4)       Programming. The knitting machine technician's primary job is to program the knitting machine to knit the design produced by the designer, but to do so at a reasonable cost (in other words, as fast as possible while minimising problems and producing acceptable results). This requires a detailed knowledge of the capabilities of the knitting machine and the limitations of what can be achieved with a particular yarn, as well as competence with the CAD system. The most complex programs can take up to two weeks' work to develop. Programming knitting machines requires the same type of thinking as programming computers in assembler, especially in that one has to keep track of the states of a lot of different locations in the machine, and modify values and move them around as efficiently as possible. Before the advent of electronically controlled knitting machines, the programs for flat bed machines were implemented on rolls of two metre long metal punch cards; at this time the designers had no contact at all with the technology.

5)       Make Up. The final stage in the development of the garment is the production of a prototype, using the fabric produced by the program on the industrial knitting machine, which is done by the sampling make up staff (or sometimes the designer herself). This includes making cutting patterns for the pieces of a cut-and-sew garment, according to the specifications provided by the designer or the intended customer (usually a buyer for a retail chain). We omit discussion of the difficulties involved in this.

The development of a garment that is both an acceptable design and that can be produced at the right cost often involves a lot of backtracking. Almost all machine knitted garments are produced to strict price constraints, and the length of time a garment takes to knit is a major determinant of its cost. (The latest power machines can knit all sorts of fancy structures, but too slowly for them to be commercially viable.) So the technicians have to devise the most efficient programs possible, and tell designers if their designs aren't economic at particular price point. Designers often come up with stitch structures that cannot be knitted on an industrial machine, or that are too expensive to produce (that is, too slow or problematic to knit). Usually the technicians then work with the designers to reach a good compromise between cost and appearance. This can involve a lot of iteration, as can finding good ways to place patterns onto shapes. Because of the strong time constraints they work under, technicians sometimes make major modifications to the design without consulting the designer, without much concern for the appearance of the result.

The advent of knitting machines capable of producing much more complex stitch structures, combined with the development of CAD systems that designers can use (for only part of their work, and only if they get access to them) has created an overlap between the roles of designers and technicians that has never existed before.

The technicians we have talked to have invariably told us that their task would be made very much easier if the designers had a much greater understanding of power knitting machines and their CAD systems. The designers would then understood what was feasible and cheap and what was not, and could design accordingly. Experienced designers and technicians also comment that some technicians tell designers that something is impossible when it can be done, because they are too lazy to program it, and more technical knowledge would protect designers against this. We have also been told by many designers that they would like to have a much better understanding of the technology, but they are never properly trained either during their design courses or in their companies, and have very little access to CAD systems. The testimony of the technicians is compelling evidence that garments could be designed faster, if the large amount of iterative modification could be reduced by giving designers better training and more access to CAD systems, so they could develop designs they knew were feasible and cheap to a more advanced stage. If this is so, better garments could be produced if the time saved could be devoted to more careful refinement of detail and sizing. Some of this benefit should come from greater technical knowledge even without greater access to CAD systems. Later we discuss reasons why trying to improve the efficiency of the design process by giving designers more technical training is not unproblematic.

4. The Knitwear Industry

To provide a context for our discussion of the attitudes, social issues and economic factors involved in the organisation of the knitwear industry and its use of computer technology, we describe the different groups of workers in the industry. (A lot of this section is inapplicable to the very small companies owned and run by a designer; they are far too small to afford the expensive technology we are concerned with in this paper, so largely irrelevant to the issues we are discussing.)