Knitting machine

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. The needles were supported on a needle bar (bed) that passed back and forth, to and from the operator. The beards were simultaneously depressed by a presser bar. • The needle bar goes forward- the open needles clear the web • The weft thread is laid on the needles • The weft thread falls loosely • The needle bar draws back, the weft is pulled in the open needles • The needle bar draws back, the presser bar drops, the needle loops close and the weft is drawn back through the web • The needles open, a new row has been added to the web which drops under gravity This basic process can still be recognised in all machines, but it has been refined as new technologies have become available. ==Types==

A few simple devices permit knitting without needles for toy or hobby purposes. The simplest of these is spool knitting, followed by knitting boards or knitting looms, which consist of two rows of pins mounted in two parallel rows approximately apart. Yarn is wound around the pins; various patterns of winding produce different textured knitting. A needle or special tool is then used to transfer the loops of yarn from around the pins, either off the pins or to other pins, to produce the knitting. Knitting boards can produce complex designs. Other semi-mechanical knitting devices are available. To produce larger and more complex knitted items, like garments, domestic and industrial machines, with either flat or circular beds, producing rectangular or tubular fabrics, respectively, are needed. Double bed machines have two flat beds facing each other, in order to produce purl and plain rib fabrics plus a variety of multi patterns. Ribbing attachments can be added to single bed machines to achieve a similar result. Late 20th century domestic/studio models typically have 120 to 200 latch-hook needles to hold the stitches in fine, standard, mid-gauge or bulky gauge needle. A carriage or cam box is passed across the bed of needles causing the needle movements required to produce each next stitch. By means of various selection methods, e.g. punch cards, particular needles can be caused to travel by alternate pathways through the cam box. Thus needles will knit or not, and the unknitted yarn portions will lie under (slip stitch) or over the needle or be held in the needle hook (tuck stitch). Needles can be placed in holding position to allow short row shaping. As of 2023, this partnership is still going strong. Multiple companies are using this technology to design and produce clothing made on-demand. File:Spool knitting machine.jpg|A hobbyist spool knitting machine operates on a crank. File:Home_knitting_machine.jpg|A flatbed home knitting machine File:Sock knitting machine.jpg|A sock-knitting machine in use File:Rundstrickmaschine_Nadel_scharf.jpg|A circular knitting machine File:Circular Knitic circular knitting machine Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Canet.jpg | Circular Knitic open source hardware knitting machine File:Knitting machine yarn bobbins Nov-2106-Second-Skin-024.jpg | Knitting machine yarn bobbins ==Comparison 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, and can be an advantage. Some stitch patterns (e.g., tuck stitches) are much easier to produce with a knitting machine. Others (e.g. garter stitch) can also be produced with machine knitting, but can take a little longer; however, this is still much faster than hand knitting. On a single-bed domestic knitting machines, garter stitch must be either worked by hand or using an accessory called a 'garter bar'. Brother machines can take an electronic accessory called a 'Garter Carriage'. These carriages have a single, internally mounted needle which faces those on the main bed, and when a stitch is selected via the patterning mechanism this needle lifts the selected stitch off its needle and makes the stitch through the back, thus creating a purl stitch on the face of the fabric. Certain models of Garter carriages can be used on both mechanical and electronic Brother knitting machines. 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. Most if not all hand knitting patterns can be worked up on a machine, either identically or in a similar design, but some are simpler to by hand, whilst others are easier on a machine. Hand knitting patterns are designed to "flip" the fabric on every row so that the knitter consistently uses the dominant hand. However, machine knitting is consistently knit with the fabric facing the same way. Flat bed machines knit back and forth and circular machines knit continuously in the round. == See also ==