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Institute of Textilesand Clothing The Hong Kong Polytechnic Universify Dr. T. Y. Lo

A Brief History of Knitting Hand-knitting is an ancient art and probably datesback to the pre-Christian era. The cradle of civilization was in the warm Middle East countriesand loose scanty clothing was obviously woven. However, some important finds have been made in Egypt which indicate that advancedhand-knitting methods were well known in the fifth century A.D. Theserelics were found on the site of the town on Antinoe in Egypt and the Egyptologist Society has fixed the date as the fifth century A.D. One example is made from a coarse wool yam and another from a cotton thread. Two of the relics are retained by the City of Leicester Museum and both are circular-knitted articles; one is a child's sandal or bootee and the other appearsto be a glove gauntlet. The possible variations of stitch in hand-knitting are limitless and even at this early date many of the modern stitch formations were well known, including knitting on the flat or circular, fabric shaping, colour patterns,plain, purl and rib. The characteristicsof knitting, when compared with weaving, is that it will stretch; and a garment made from a knitted structure will cling closely to the limbs or body. In this early period of history, when civilization was confined to the wanner countries, weaving was much more important than knitting. Woven cloth is stable and was ideally suitable for the loose clothing of this period. At any stageof evolution the brain and fingers of man are never at rest and there is no doubt that all of the various systemsof fabric production were used to the limit of man's knowledge. In hand-knitting one continuous thread is used and a series of loops is made side by side by drawing each newly curled loop through the one previously made. Hand-knitting in Britain dates back to the fifteenth century A.D. Many referencesare made to it in old documentsof this period and the term knyttinge was used by poets and parliament. The best known monarch of this period was, of course, Henry VIII, and it is recordedthat he obtained a pair of stockings from Spain. These stockings were made from silk and were much superior to those made from woven fabric that had to be cut and sewn. Queen Elizabeth I was greatly loved by her serving ladies and from her early days on the throne had an ample supply of knitted stockings. About this period the terms stockings and hose were used interchangeablyas they are today. The first knitting machine was built during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in the village of Calverton, Nottinghamshire. The invention is attributed to the Rev. William Lee and the featureof his machine was that a completerow of loops or coursewas made at the sametime. Following the invention of the weft knitting machine in 1589 took on the forms and organization of contemporary crafts, gradually evolving into an orgatized domestic system of manufacture. Its transition to the factory system of production took place well after the Industrial Revolution had transformed most other branches of textile manufacture; in the 1870's the domestic systemwas still predominant and tracesof it persisted as late as 1920.
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All knitting is a matterof buildingup a series loops of dependent eachothdr. on Two major categories knitted sfirrctues: of 1. 2.

Weftknit Warpknit

Weft Kniftins Smirfitt hasdefined weft hritting as a process maliing of fabric by forminga setof correlated loopsfrom the u-eftyarn inserrioninto successir rows across width of the fabric. the The essential feature that yarn is introduced a weftw-ise is in direction,at right anglesto the directionof fabric growth. Wignall idenrifiedrveftkniffing by the fact thar the loopsare madehorizontally across fabricandthe fabric canbe the madewith a singleyarn or thread.

wanr knittine on the otherhandgenerally requires least at oneend of y'arnfeedingeachneedleon the machineand therefore, beamvery similar to that foundon a weaving a loom is needed.
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The Looo ForminsCvcleof a Latch\-eedle 1. 2. At the restpositiorl the latchis openandthe tibric lop is heldby'theneedle hook. The fabricis heldin positionby thefabric take-down the tension therefore tabric loopslides onto the latchasthe needle rises. Theneedle continues riseandso thefabric loop slides to beyond latchonto the the
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Yarn feeding at the high position of the needle and the needledescerids after feeding. The descending needlecausesthe fabric loop to closethe latch and hencepulling the new yarn throrh the fabric loop forming a new loop. The fabric take-down tensionalso causes old fabric loop to slide onto the newty formed loop. the

The Looo FormineCvcleof a BeardedNeedle Thereis onty oneprinciplein loop formationusingbearded needle.To accomplish the goal of forming loops.knitting machines rsing beardedneedles mayvary slight$ to perform thesameprinciple. However,in mostcases machines the wereso designed that thereareno movement the needles. in 1.
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At the startof the cycle,the tabric loop is held in the hookof theneedle the top. at The t-abric loopis heldin placewith the hetp of the fabrictake-up rension. Thefabric loop is pressed therefore and slidesalongthehookupwards.Ir stops untilthe fabricloop is on the shank the needle.andcleared the hookregion. of of This stage referredasclearing. is Feedingis doneby wrappinga -vamaround the shankof the needleat thepoint between fabric loop and the tip of the beard. the Feedingis completeonty when the new yarn is in the needle hook. But enra ktitting element requiredto movethe yarn form thc shankto the hook region. is A presser required pushandclosethe beardsuchthatthetip of the beardis is to hiddenin ttreeyeof the ncedlewith the new'varntrapped theneedle in hopk. Whenthe beardis pressedanotherlnining elementis trsedto lift the fabric loop from the shankto the outside thebeard. This stage knownas pressingand of is landine. After landingthe presser releases beard but the fabric loop is now wrapping the aroundthe hook on the beard. Yet anotherknining elErnent then comeinto will actionto further lift ttrefab'ricloop towardsthe headof theneedle. The actionis completed when the fabric loop is eventr.rally offfrom theneedle. .{fter casr whiclr. the fabric loop will be heldby the new y:un anddetached completet-v from theneedle.
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(1)

