Weaving Relationships and Intangible Meanings as Collective Making. Knitting Design as Social Generativity in the Methexis Project

This article explores knitting design as a practice of social generativity, emphasizing how the wider process around the act of “making” goes beyond mere material production to become a powerful tool for building relationships, communities, and social capital. Starting from a theoretical framework through the results of experimental research, it examines the cultural, ethical, and methodological significance of knitting in vulnerable social contexts, interpreting the technique as a generative action able to create a “social fabric” through participatory practices. The article presents the exhibition The Five Knots of Well-being, one of the outcomes of the Methexis project, funded by the Polisocial Award 2023, which used mathematical models and narrative methods to represent social ties in San Vittore prison’s Young Adults section. The exhibition provided an interpretation of qualitative and quantitative data into multisensory physical patterns and sound, fostering reflection on the ethical meaning of making. Knitting emerges as a tool for communication, mediation, and inclusion, embodying social networks and fostering awareness of marginalized realities, linked to responsible, socially engaged design.