A trio of physicists from the University of Rennes, Aoyama Gakuin University, and the University of Lyon have discovered, through experimentation, that it is friction between fibers that allows knitted fabrics to take on a given form. Jérôme Crassous, Samuel Poincloux, and Audrey Steinberger have attempted to understand the underlying mechanics involved in the forms of knitted garments. Their paper is published in Physical Review Letters.
The research team noted that while many of the factors that are involved in intertwined fabrics have been studied to better understand their characteristics (such as why sweaters keep people warm despite the gaps between stitches), much less is known about the form garments made using such techniques can take.
To learn more, they conducted experiments using a nylon yarn and a well-known Jersey knit stitch called the stockinette—a technique that involves forming interlocked loops using knitting needles. They knitted a piece of fabric using 70×70 stitches and attached it to a biaxial tensile machine.
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