Machine Knitting

Knitting Machine: A Summary

• Knitting machines are used to produce knitted fabrics in a semi or fully automated fashion.
• There are different types of knitting machines, ranging from simple spool or board templates with no moving parts to highly complex mechanisms controlled by electronics.
• Knitting machines produce various types of knitted fabrics, usually either flat or tubular, and of varying degrees of complexity.
• Pattern stitches can be selected by hand manipulation of the needles, push-buttons and dials, mechanical punch cards, or electronic pattern reading devices and computers.
• Early flat bed stocking frames had low carbon steel bearded needles where the tips were reflexed and could be depressed onto a hollow closing the loop.
• To produce larger and more complex knitted items, such as garments, domestic and industrial machines, with either flat or circular beds, producing rectangular or tubular fabrics, respectively, are needed.
• Automatic patterning machines can knit two-colour Fair Isle patterns automatically and have machine stitch patterning features such as slipping, tucking, plating, and knitweaving.
• Domestic knitting machines use the weft knitting method which produces a fabric similar to hand knitting.
• The fabric produced using a knitting machine is of a more even texture than flat knitting, hand-knitted fabric, which is particularly noticeable on large areas of plain stockinette stitch.
• More complex stitch transfers, such as cable stitches, require hand-manipulation to cross the groups of stitches over each other.
• Industrial machines that offer selective, automatic stitch transfer between front and back beds along with racking of the beds can create cable stitch automatically.
• The standard gauge 200-needle machine can knit the finest yarns up to a good sport-weight (4ply UK), while the heavier yarns knit better on a mid-gauge or bulky knitting machine.
• Machine knitting saves a considerable amount of time but does require learning to operate the machines correctly.