Before the machine is actually made, the product has to be decided first. When the exactdetailsof the product is known, the machineis designedto provide all the necessary details. In this case,the knitted fabric is expectedto be flat with straight edges. Knowing that the plain knit structure is made up of courses(rows) and wales (columns) of loops, the fabric can be carried on knitting on the last course. To makemore new loops, a needleis neededto engageone loop on the last course. When there are, say four loops, as shown in the diagram, there should be four needles. The exactposition of eachneedleis determinedby the position of the loop it is engaging. However, oncethe needleis there and startsto knit, the exactposition of the loop made later is determinedby the position of the needle. Therefore it is very important to keep the needlesin place and they are evenly spacedso that a even fabric structurecan be made.

(2)

In order to set-upthe needleto knit a machine part called Needle Bed as shown in diagram2 is designed hold the needlesin position. The needlebed is a piece of to metal with needletricks cut on the surface. The clearanceof the needle trick is sufficientto housethe needleand allowing it to move freely. The needleis neededto move in a straight line during knitting and therefore the needle trick in the form of a line suits the purposeperfectly. Diagram show the assemblyof the fabric in knitting, the needlessand the needlebed. It is so designedthat the hook of the needle is holding the fabric on the edgeof the needlebed. The stem of the needle is inside the needle trick under the surfaceof the surfaceof the needlebed except that the needle butt is protruding out of the surfaceof the needle bed. The edgeof the needle bed is also used as a means to keep the fabric loops in position during loop formation. The presentarrangementallows the fabric in production and the set of needle for knitting, to be held in one unit and is ready for knitting. Diagram 4 showsthe end view and the plan view of the assembly of the needlebed and the set of needlesthat it is holding. The purpose of this diagram is to illustrate how the needlesare activatedduring knitting. Needle movement is achievedby pushing the needleson the butt using a cam plate. The cam plate as shown in the diagram is small piece of metal placed on top of the needle bed as shown in the end view in the diagram. The cam plate is close enough to the needle bed so that it can act on the needle bed but it is not in contact with the needle bed surface so that the cam can move freely acrossthe width of the needlebed. The plan view revealsthat the cam plate is of a riangular shape. When the cam plate is traversing acrossthe needlebed, for example, from the left to the right, the right side of the triangle will come into contact with the first needle butt on the left and then the next one to its right and so on. Since the right side of the cam plate has a sloping edge,the needlebutt when in contact with it will be force to move upwards because
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(3)

(4)

the needleis inside the needletrick. The needleis only allowedto move in the direction of the needletrick and in a straisht line.

(s)

Diagram 5 shows the situation such that the cam plate is traversing acrossthe needle butts. It can seenthat the needlebutts will be pushed upwardsby the sloping edge of the cam plate. It can also be seenthat the needlebutts will be pushedup one by one in turn from the left to the right when the cam plate is traversing from the left to the right. The cam plate will repeatthe action in the other direction of traverse. The left side of the cam plate is also a sloping edgeso that after the cam plate has completed its traverse from left to right it can perform the same function in the right to left traverse on its return. However it must note that this cam plate, also referred as linear carn, can only push that it cannot pull. The needlebutts are therefore will only be pushedupwards by this cam. The needleswill thereforestay in the upward position after being push. But the loop forming cycle demandsthe needlesto return to the lower position after clearing. To return the needles,a secondcam plate is required to push the needlebutts in the oppositedirection from the upperposition to the lower position. Considering the casewhen the cam plates are moving from left to right, there should actually be another cam plate on the left side of the cam plate shown in the diagram. The secondcam plate is similar the first but the sloping edgebegin reversesso that this sloping edge will push the needle butts (which has beenraisedby the first cam plate) down to the original low position.

(6)

In diagram 6, it shows a set of cam plates which will push the needlesup and then down for both directions of traverse,from left to right and then right to left. The cam plates shown in the diagram included all the necessarycams for loop formation when traversing. Those shadedcam plated forms one set of cams for needlemovement when the cams are traversing from right to left. Those without shadingwill be used when the cams are traversing from left to right. The raising cam will start to raise the needle before it is being further raised to clear (of the fabric loop) by the tuck cam. The needle will then be at its highest position after acting by the tuck cam. A stitch cam will then come into action to push the raised needleto a downward position. At the first part of the needle descent,the hook of the needlewill catch a new yarn, which is referred as feeding. When the stitch cam further pushesthe needle downwards, knock-over takes place before eventually reaching the lowest position which is referred as loop measuring. After that has been done, a new stitch (or loop) is made. Therefore this cam pushing down the needle to form stitchesis call a stitch cam. Since loop measuring determinesthe size of the loop and thereforethe tightness of the fabric, it has to be adjustable. In turn, the position of the stitch cam must be able to be adjusted so that the lowest position of the needle can be alteredduring loop measuring.

