Traditionally associated with craftmanship and manual work, knitwear could seem a quite unusual subject of investigation for scientific research in design, as it also pays the price to be part of the fashion practices, which are still often treated with an artistic approach. The work presented here had the aim to demonstrate the validity of the topic as an area of inquiry among the industrial design disciplines, and to give it structure from an academic point of view. As part of the industrial design culture, the fashion system has developed in its areas a high degree of specialization of the creative and productive chain (Dell’Acqua, 2007), and the academic discourse is now moving to-wards these specific realities, focusing on jewellery design, artisanal tech-niques, technology and interaction.