The design and development of an illuminated polymeric optical fibre (POF) knitted garment

This paper presents a new design and development process for integrating illuminated Polymeric Optical Fibre (POF) into knitted garments, by incorporating POF directly into the looped structure. Fully-fashioned knitting is presented as a means of overcoming garment design restrictions in existing works. A key challenge this work addresses is the creation of more appealing and fashionable form-fitting illuminated POF garments. The resultant work, a tight-fitting knitted raglan sleeve jumper with a section of knitted POF demonstrates that new aesthetics can be achieved, with our new technique. This project builds on existing research into POF integration into fashion and textiles, whilst challenging the existing view that POF cannot be formed into a looped structure. This project used a hand flat knitting machine to produce the knitted POF garment, to balance the benefits of using handcraft techniques for challenging fibres, with the faster knitting speed better associated with using knitting machines.