Image to Knitting Machine software version 2

The first version of the front-end software was to make it quicker and easier for me to knit samples for visitors at Maker Faire using a scanner as the source of the images. Now that Maker is over, I have had  chance to get my first beta tester to run the software. Aunty Marion was the willing volunteer. Marion would ideally like to be able to knit pictures, that her grand-children have drawn, using a Brother 970. We haven't quite worked out the difference between the 950i and the 970, but luckily Marion has a 950i as well.

The software was quickly installed and set-up. We ran through how to use the software, and several usability issues became obvious. These were quickly resolved by a few changes to the wording on the buttons on the application, and re-organizing the buttons. Here is a screenshot of the new layout:

The improved software is available now on my website.

In other news, I had a marvelous find on eBay: a Chad Valley Knit-o-matic. It needed a really good thorough strip-down, clean and oil, but when it was back together, I was quite impressed by the knitting that I could achieve on it. Looking forward to more playing to see if I can make up the patterns that are included in the box.

 
Added to the To-Do list: make a clear-plastic and wooden version of the Knit-o-matic that I can show clearly how the needles move when doing basic knit stitches. Will be a fabulous hands-on demonstration piece to take to events.

Looking forward to Knit In Public events next Saturday. 

User-friendly front-end for Brother 950i

At Maker Faire (UK) 2013 in Newcastle, I had a stand set up with a Brother 950i knitting machine, a scanner, a laptop, and a large pile of paper, chunky markers and pens. Visitors to the show could draw a picture, then scan it in to the laptop, convert it in to a knitting pattern, that I then knit on the machine.

To speed up the process, I wrote a little desktop app that loaded the latest image from the scanner, converted the image, then loaded the disk emulator with the output disk image. If you would like to have a play, then please do. It is a work in progress and makes some assumptions.

You can read more, and download the software, at Front-end for Brother patterns.

Screenshot from Scanner to Knitting Machine software