Knitting… in the FUTURE.

Do you remember when we all thought that by the year 2000 everything would look totally different?

In reality, of course, most things don’t change very quickly, except for that one thing coming out of left field that nobody expected and which revolutionalize the world. (She says, as she types a post about knitting into her BLOG.) To say that I enjoyed reading your wonderful guesses about how things would change and how things would stay the same is quite an understatement. Some of my favorite ‘seems likely’ comments? Blogless Diane suggests:

In the future your LYS will have a 3-D scanner to record your measurements and tell you how much yarn you’ll need for a certain pattern. You’ll be able to type in the pattern you’re considering and a screen will show you what the piece will look like on your body. Type in the yarn you like and the screen will show that pattern in the yarn you’ve selected. Add different amounts of ease, waist shaping, different collars and sleeves – ooh, I’m in love with this idea!

Blogless Rachel has a great point about fibers:

Knitting…in the FUTURE! As an astute commenter pointed out above, it will still just be sticks and string – I don’t think the act of knitting will change too much in the future, but rather the instruments and accoutrements. And I do look forward to the fibers of the future – who would have even guessed that in 2010 we would be knitting with steel, corn, milk and more – what will the future bring? Knitting with broccoli fibers? Diamonds? Recycled tires? Can’t wait!

Julie shares a great thought, too:

My other prediction: handknitted garments in beautiful yarns will become an even more valuable antidote to industrial-made, crappy-ass fiber clothing. I don’t even look at commercial sweaters anymore. I’ll just knit my own, thank you very much, in colors, sizes, and fibers that fit me and my personality.

While I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of these really thought-provoking guesses about the future of knitting, being a smart-ass at heart I also had a lot of fun with the more far-out suggestions. Jennybookworm’s:

Knitting in the future will include clever needles who will tell me when I drop a stitch and some kind of cool scanner that will let me know early on that a project will be too big/small/ugly!

Specs shared quite possibly the scariest future I can imagine:

Sentient yarn.

And finally, for a lovely little thought reminiscent of Philip K. Dick, Claire posits:

Knitting in the future: we’ll be able to sketch a design on an integrated pad that will have our current dimensions stored, which will be automatically adjusted to be most flattering in shape and fit, then we can design to order the fiber blend, spin and color and order it all up to be delivered through pneumatic tubes. (everything is delivered that way, no one can go outdoors because the air is poisonous)

A little bit of awesome wrapped up in the way we’ll likely doom ourselves. Perfect. I hope you enjoyed reading the comments as much as I did! As for the winner, the random number generator has spoken and blogless Page will be getting a signed copy of Knitting it Old School for her comment:

Maybe knitting patterns of the future will be adaptable for adjustments like your fit to flatter series suggests. You tell it about your body shape and it does the math/revisions for you! Well, a girl can dream…Congrats on the pattern. It looks like a really neat book.

Seems kind of fitting, no? Congratulations, Page! I got your address and will send the book on its way today.

And since I’m loathe to have a post without any pictures at all, how about a shot of some gorgeous Osprey I’m working up for Rhinebeck? The color is “Frank’s Plum” and the yarn is incredible.

(Yup, you read correctly–I’m enjoying aran weight! Maybe the future will be different.)

6 thoughts on “Knitting… in the FUTURE.

  1. ooh, rhinebeck! i’m going this year–my first time. i will keep an eye out for you in your purple sweater 🙂

    great comments. i love knitters.

  2. So much to consider in the thought provoking comments of future knitting. So much has changed since I started knitting (in 1974), but since 2000 the changes have been dramatic, including the number of younger knitters on the scene. It’s great in every way!!!

  3. Thanks for posting my comment! I feel totally famous! 🙂

  4. I enjoyed reading about knitting in the future, it would be great to have a pattern that adjusts itself automatically to suit your own body shape. In the future I think you’ll be able to type in the name of your pattern and it will download onto your iphone ready to go, complete with alerts and pattern repeats.
    I think that the patterns we knit now will become incredibly valuable as they turn into vintage knits.

  5. […] kad smo vec kod razmisljanja o pletenju, KnitStashRepeat ima zanimljiv post o Knitting in the Future […]

  6. Oooooh – “Blogless Diane.” I feel so, so. . . blogless.

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