Concurrent with print development, Wijnants spends the early part of his design process experimenting with knitting techniques on this machine, one of two he keeps in the studio. His passion for knitting started (not unlike the previously featured artist Jim Drain’s) when he discovered his mother’s old machine in the basement of his family home, then taught himself how to use it. This one is similar. “It’s a domestic machine; they were big in the ’70s and ’80s and now not many people have them anymore,” he says. “They weren’t meant for big productions, just for making a couple of sweaters. But they’re ideal for experimentation because you can make things you can’t necessarily do by hand.”