In an aspect, a braiding machine is provided, and has a set of spool shuttles that each dispense a strand of flexible material under tension. A strand retractor releasably retracts the strands from the spool shuttles. A plurality of shuttle stations at which the spool shuttles can be positioned are arranged in a circuit. At least one shuttle carriage, when driven, repeatedly selects an immediately previously unselected spool shuttle and moves the immediately previously unselected spool shuttle from an associated shuttle station to another shuttle station along the circuit spaced from the associated shuttle station by at least one shuttle station that is intermediate the associated shuttle station and the other shuttle station. At least one spool shuttle is parkable at the at least one shuttle station. A drive arrangement is coupled to the shuttle carriage to drive the shuttle carriage.

In an aspect, a braiding machine is provided, and has a set of spool shuttles that each dispense a strand of flexible material under tension. A strand retractor releasably retracts the strands from the spool shuttles. A plurality of shuttle stations at which the spool shuttles can be positioned are arranged in a circuit. At least one shuttle carriage, when driven, repeatedly selects an immediately previously unselected spool shuttle and moves the immediately previously unselected spool shuttle from an associated shuttle station to another shuttle station along the circuit spaced from the associated shuttle station by at least one shuttle station that is intermediate the associated shuttle station and the other shuttle station. At least one spool shuttle is parkable at the at least one shuttle station. A drive arrangement is coupled to the shuttle carriage to drive the shuttle carriage.

Embodiments of the invention are directed to a toy knitting device and a knitting kit including the toy knitting device and a breakaway clasp. The knitting device comprises a knitting body having an interior chamber in which a needle holder is rotatably coupled to the knitting device. The needle holder comprises a plurality of needles configured to move up and down the side of the needle holder as the needle holder rotates to grasp a knitting strand being fed into the interior chamber of the knitting body. The needle holder rotates by a plurality of engaged gears coupled to either an automated motor for automated rotation or a hand knob or crank for manual rotation. The needle holder comprises a center aperture through which the knitted product that is configured to receive an embellishment to be embedded within a hollow interior of the knitted product is inserted.

An interactive loom, which includes a loom-mechanism, a user interface, a loom interface, and a controller. Each cam is in the form of a cylinder rotating about the axis thereof. The circumferential surface of the cam exhibits a determined surface geometry, such that each of a plurality of sections of said circumferential surface corresponds to a respective one of the arms. The circumferential surface further exhibits a respective cross sectional profile and such that each rotational position of said cam is associated with a respective state of lowered and raised arms. The loom-interface includes a motor coupled with the cam, and operates loom-mechanics according to instructions. The controller receives a design from the user-interface and transforms the design into a sequence of states of the arms required for achieving the design. The controller further provides the instructions to the loom-interface. The instructions are associated with state changes of the arms.

In an aspect, a braiding machine is provided, and has a set of spool shuttles that each dispense a strand of flexible material under tension. A strand retractor releasably retracts the strands from the spool shuttles. A plurality of shuttle stations at which the spool shuttles can be positioned are arranged in a circuit. At least one shuttle carriage, when driven, repeatedly selects an immediately previously unselected spool shuttle and moves the immediately previously unselected spool shuttle from an associated shuttle station to another shuttle station along the circuit spaced from the associated shuttle station by at least one shuttle station that is intermediate the associated shuttle station and the other shuttle station. At least one spool shuttle is parkable at the at least one shuttle station. A drive arrangement is coupled to the shuttle carriage to drive the shuttle carriage.

In an aspect, a braiding machine is provided, and has a set of spool shuttles that each dispense a strand of flexible material under tension. A strand retractor releasably retracts the strands from the spool shuttles. A plurality of shuttle stations at which the spool shuttles can be positioned are arranged in a circuit. At least one shuttle carriage, when driven, repeatedly selects an immediately previously unselected spool shuttle and moves the immediately previously unselected spool shuttle from an associated shuttle station to another shuttle station along the circuit spaced from the associated shuttle station by at least one shuttle station that is intermediate the associated shuttle station and the other shuttle station. At least one spool shuttle is parkable at the at least one shuttle station. A drive arrangement is coupled to the shuttle carriage to drive the shuttle carriage.

A wool knitting machine comprising a shell, a knitting device, a yarn feeding device and a clamping device. When each crochet needle reaches the position of a yarn inlet of a yarn feeding port, the clamping device is clamped with the current crochet needle for clamping the wool, and at the same time, an accelerating gear device is arranged in a hand crank to increase the speed of hand knitting, so that a user can make the first knitting circle compact enough without manually tensioning the wool.

In an aspect, a braiding machine is provided, and has a set of spool shuttles that each dispense a strand of flexible material under tension. A strand retractor releasably retracts the strands from the spool shuttles. A plurality of shuttle stations at which the spool shuttles can be positioned are arranged in a circuit. At least one shuttle carriage, when driven, repeatedly selects an immediately previously unselected spool shuttle and moves the immediately previously unselected spool shuttle from an associated shuttle station to another shuttle station along the circuit spaced from the associated shuttle station by at least one shuttle station that is intermediate the associated shuttle station and the other shuttle station. At least one spool shuttle is parkable at the at least one shuttle station. A drive arrangement is coupled to the shuttle carriage to drive the shuttle carriage.

A breakaway clasp having two clasp components that can be releasably coupled together to provide a quick release closure mechanism. A first clasp component having a coupling portion and an attachment portion, and an identical second clasp component having a coupling portion and an attachment portion. The attachment portions may be configured to be coupled to a portion of an article, such as a necklace or bracelet, and the coupling portions are configured to releasably couple to each other, thereby forming a closure. Each coupling portion comprising two, identical hemisphere elements and a connecting section that connects the two hemisphere elements. The hemisphere elements and connecting section may define a receiving cavity configured to receive at least a portion of the hemisphere elements of the other clasp component.

In an aspect, a braiding machine is provided, and has a set of spool shuttles that each dispense a strand of flexible material under tension. A strand retractor releasably retracts the strands from the spool shuttles. A plurality of shuttle stations at which the spool shuttles can be positioned are arranged in a circuit. At least one shuttle carriage, when driven, repeatedly selects an immediately previously unselected spool shuttle and moves the immediately previously unselected spool shuttle from an associated shuttle station to another shuttle station along the circuit spaced from the associated shuttle station by at least one shuttle station that is intermediate the associated shuttle station and the other shuttle station. At least one spool shuttle is parkable at the at least one shuttle station. A drive arrangement is coupled to the shuttle carriage to drive the shuttle carriage.