine'
video courtesy of rachel mccloskey

the system in action

hand-cranked re-winding process
think: Greenday
It’s a shame she couldn’t have taken a drive off the peddles to move the final bob to make the ball of wool, instead of having and extra little handle. Still, nice project!
I just pass the yarn under my iron and use either my chordless drill or my spindle spinning wheel to pull it from under the iron and onto a bobbin. I then use a lazy kate to wind it onto my ball winder.
UPDATE: I discovered that if I frog yarn into a hank that I can also simply iron the hank like it was any piece of cloth. I”m excited about this because previously I was wetting the hanks and hanging to dry to get the kinks out. Thanks for the inspiration of making a tedious task a lot more simple.