To facilitate the cam platesto move collectively, all cam platesare being attached a to metal plate to form a unit. Such an assemblyof cam plates for the movement of needlesis called a cam box. (7) Cam plate can only push. Needleson the other hand can only pull. DiagramTA showing a new yarn is being pulled through the old loop from the back to the front of the old loop. If this is to be done,the needlemust be placedin the front of the old loop so that the needle is able to pull the yarn through the old loop. Similarly, in diagram 78 the needlehas to be placed at the back of the old loop so that the new yarn may be pulled throughout the old loop from the front to the back. It is important to distinguish the direction of interlocking of the new yam with the old loop. As shown in the diagramsthat with the needle at the front of the old loop pulling yarn through it is termedtechnical face of the loop. When the new yarn is pulled from the oppositeside to form a new loop it is called technical back of the loop. It can be seen from the diagrams that technical face and technical back of the loop has different appearance.It doesnot have much significanceif all the technicalface of the loops appearat the samefabric face since the other side of the technical face will be technicalback and vice versa. However, it would be significantif both technicalface and technicalback co-exitssideby side. For example, if you have ten loops in a fabric and all of them show the technical face on one surface of the fabric. When you turn the fabric around, all ten loops will show the technical face. Therefore there is no significance in whether you place the needles at the front of the old loops or at the back. You still end up with exactly the same fabric. On the other hand if there are ten loops in a fabric and 3 of them show technical faces and the others technical backs, then you must carefully arrangethe needles so that there are 3 needlesat the front of the old loops at the correct positions and the others at the back of the old loops also at their respectivepositions. (8) In order to enablethe machine to produce both technical face and technical back of the loops, two sets of needlesare provided. One will be placed at the front of the fabric and the other at the back. As a result, there are two needlebeds to hold thesetwo sets of needles. One is called the front needle bed and the oppositeneedlebed is called the back bed. For each of the needlebeds a cam box is required to activatethe needles. To synchronisethe movement of needlesin the two needle beds,the cam box in the front bed and that in the back bed are linked togetherby a bar so that they always fraverse at the sametime an so the needlesin the two needlebeds. A yarn carrier is fifted in betweenthe two needle beds for feeding yam to the needle hooks during knitting. A pair of brushesis there to ensurethat the latchesof the needlesremain open before feeding takesplace. (9) The end view of the manually operatedknitting machine is shown in diagram 9. In the diagram, it can be seenthat the yarn from the yarn packagegoes through yarn guides (a), (b), (d) and (e) and then the yarn carrier. The yam carrier situatesquite closely to the stitch cam where the needleswill be pusheddown to catch the new yarn.

Since the cam box has to traverseacrossthe needlebed in order to activate the needles,the yarn carrier has to traversewith the cam box too. The yarn carrier feeding yarns to needlesduring knitting is actually connectedto the cam box and they moves as one unit acrossthe needlebed. The fabric comb is attachedto end of the fabric. This comb is neededfor the knitting of the first course of the fabric. Under the fabric comb, a dead weight is hooked on it. The dead weight provides a downward pull on the fabric, which is referred as fabric take down tension. It helps to keep the fabric in position (hanging on the edgeof the needle bed) during knitting. A needle spring is clipped onto the end of the needle bed as shown for eachneedle. The needle spring is there to keep the needle in position by preventingit from sliding down the sloping needlebed. The needle spring on the back needlebed shown in this diagram is being pushed upwards into the needle bed. It is therefore in turn pushing the correspondingneedle to a higher position and keepsit there. The needlein a higher position will have its needle butt lined up with the cam plates. As a result this needle will perform loop formation actions when the cam box traverses. The other arrangementfor the needle spring may be that it is being pulled down to a lower position as shown on the front bed in this diagram. Since the needle spring is at a lower position, its corresponding needleis allowed to slide along the needletrick to a lower position suchthat the needle butt falls below the cam plate. Thereforethis needlewill not knit or remains inactive when the cam box traverses. The yarn passes through the yarn guide on the torsion spring. The torsion spring springing upwards, pulls the portion of yarn betweenthey yarn carrier and the cymbal tensioner. The tensioner is adjustedsuch that the torsion spring is unable to overcome the friction generated. Therefore the torsion spring will not be able to pull yarn from the yarn package. The other end of the yarn nrns through the yarn carrier into the fabric. When the cam box is stationary,the torsion spring is kept at the low position by the yarn. During knitting, when the needlesare pulling yarn there will be a fluctuation in the rate of yarn pulling especially a the turning point of the traverses. The torsion spring tending to spring upwards will then take up whatever slack yarn that may occur becauseof a changeof yarn pulling.

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10.

