The days of bespectacled grannies clutching their knitting needles tightly in hand is now but a distant memory thanks to Royal College of Art graduate Merel Karhof‘s consumately green and utterly time saving invention. Grandma, it’s time to let your hair down and hit the bars!

In response to the age old quandry of how to make the already squeaky-green pastime of knitting even more, er…eco-responsible?…Karhof melded a beloved hobby with windpower to create the Wind Knitting Factory.

Her wind turbine powered knitting machine is capable of generating a long column of woven yarn with no human assistance whatsoever. And depending on the weather conditions and air flow outside, it can either knock out a scarf in 2 hours flat or drag its heels for a considerably longer time.

Karhof then transforms the fruits of her wind-generated labor into handcrafted items and labels each with information on the length of time it took to produce, as well as the final date of production.

How’d the product designer come up with the idea? After observing the natural wind patterns blowing in and out of the cul-de-sacs of her stomping grounds, she realized it would be rather clever to “use this ‘free’ energy source and create a product with it”.

Granola treehugging hobbyists with a fetish for woven fibers? Does this invention rock your world or do you think that it takes all the fun out of the creative process?

Via Asia CNET