Suedwolle Group is building on an existing cooperation for its Suedwebs Innovation Hub and has announced its collaboration with Knitwear Lab, the Dutch design and development centre. The partnership brings together Knitwear Lab’s knitting expertise with the yarn producer’s expertise in production of high-quality Merino yarns, and the results are the physical and virtual garments showcased recently at Pitti Filati in Florence.

The dress is a fully fashioned garment, knitted in 14 gauge, with a knit structure in a plated rib with a transition into wide floats. The design creates extra width by generating stitches and dropping them off, employing a multi-stepping narrowing technique to achieve extremely narrow angles. The dress is crafted from Merino wool from the Biella Yarn collection by Suedwolle Group, using a 1x Nm 2/48 and 1x Nm 2/48 yarn (two colours plated together).

The jacket - a fully fashioned garment, knitted in 7 gauge (E7.2-gauge machine), created in a 3-dimensional structure with double jersey flaps on the single jersey base, manipulated through a multigauge technique. The flaps are longer and shorter. The interlock flaps, varying in length, push themselves down without the need for takedown force. This innovative garment is made from Nm 2/30 Merino wool from the Biella Yarn collection by Suedwolle Group, with each of the four colours plated with 2 plies of TPU. This combination allows manipulation of the waviness of the flaps.

The biggest challenge in the digital knitwear is accurate visualisation of the complex structures, yarns and physics in the virtual realm. However, early adoption allows to identify and address the difficulties that might appear while product development.

Knitwear Lab ensures with its workflow that the virtual knit is connected to the materials and their specifications, allowing for previewing yarn choices, structures, and placements before knitting actual samples. This saves both time and materials, a crucial aspect of efficient product development.

The digital textures are created in open-source format, making them accessible to any 3D modelling software. This flexibility allows the designer to adjust, design, and experiment extensively within the digital realm, no longer depending on knitwear technicians to translate their visions, Suedwolle says.

Looking ahead, the future of Virtual Knitting is promising, the company adds. As the technology advances, more accurate visualisations and seamless integrations between physical and digital product are possible, offering unprecedented possibilities for innovation in the fashion industry. For further information, click here.

Suedwolle Group is a global producer of worsted spun yarn in pure wool and wool blends for weaving, circular, flat knitting and technical applications. The company’s collections Suedwolle, Biella Yarn, Yarn in Motion, Richter, Stoehr and Soey

are focused on different segments of the global textile market. Located in the Nuremberg metropolitan area of Germany, Suedwolle Group employs more than 3000 people globally with production facilities in Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania,

Bulgaria, China and Vietnam. Sustainable excellence in all its dimensions is a philosophy that drives the organisation’s operations, planning and investment actions.

www.suedwollegroup.com