A trio of physicists from the University of Rennes, Aoyama Gakuin University, and the University of Lyon have discovered, through experimentation, that it is friction between fibers that allows knitted fabrics to take on a given form. Jérôme Crassous, Samuel Poincloux, and Audrey Steinberger have attempted to understand the underlying mechanics involved in the forms of knitted garments. Their paper is published in Physical Review Letters.
