New Knitwear Machines Now Part of the Pattern for Fashion Education at UC

Knitwear is an important cornerstone for fashion design and fashion product development. After all, all garments that aren’t made of an animal hide are either knitted or woven textiles.

That’s why the gift of 40 new hand-knitting machines to the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) is so important. The additional machines bring the total number to 60 in terms of hand-knitting machines with ribbers attachments – available to help better prepare UC fashion design and product development students for the complexities of working with and creating knitwear.

According to UC School of Design Director Sooshin Choi, “It is quite spectacular to see 60 students working on knitting machines all at the same time, and the result is the creation of 60 totally different pieces of knitwear. The new tools are leading to advances in and opportunities for greater creativity.”

Jacqueline Burris, associate professor of fashion design, agreed, “The new machines enable us to provide for each student beyond just the basic fundamentals for those wanting to design knitwear. It literally prepares each student to slot directly into a professional knitwear design career.”

She explained that learning to work on a hand-knitting machine is a lengthy process, which would have been hampered if students had been forced to share machines. Said Burris, “If we hadn’t had enough machines so each student had one, a lot of time would have been taken re-hanging knitting on and off machine beds before and after each studio session. This back and forth hanging and re-hanging would have wasted over an hour of studio time each session for every single student.”

The new industry-standard machines come thanks to the

Technology Gift Fund

established by UC alumni Myron E. (Mike) Ullman III, a 1969 graduate of the Carl H. Lindner College of Business, and his wife Cathy Emmons Ullman, a 1970 DAAP graduate.

• Apply to UC’s undergraduate fashion design program.