I would really love it if this were paired with a renderer. As a knitter, I often want to see what designs knit out to without actually, you know, knitting.
Disney Research comes up with some pretty cool stuff. I loved their 3d printed speaker idea from a couple years ago. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zralu3wYUTU" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zralu3wYUTU</a>
Fantastic initiative. My wife works in knitwear and I've been cooking up a disruptor for what is frankly a lagging industry. Current best-in-class software can be seen at e.g. <a href="http://www.stoll.com/stoll_software_solutions_en_4/pattern_software_m1plus/3_1" rel="nofollow">http://www.stoll.com/stoll_software_solutions_en_4/pattern_s...</a>
Reminds me of the plush toy cloth pattern generator, <a href="http://www.geocities.jp/igarashi_lab/plushie/index-e.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.geocities.jp/igarashi_lab/plushie/index-e.html</a><p>This would create a pattern, they have an example of sewn cloth, and inflatable balloons they built.<p>which was kind of a decendent of teddy 3d <a href="http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~jacobson/seminar/igarashi-et-al-1999.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~jacobson/seminar/igarashi-et-al-1...</a><p>This is a lot more about the UI (which i still think is amazing 17 years later), not so much about the compiler.
Is there a 3D Knitting service, similar in spirit to Shapeways, that allows you to send a design file of some sort, and they'll send you a knitted item?
I want to see this paired with a Kinect. Walk into a store, select a sweater off the rack that you like. Scan the tag at a kiosk. Get scanned. Customize the fit and color. Come back in a couple of hours with a new garment.