The Domestic Machine

Now in post-production, “The Domestic Machine” is a documentary film directed and produced by Craftwork Collective, following the women who built the domestic machine knitting industry and the new generation of knitters, designers, and creators who found them online.

From yarn shops and trade shows to YouTube and TikTok, The Domestic Machine is the unlikely story of how machine knitting's original insiders inspired its next generation. A small cult following has kept machine knitting alive through lo-fi tutorials and scrappy online communities and it worked. Just when the industry seemed finished, the internet was born and these knitters showed up immediately: uploading videos, building forums, sharing everything they knew. In doing so, they unknowingly built a craft archive for the future. Now their content has found an unexpected audience in a new generation of social media influencers and fashion designers obsessed with a technique the world nearly forgot.

The Domestic Machine brings multiple generations of knitters together on screen for the first time, filmed in homes, studios, and community spaces. It's a story about craft, camaraderie, and what happens when intergenerational knowledge finds its next audience.

To support our film and learn more, visit www.thedomesticmachine.com