This diagram is a schematicdiagram showing one needlebed with its cam box showing the cam track. The cam box is traversing from left tot he fight. As result the needlesin the needlebed perform knitting one by one in sequence.Thoseon the left will knit first and the ones on the right will follows. After the cam track has gone through all the needle butts, a course of fabric is completed. The cam box will then stop at the end of the needlebed on their right hand side and start to traverseon the opposite direction from right to left. As it starts,the needle on the right will knit first wile the others on the left have to wait for its tum. The needlesthat are waiting have to wait becauseall the loops in the same course are made from the sameyarn. When this yarn is in usemaking a new loop for the needle on the right side, the needleson is left have to wait until the yam is available. During the processof knitting, there is only one needleforming loop at a time and all the rest of needleshave to wait. Much time has beenwasted. A needle in the needlebed is ready to knit again as soon as it has completedthe last knitted loop. A needlehas to wait becausethe yam is not available immediately after the loop is formed by this particular needle. The yarn is in use by the subsequent needlesalong the samecourse of fabric. The arrangementshown in diagram 11 reducesthe waiting time by introducing a secondcam box with anotheryarn to knit on those needlescompleted loop formation using the first yarn with the first cam box. In this case,it can be seenthat the second carn box traversingwith and behind the first one is producing a secondcourseof fabric with anotheryarn while the first cam box is still completing the first course. By the sameprinciple, a third cam box with its own yarn may be introduced to following close to the secondcam box. During a single traverse,three fabric courses are then in progressat the sametime. It will of course,the first fabric coursewill be completed first followed by the secondand then the third and so on. If this machine has three cam boxes available, it is called a three-systemmachine. All three cam boxes are assembled into one unit called a carriage. When the carriage startsto traverse from the left to the right, knitting startswhen the cam plates in cam box 1, as shown in the diagram, act on the first needle on the left of the needlebed. The traverse endswhen cam box 3 has causedthe last needle on the right of the needle bed to knit. In short, a single traverseof the carriagewith 3 systemswill produce 3 courses. Each needleknits 3 times after a single traverse. Productivity is much increased.

11.

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It seemsmuch advantageous have more systemsfor V-bed machines. However, to the introduction of more systemshas some effect on the machine dimensions. The top drawing in diagram 12 representsa single systemmachine and the bottom drawing, a 3-systemmachine. The minimum width of the single systemmachine is roughly the knitting width plus the widths of the cam box on both endsof the knitting width, taken up at the start and end of a traverse. It will be obvious to note that the width of 3 cam boxes will be wider than a single one. The width of the machine is increasedbecauseof the increasenumber of cam systems. Although there is no limit in adding more cam boxes to the carriagefor a

higher production, there will be a limit for the machine width. The machine when grows to a certain width, it will start to becomenot practical, too clumsy or inconvenient for other relatedoperations. There are other ways to increase production rate of knitting. For V-bed machines, the it is usuallymadewith 1, 2,3,4 or 6 systems.With needle bedsof usualdimensions of 100 inchesor 45 inches,the machinesare of acceptable size. 13. Knitting is a manufacturing industry. Production is important. To increaseknitting output, knitting machine is modified to do that. There are two aspectsof the V-bed machine that can improve to make it more productive.

(i) (ii)

To enable the machineto knit continuously without stoppages. To arrangea lot more cam systemsto knit at the sametime.

During knitting, the cam box on the V-bed machine will traverse from one end of the knitting width to the other. At the end of the traverse,the cam box has to stop becauseit has to changethe direction of traverse. If you are counting the number of coursesknitted per minute, you want the cam box to traverseat the highest speed possibleand stoppingis last thing you want to see. Not only the cam box hasto stop at the end of the traverse,it hasto go slower and slower before it can stop at the end of the traverse. Again, after a traverseis complete, the cam box change direction and it take time to get back to its working speed. Much time hasbeenwastedin decelerating,acceleratingand stopping. It would have been much more productive if the cam box is able to traverseconsistently at its maximum speed. This is accomplishedby bending the needlebed into a circle such that the two ends of the knitting width meet. The last needlein the knitting width will be right next to the first needle. The first needle is now the next needle to knit after the last needle. The cam box needsno longer to stop nor changingdirection. Diagram 13 illustrates the bending of the needle beds of a V-bed machine. The front bed has marked the positions of the first needle and the last needle. If the needle bed is to bend in the direction of the arrows, the front bed will be bent into a cylinder. As a result the first and the last needleson the needle bed are now next to each other. Similarly, if the back bed is to be bent into a circle along the edge of the bed holding the fabric, it becomesa dial. Again the first and the last needleson the back bed will be next to each other. When the needlebeds are arrangedin such a circular form are the CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES. Circular knitting adoptsexactly the sameknitting principles as the V-bed machines. The circular machine startsto knit when the cam systemson the needle beds (cylinder and dial) move along the surfacequite similar to that of the carriage on a V-bed machine. The cam systemof the circular machine however does not need to stop during knitting becausethere is no beginning or end of a course. The operation becomescontinuous.

Since the needlesare flranged in a circle on a circular knitting machine, the fabric is a tube. It is usually slit openwhen use.
14.

