Urban Wind-Powered Knitting Mill

London-based design studio Merel Karhof has created a brilliant knitting machine powered by the wind. The machine is a small home-based factory producing beautiful scarves with a special story. Karhof’s work is often inspired by heritage. The knitting wind mill is a product with a reference to the Dutch history and landscape. The windmill has a diameter of 1.2 meters and is the same type as the small windmills being used to pump water around in the Dutch landscape in order to create dry meadows for sheep and other cattle.


The Wind Knitting Factory is a temporary factory which is entirely mechanically powered by urban wind. It shows that complete sustainable production of manufactured products is possible. In 2009 it was installed on the facade of the Royal College of Art. “Along the facade the knitwear moved slowly through the window into the College, fast at high wind speeds, and slow when there was not a lot of wind.” With the power of the wind, a knitting machine knits from the outside towards the inside of a building. The knitted material is harvested from time to time and rounded off in individually packaged scarves. Each scarf has its own label which tells you how long it took to knit it and when it happened. Watch the video here.