Bike a scarf in five minutes or less
June 17, 2018 9:20 AM   Subscribe

The Cyclo Knitter is the perfect contraption for those cold waits at a train station when one has forgotten their book. Design student George Barratt-Jones's invention, a five minute stationary bike ride on the machine knits up a simple scarf to cozy in or give away. Watch the bike-scarf-er in action or read more about the design process and construction.

For those of us who can't bike, we'll make a matching accessory with the rocking chair that knits hats.

Others of us prefer the traditional methods: our hands, some needles, and amazing urban camouflage or loud and proud resistance knits.

Knitting is magic and art.
posted by hapaxes.legomenon (20 comments total) 56 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is fantastic
posted by latkes at 9:35 AM on June 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


Delightful, I'd miss my train to bike up a scarf! But I wonder how the machine binds off? Simple knitting machines can do an automatic cast-on which looks like crap but won't unravel, but I'm not aware of any simple binding-off technique that's automatic. It doesn't seem like they bind off by hand, with the machine way overhead like that. I see they tied the ends of the finished scarf into knots, so maybe that's the ravel-stopper?
posted by Quietgal at 9:55 AM on June 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


I love the promo poster! “Get hot to get warm” - this is a great post!
posted by hilaryjade at 10:06 AM on June 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


This is wonderful!
posted by Elly Vortex at 10:07 AM on June 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


Both the scarf-bike and hat-chair make creative use of circular knitting machines.

For me the scarf-bike stands out as excellent because it makes it possible to fabricate finished pieces under real-world circumstances with minimal technical work. Once the machine is cast-on, it looks like he uses a quick draw-in at the end to both start and bind off the scarves. I think it would work, and it has to be fairly simple because of the difficulty in reaching the machine.
posted by monopas at 10:07 AM on June 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


What a lovely contraption. A BYOBike version would be cool, and I suspect a motor and a solar panel will happen last week. Every time someone walked beside it with a big, wheeled suitcase, it made me think that condensing the structure to a custom metal frame attached to a collapsible bike might enable the whole thing to fit inside something similar to that suitcase.
posted by Revvy at 10:48 AM on June 17, 2018


Note: do not wear the scarf while on the bike. #isadoraduncan.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:07 AM on June 17, 2018 [5 favorites]


This is a great post and a great idea and I hope it comes a train station near me soon!
posted by Faintdreams at 11:40 AM on June 17, 2018


Cyclo Knitter
Qu'est-ce que c'est
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:57 AM on June 17, 2018 [28 favorites]


Way better than the Psycho Knitter
posted by ecorrocio at 1:10 PM on June 17, 2018 [3 favorites]


Oh that's delightful!
posted by calyirose at 1:21 PM on June 17, 2018


so the 4th Doctor is Tom Biker?
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:59 PM on June 17, 2018 [4 favorites]


That's really nice. I wanted to see more of the actual mechanism, but if I understand correctly it's likely the start and end are done manually?
posted by lucidium at 3:31 PM on June 17, 2018


I love this! The video is so charming.

I had the same question as Quietgal. I am sure anyone who knits by hand thought, "How did they bind off?"
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:34 PM on June 17, 2018


I have a knitter friend who bikes and I’m thrilled to send her this link!!
posted by greermahoney at 4:37 PM on June 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


This is my favorite thing I've seen all week, though I, too, am moderately distressed by the idea of just, what, knotting off the ends and hoping for the best?
posted by mishafletch at 10:59 PM on June 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


I had the same question as Quietgal. I am sure anyone who knits by hand thought, "How did they bind off?"

Zooming in on an image of the notebook I can see something about finishing with a needle.
posted by XMLicious at 2:41 AM on June 18, 2018


Assuming it's similar to the process for the circular knitic then the casting on and binding off process is done by hand. There's a video of how to cast on that one of my mates did for the Knitic we built at DoES Liverpool.

This also reminds me of the lovely wind-powered knitting machine.
posted by amcewen at 6:16 AM on June 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


I would go to the gym if my work translated into tangible goods like this.
posted by GoblinHoney at 12:28 PM on June 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


Attention knitters: Researchers harvest uranium from the sea with a yarn “net”
An adsorbent chemical is ready for another round of testing.
Take some regular old acrylic knitting yarn, modify it with a special kind of adsorbent chemical, and wave it around in the ocean. After some time, the yarn will pick up enough molecules of uranium that grams of yellowcake, the precursor to fuel used in nuclear reactors, can be made.
Today you can make a scarf while waiting at a train platform, tomorrow your stationary cycle and/or hamster wheel may manufacture and fuel up a nuclear jetpack that will both keep you warm and obviate the need to take the train.
posted by XMLicious at 8:10 PM on June 18, 2018


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