Similar to a V-bed machine,multi-systemcircularknitting is also possible. Diagram 14 is a schematicdiagram of a circular knitting machine having 8 systems. Since every cam system is knitting at the sametime, eachcam systemhas its own supply of yarn for its own course. When the machine runs, all 8 systemsmove together and 8 coursesof fabric are in knitting at the sametime. At the end of one revolution of the cam system, 8 coursesof fabric are completed. If there are more cam systemsaround the machine, there will be more fabric coursesbeing produced in a single revolution of the machine. The number of systemsaround the machine is only limited by the circumference of the needlecylinder. Usually all the spaceon the circumference is used up for placing cam systems. The actual number of cam systemsdependson the cylinder diameter and the dimensions (width) of the cam boxes. For example, a 30inch diameter machine may have 72 to 90 cam systems. Since each cam system must have its own yam supply and hence a yarn feeder,suchmachine can be referred as 30inch. 9O-feed machine. Looking at diagram 14, it can be seenthat whether there are 8 systemsor 90 systems, the spacetaken up by the machine will not be changed. Comparing a V-bed machine with a circular machine, you can seethat the cam systemsof a circular machine always operateat their maximum speed. Also, circular machines always have much more cam systemsthan V-bed machines. A double systemmachine with 100-inch needlebed producesabout 45 coursesper minute and a 30-inch, 90-feed circular machine produces about 2,700 coursesper minutes. Considering the circular knitting machine with a number of cam systems is knitting in the similar way as a multi-system V-bed machine,the cam boxes on the circumference of the cylinder are traversing and rotating around the cylinder. As a result the cam systemwith stitch cams are rotating with the feeding points. The yarn feedersare also rotating. The yarn packageshas thereforeto rotate around the machine becausethe yams running into different feedersaround the machine will be twisted together if the packagesare all stationary. Circular machines are built for production and therefore the maximum number of feedersis always used. It will become a problem when the machine has to carry alarge number of yarn packages rotating around the machine. However there are two types of circular machinesdistinguishedby how the rotation of the machine. I. Cam box revolving machine. II. Cylinder revolving machine. Needle action is a result of the relative motion betweenthe cam plates and the needle butt. The sameneedle action will be achievedwhether the cam plate is moving across the needle butt or the needlebutt is moving acrossthe cam plate. If the cam plates are

moving acrossthe needlebutts, the needlebed or the cylinder will be stationary keeping the needlebutts in place while the cam box carriesthe cam plates,yarn feederswith their yarn packagesare all rotating around the machine. This type of machineis called cam box revolving machine. On the other hand, if the needlebutts are moving acrossthe cam plates,the cam boxeswill be stationarykeepingthe cam platesin place. The needlebed will then have to move acrossthe cam boxeswith the needlebutts in the needletricks. For a circularmachine,the needlebed is cylinder and then it rotates and that will be the only moving part with the cam boxes, yarn feedersand yarn packagesall stationary. This type of machine is called cylinder revolving machine. It would be clear that cylinder revolving machine is simpler in construction and consumes lesspower than cam box revolving machinesincethere are lessmoving components. As a matter of fact, most of the circular machines are cylinder revolving type. Only those machinessuch as the garment length machines are cam box revolving because their complexity. Thoseare machineswith 6-18 feedsproducing of complex knitting structureswhich cannot be accomplishedif the machine is cylinder revolving. Circular knitting machine is naturally the choice for the volume production. Since it is ideal for volume production,there are purposelybuilt circular machines. For example,plain knit fabric is always in demand and large quantities. Circular with just one set of needlesin the cylinder is availablefor plain knit only. All other knit structures requiring the secondset of needles will be impossiblebut just producing plain fabric will be ableto keep it occupiedall the time.

15.

Diagram 15 showsthe sectionalview of a cylinder and dial circular machine. The diagram shows the two cam boxes, one on the dial and the other on the cylinder. In this casethe cam boxes are stationary with the yarn feeder. The cylinder and dial are the moving componentwith needle in them. The cam plates in the cam boxes are made such that it cannot be changedwithout stopping the machine, taking the cam box out and changethe cam plates. That would not be too inconvenient since once the machine is set up to knit, it is expectedto go for a long time before changesare required. Diagram 16 shows the sectional view of a sinker top machine or an open top circular machine. This machine is made to produce singlejersey structureswhich requiring only one set of needles. Therefore the machine is not equipped with a dial which is the needle bed to hold the secondset of needles. The cross section shows the cylinder, the cam box with cam plates, the yam feeder and the sinker set into the sinker ring sitting on top of the cylinder. The sinker is there to assistloop formation. It is moved towards and away from the needlesby the sinker cam on the sinker ring. The sinker is used to support the fabric attachingto the needlesduring knitting. The fabric rests on the sinker belly when the needle descendsto knock over. It is also used to hold the fabric loop down when the needle is rising to clear. The sinker moves forwards towards the needleswhen the needle starts to rise. During the rise of the

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needle,the sinker throat holds the fabric loop. Sinker effectively holds down the fabric loop enabling a higher needle speedduring rising to clear without causingthe fabric loop to rise with it which result in a fabric defect. Knitting speedcan be increasedwithout the need of excessivefabric take down tension to keep the fabric in position during clearing. Modern open top circular machinescan be said to have sinker fitted as a standardalthough the machine can still knit quite perfectly without the presenceof sinker.

18.

