Besides an impressive array of machinery, we have an even more impressive team of textile specialists. Look around to see which of our specialists can help you during your working period in the TextielLab.
Are you coming to work in the TextielLab’s knitting department? Then you will be matched with one of our experienced product developers who will help you stitch your creative ideas together on our high-tech knitting machines. Time for an introduction!
Sarena Huizinga, product developer knitting
Sarena studied fashion design at the Royal Academy of Art from 2004 to 2008. She joined the TextielLab as a product developer in the knitting department in 2014. She also works as an independent knitting designer under her own name and as a developer for her company Breienbreien. Her speciality is fully fashioned pieces on computer-controlled knitting machines. She most enjoys making 3D structures and excels at getting the most out of the knitting machines. She is continuously expanding her knowledge of knitting and loves a technical challenge. A good example of this is the knitted bomber jackets she developed with Conny Groenewegen.
Mathilde Vandenbussche, knitting specialist
Mathilde graduated in 2015 with a master’s degree in textile design from the School of Arts in Ghent, Belgium, where she specialised in industrial and manual knitting. During her degree, she came into contact with the TextielLab as a European Textile Trainee, a training programme for promising textile students. After graduating, she worked for two years as a textile designer for a weaving mill that makes interior fabrics, then for a manufacturer of knitted mattress covers. She joined the TextielLab as a knitting specialist in 2020, specialising in the circular knitting and sock knitting machine. Besides her work in the lab, she also leads workshops in machine knitting in the Texture Museum in Kortrijk, Belgium. She is particularly interested in technical approaches to knitting, using her knowledge of special stitches to give projects additional layers.
Technical knitting team
During your development days in the lab, you will also work with our knitters Marijn Verstappen, Steve Cromsigt and Will van den Heuvel. They ensure that the knitting machines are always in perfect condition. Besides technical maintenance, they prepare the machines so that your work can be knitted. They take care of the correct machine adjustments and produce the samples and final knits you create during your working period.
Damien Semerdjian, product developer knitting
Damien has been in the textile business for 12 years and can rightly be called a seasoned knitting specialist. He gained much of his experience in his family’s company in France, where he developed knitwear for the fashion industry. He has broad technical knowledge, whether that is seamless, three-dimensional or fully fashioned knitting. Driven by his ambition to work on new and challenging projects, he joined the TextielLab team in 2020. Since then, he has worked with fashion designer Jef Montes, among others, and developed complex fully fashioned knitted face masks for the TextielMuseum with young talent Yamuna Forzani.
Eerika Yli-Rahko, product developer knitting
Eerika has a background in pattern making and tailoring and has studied fashion and textile design at Aalto University- School of Art, Design and Architecture in Helsinki, Finland. For the past few years, she worked in knitwear product development as a Stoll programmer at Knitwear Lab, based in The Netherlands. With a vast range of projects, she has experience in fashion, functional wear, shoes, interior and arts. Being passionate about broadening her knowledge and skills, she joined the team of Textiellab in 2024. She enthusiastically welcomes a technical challenge and is always looking for a possibility to apply knitting to something new.
Yani Chuang, knitting specialist
Yani graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 2018. For her graduation work, she developed knits in the TextielLab and immediately fell in love with industrial machines. After graduating, Yani worked for 3 years at BYBORRE as a knitting engineer where she got to know the circular knitting machines inside and out. From 2022 she has joined the TextielLab where she is specializing herself in various knitting techniques to become an all-around knitting expert. Yani loves the craftsmanship involved in knitting and working closely with the machine. To match every yarn, every stitch, every setting so well that you get the best result.
