Shima machines working full tilt

The University of Highlands and Islands has amazing resources, including state of the art computers, conferencing facilities, looms, knitting machines etc. There is also a room containing massive shima machines which are utilised not only by the college goers, but by small and local businesses also. Shima machines are enormous Japanese knitting machines, which can churn out miles of complex and extremely fine knitted fabric in a staggering array of patterns and styles. Unlike the domestic knitwear machines which formed the backbone of the Shetland knitwear industry in the mid-twentieth century, the Shima machines have all their moving parts concealed inside a giant steel and glass housing. The shima machines are several metres long and over a metre tall, and are controlled via computer interfaces. Pieces are created inside the shima machines, and then linked together by the extremely skilled linkers who work in this division of the University. I first heard about the shima machines through Emilia Delnicka, a former student at the University who was also employed there as a cleaner. When the University was closed for the day and she was cleaning the building, Emilia often heard the sounds of the shima machines working away, churning out knitwear, and she decided to record the sounds of this for a project at the Shetland Textile Museum. When I met Emilia we talked about the interesting contrast between the state of the art technology represented by the shima machines, and the long history of hand-knitting and cottage industry in Shetland. Emilia's recordings were created on an iPhone, and - inspired by her - I visited the room with the shima machines in it for myself, both to see them working and to create my own recordings using a FOSTEX FR-2LE and Audio Technica BP4029. In my recording, you can hear one knitted object being completed by the shima Machine, after which it beeps, before commencing again to knit a second piece.