Diagram 18 is a seriesof figures showing the loop forming cycle of a latch needleon a circular knitting machine with sinkers. In 18a the needlebetween two sinkers is at the rest position. The fabric is resting on the belly of the sinkers before the needleis startingto rise. 18b showsthat the sinkersare advanced towardsthe needlevia the action of a sinker cam on the sinker butts. The advancementof the sinkers stop when the sinker throats are holding on to the sinker loops of the old loop while the needle continues to rise to clear. 18c showsthat the needleis at the clearingposition. The old loop is now on the stem of the needle. It will obvious that there is little dangerof the old loop rising with the needlebecauseof the sinker throats. That is the main purpose of the sinker - to keep the old loop in position (or "sinking" the old loop) while the needleis rising at high speedto clear. Clearing will be successfulevery time. 18d shows that the needle is starting to descendand a yarn is fed to it at this point. At the sametime the sinker startsto retreat as the holding down of the fabric loop is no longer required after clearing. It is necessaryfor the sinker to retreat since it has to move the sinker nib out of the way for the new yarn to form a new loop. 18e shows that the needleis now at a low position that the old loop startsto push and close the latch while the new yarn is further pull towards the old loop. 18f shows the loop measurement the loop forming cycle. The new loop is of actually formed by the new yam. It can be seenthat the needle loop of the new loop is on the hook of the needleand the sinker loop is resting on the sinker belly. This meansthat if the sinker doesnot retreat after holding down, the sinker nib will be in the forward position such that the sinker loop of the new loop will be resting on the sinker nib insteadof the sinker belly and the sinker loop will be extended. An abnormally large loop results.

19.

In double jersey knitting, two setsof needlesare utilised. The two setsof needles held in the two needlebeds are arrangedto face each other by the hooks. The needleson both beds are using the sameyarn to knit the samecourse. It would be logical to have the needlesarrangedin such a way that the first loop of the courseis knitted with, say, the front needle,then the secondloop would be by the back and

then the front and so on. This alignment of the needleson the two needlebeds is gating of the machine and is called RIB GATING. However, the alignment can be different and the only alternative will be that the needleson the two needlebeds are facing each other in a straight line. This is the INTERLOCK GATING. For most of the V-bed machines,the back needlebed is capableof lateralmovementcalledracking. If the back bed is racked for %needle space, gating will becomeinterlock gating and vice versa. rib It is straight forward for the knitting with rib gating where each needle is able to move freely in sequence knit. There is a restriction for the interlock gating that to the pair of needles,one in the front and the other in the back bed, is unable to form loops at the sametime, or in very short intervals,otherwisethe needleswill crash into eachother during clearing. They have to take tums. Such as, the first course the front bed needle of the pair will knit and the one on the back bed will remain idle. In the secondcourse,the one in the back bed will then knit and it will be the front bed needle'sturn to miss. In other words, in the first course,the front bed will only knit with the odd numberedneedlesand the back bed will knit with the even numberedneedlesonly. A fabric courseis completedafter the secondknitting courseis done where the front bed will now use the even numbered needlesto knit and the odd back bed needles. The structure so knitted is called PLAIN INTERLOCK.

20.

Diagram 20 shows the loop diagram of a fabric course ofplain interlock. The first knitting course of the structureis using a piece of white yarn and a black yarn is used for the secondknitting course. The two knitting coursesmake up a fabric course. It can be seenthat the white and black loops lie on the samewale lines. In the first wale, the white loop is right in front of the black one and the black loop in the secondwale is in front of the white one. There are two points worth mentioning for the plain interlock structure. (i) For every wale there are two loops, one at the front and one at the back of the fabric both showing the technical face. That is a consequence the needles of in the front bed and the back bed lining up in a straight line. The loop is there becausethe needlemaking it was there! (ii) If you examine the surfaceof the plain interlock, it is very much the same as a plain knit fabric (singlejersey) on the side showing technical face of the loops. The difference is that, if you turn the plain knit over, you will see the technical back of the loops and it gives a very different appearance and an impression of the "back" of the fabric. But if you turn the plain interlock fabric over, the other side of the fabric is exactly the same as the front. A fabric with trvo "face" sides.

21.

If we have a structure such that every loop in the coursesand wales are showing the sametechnical face, the structureis plain knit. Plain knit can be producedby using one set of needlesin one needlebed. If the structure has one wale showing technical t0

facesand the next wale showingtechnicalbacks,the structureis 1xl rib. 1xl rib can be producedby using two setsof needlesin two needlebeds and in rib gating. If now we have structurewith one course showing technical face of the loops and then the next courseshowing the technical backs, as shown in diagram 21. The structure is lx1 purl. The description of the structure implies that in the first course, every needle is in the front bed so that loops produced show technical face. In the secondcourse,the structure demandsthat all the needlesshould now be in the back bed so that this secondcoursewill have loops showing their technical back. It meansthat all the needlesin the front bed after completing the first course,they have to somehow transferredto the back bed before they can knit loops showing the technicalback in the secondcourse. The singleneedlebed machinecannotdo that. The V-bed machine also cannot dq that becauseit is impossible for the needlesto move from one bed to the other during knitting when there are still holding the last knitted loop in the hooks. Another moderation of the machine is required. The machinedesignedfor this type of structureis the flat bed purl knitting machine. 22. The flat bed purl knitting machineusesdouble hooked latch needles. The basic principle of the machineremainslargely the sameas thosefor the V-bed machine. The needlebed is also straightand the needlesarehousedin the needletricks. Cam platesare usedto provide action for the latch needles. Sincethe needlesusedfor the flat bed purl machinehave two hooks, the needleshave no butts. In order that the cam plate can act on the needles, slider is devisedto provide the needlea butt. The a slider acts as an extension the double hooked latch needle. The noseof the slider of is designedto engageone of the needle hooks and a butt is in the other end of the slider. When the slider is engagedwith the double hooked latch needle,one hook of the needle is usedfor knitting while the other is for engagingthe slider. When the cam plate acts on the butt at the end of the slider, the needlewill be activatedby the slider via the engaging hook of the needle. Diagram 23 showsthe needlebeds for a flat bed purl machine. It should be noted that the relative position of the two needle beds is different from the V-bed machines. The needlebeds of the V-bed machine make an angle of about 90" while that two beds of the purl machine lie on the sameplane. The needle tricks in the two needle beds are lined up straight. Imagine that a needle in the needle trick is moving towards the opposite needle bed. If the needlekeeps moving forward, it will find itself in the needle trick of the opposite needlebed without any problem. No assistance required. The needle is transferredfrom one is bed to the oppositebed by simply pushing it in a straight line. 24, Diagram 24 showsthe sequence drawings showing the transfer of needlesfrom of needle bed on the rieht hand side to the one on the left. On the flat bed purl machine, there are two needlebeds. Each needlebed has a set of sliders. One slider in every trick of the needlebeds. There is only one set of
I1

23.

double hook latch needles. If the needleis in the trick of the front bed then the corresponding needletrick in the oppositeneedlebed will be empty. In diagram 24a, the needle is in the back bed on the left-hand side and is engaged with the slider. An old loop is held in the hook of the needleat the edgeof the needlebed. At the start of the needletransfer, the needle is pushed forward by the cam plate in the cam box via the slider butt. Pushingof the needlecauses hook the holding the fabric clears of the old loop and at the sametime the open hook enters the needle trick of the opposite front bed, as shown in diagram 24b. While the needleis enteringthe needletrick of the oppositebed, the slider in the sameneedle trick is moved forward towards the transferring needle. On contact of the slider and the needlehook, the shapeof the slidernose enablesthe sliderto ride over the outside of the needle hook and then drops into the hook and becomesengaged. At this point a slider releasecam is introducedover the top of the slider. When it is required that the slider is to engageor disengagethe needlehook, there is an opening in the slider releasecam to allow the slider to ride up and over the needle hook. When the needle is required to hold onto the needle, the part of the slider releasecam usedis solid. So the slider will be kept low againstthe needlehook and it will not be able to disconnectthe needle hook even the slider is dragging the needle to perform feeding and knock over. Diagram 24c shows that the needle is further pushed towards the opposite bed. Most of the needleis now in the front bed. The latch of the needleon the right side is aboutto be pushedto closeby the old loop. Just before the latch is to be closed, yarn feeding for the next course can be carried out. The slider in the back bed on the right has now released needlehook and the needleis now being pulled by the the slider of the front bed on the left with its slider releasecam beine solid. Further movement of the needle to the left will causethe needleto form a face loop using the front bed.

25.

Similar to the situation of V-bed machines,the production rate of flat bed purl machines can be increasedby tuming the needle bed into a circle. In this case,both the front and the back bed become cylinders. Circular purl machinestherefore have tow cylinders and they are also known as double cylinder machines. The diagram shows the cut away view of the top cylinder on the top and the lower one, the bottom cylinders. There are two sets of sliders in the cylinders and one set of double hooked latch needle for knittine.

26.

Diagram illustrates the formation of a tuck stitch. A tuck stitch may be regardedas a half-form loop. A new yarn is taken by the needle during feeding but the needle hook retains the old loop. Gathering of loops, new and old occurs. Two yarns or loops are in the needle hook at the sametime. If the action is repeated,an extra new yarn will be gathered. Then there will end up one more yarn in the hook, a total of 3
12

yarns. The limit, obviously, will be the size of the needlehook. In practice, gatheringof loops usually doesnot exceed6. It is simple to producea tuck stitch. Sinceit is a gatheringof loops, feedingis necessaryfor making a new loop. Therefore, feeding is necessaryand the needlehas to rise. Secondly,the needleis not to lose the old loop. To hold on to the old loop, what the needle should do is not clearing the old loop leaving the old loop inside the hook region. To satisff the two conditions the needlehas to rise (to feed) but not high enoughto clear the old loop. That is what showing in diagram 26a. The ascendingheight of the needle is reduced such that it is high enough to catchthe new yarn but not high enough to clear the old loop. In diagram 26b, it can be seenthat at the loop measuringstageof the knitting cycle, the new yarn is pulled into a tuck loop while the old loop is still in the needlehook. Since the new and the old loops are gathered,they createa thicker spot in the fabric. Also because the needlehook is holding the old loop, the fabric doesnot increase of in length even though a new yam is pulled into a tuck loop. The knitting of tuck loops will (i) increase fabric thickness,and (ii) will not the increasethe fabric length.

27.

The two loop diagrams in diagram 27 show the face and the back sidesof the fabric containing one tuck loop in the structure. The tuck loop is different from the normal loop that its arms tends to spreadout because sinker loops do not interlock with its previousloop (the held loop). The its previous loop of the tuck loop is gatheredby their needleloops. In this example, there is only one tuck loop (or tuck stitch) in the middle wale. Since the tuck loop does not increasethe length of the fabric, there are only 3 loops in the middle wale. The wales on the two sidesareboth have4loops each. The wale in the middle is shorter than the wales on the two sides. The difference also causes distortion in the fabric 28. In this diagram, it shows how the needle movementis modified to form a tuck stitch. Since the gathering of loops is due to the old loop not being cleared,the needle is not rising to the clearing height but high enoughto reach the new yarn. In this casea raising cam is still required. The top part of the normal raising cam, called the tuck cam, is put out of action so that the needleriding on the raising cam stops to rise at the intermediate height. The needle is at the tucking height whilst it will rise further during a normal knitting cycle, to the clearing height. To perform tucking, a modification in the raising cam will be sufficient and the stitch cam remains unchanged.

13

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This diagram29, showsthree needlesin the cylinder of a circularmachine. The needle in the middle hasjust made a tuck stitch. It should be noted that the two arms of the tuck loop is spreadingout which is a result of its previousloop hangingon to the needlesteminsteadof the sinker loops of this, now a tuck loop. If the tuck loop was formedas normal loop, its previous loop would have beenhangingon to its sinker loops and the spreadingout of the arms would not have occurred.

30.

The loop diagram showing one miss stitch in the middle of the structure. The miss stitch is alsoknown as a welt stitch, but it is more often referredas a float. It is appropriateto call it a float, becausethe miss stitch is simply formed when the needleis not knitting at all and the yarn passes needlein a straightline on to the the next needleresulting a yarn lying on the surface of the fabric. The yarn is floating on the fabric surface. There are 3 choices for the needle during a course of knitting. It either knits, tuck or miss. Thereforeall weft knit structuresare made up of a combination of thesethree basic stitches: knit stitch, tuck stitch and miss stitch.

31.

The miss stitchis shown on the circular machine. The needlein the middle did not receive any movement at all. There has been no clearing, nor yarn feeding. The result is that the needleis holding on to the old loop by the hook. The new yarn is not caughtby this needle either. Since the new yarn is introduced later than the old loop, thereforethe new yam after forming a loop with the needle on the left passed the needlein the middle to the needle on the right with the floating yarn lying on top of the old loop of the middle needle. With the needlessettingin the up right position as shown, the fabric is having the technical back of the loops facing upwards. When the float is on top of the old loop as it is shown here, we can find the float loop at the "back of the fabric". For a singlejersey fabric, the side showing the technical facesof the loops is usually taken as the face side of the fabric. Take for example, the last coursewith a miss stitch as shown in this diagram is knitted with a black yarn and the previous course was knitted with white yarn. When the fabric is viewed from the face side, the last coursewill show a black (loop) at the position of the left needle,and a white (the float black loop is hidden at the back of the fabric) at the position of the middle needle and a black loop at the position of the right needle. At the secondlast course, all three loops will be white. Colour pattem is in the making.

32.

The loop diagram shows a long float over three consecutiveneedles. It can, of course,have even longer floats. If the length of the float stitch becomesexcessiveit becomeundesirable. When a very long float is required for a particular colour effect, a tuck stitch will be introduced to every other 4 or 5 needles. Since the tuck stitch is also hidden behind the face loops, the colour effect can be maintained. Such introduction of the tuck stitch is called anchoring of the long float.
I4

na JJ.

This diagram shows an example of a structural variation using knit and miss for a double jersey rib structure.

34.

Representation of Knit Structures using Notations. The weft knit structure is one made up of loops interlocking together in an orderly manner. Loops are always in rows and columns. Therefore it can be conveniently imposing the loops in a structureto a grid with squaresin rows and columns. Each loop in the structure will occupy one squarein the grid. All that you need to representthe structure is to use symbol to mark the type of stitch being knitted in that squareor position. There are only three basic stitches,knit, tuck and miss. In double jersey knitting it has also to distinguish loops made from front and thosefrom back bed. That is the difference between technical face and technical back.

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knit, technical face knit, technicalback tuck miss

In that case,a column of squarerepresentsa wale and a row of squaresrepresentsa course in the knit structure. In the caseof interlock structures,the wale line made by the front bed needle is superimposingon the wale line made by the back needle. It will be very difficult to shown two wales in one column of squares. Interlock structuresare not usually represented using such notations. by

35.

The other way of representinga knit structureis by meansof the yarn pgL_!Aqg3gr_* This is somewhat a direct representationof the structureas it is seEnonffiE knitting machine, course by course. Imagine that you are viewing the knitting machine form the top of the needle bed. You can seethe needlesholding the fabric loops. The needlesare representedby short straight lines. The alignment of the needlesor the machine gating can be seenas it is. The line running between the needlesrepresents the stitchesbeing formed. Again the different types of stitches are represented the way as more or less that can be seenon the machine.

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Knit stitch Tuck
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15

There is not need of using different symbols for technical face and technical back since the yam path diagram has already shown the locations of the needles. Needle in the back bed will make a loop showing the technical back and the needle in the front bed will make a loop showing the technical face. If a structurerepeatson four knitting courses,the yarn path diagram representingthe structurewill have 4 lines showing each of the four coursesin the repeat.

36.

The yarn path diagram may be used to provide needle setting details other than the structure of the fabric. A dot (o) is used at the position of a needle to represent omission that the needleis taken away. A long line will represent long butt needle a while a short line representsa short butt needle. Yarn path diagram has the draw back of being unable to indicate clearly if the needle has been transferred from one needle bed to the other. Therefore it is not very effective to show purl structures. Interlock structure will be best representedby yarn path diagrams.

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4 BasicClasses Weft Knit Structures of

Plain

Rib

lnterlock

Purl