EP2390394B1

EP2390394B1 - Method for knitting tubular fabric having neck line, and tubular fabric having neck line

Info

Publication number: EP2390394B1
Application number: EP09838749.1A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Manabu Yui; Yoshinori Shimasaki
Original assignee: Shima Seiki Mfg Ltd
Current assignee: Shima Seiki Mfg Ltd
Priority date: 2009-01-23
Filing date: 2009-12-24
Publication date: 2016-04-20
Anticipated expiration: 2029-12-24
Also published as: EP2390394A4; EP2390394A1; WO2010084556A1; CN102292486A; JP5538241B2; JPWO2010084556A1; CN102292486B

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method for knitting a tubular knitted fabric having a neckline portion using a flat knitting machine, and a tubular knitted fabric having a neckline portion knitted by applying such knitting method.

BACKGROUND ART

Conventionally, a neckline portion to become a neck hole is formed in a tubular knitted fabric such as a sweater by carrying out flechage knitting. More specifically, a flechage position is sequentially shifted to an edge side in a knitting width direction and a stitch at a flechage end is made to be in a non-acting state of being excluded from the knitting of the next and subsequent courses while being held on a needle bed until the formation of the neckline portion is finished, so that the flechage end is formed in the tubular knitted fabric as the neckline portion. The position to become the flechage end is subjected to tucking so that a hole is not formed in the finished knitted fabric.
However, there is a limit to the number of times the flechage knitting can be carried out in the conventional flechage knitting, and thus the sweater knitted using the flechage knitting may have a shallow neckline portion, that is, a small frontal drop. There is a limit to the number of times the flechage knitting can be carried out since the tucking is performed at the flechage end, and the portion performed with the tucking becomes tense thereby inhibiting the knitted fabric portion newly formed by performing the flechage knitting from lowering to a lower side of a needle bed gap.
The applicant thus proposed in Patent Document 1 a knitting method capable of forming the neckline portion deeper than with the conventional knitting method. In the technique of Patent Document 1, which corresponds to the preamble of claim 1 an arbitrary boundary is set at the front body to divide to the right front body and the left front body when forming the neckline portion with the flechage knitting, and the stitches of the right front body and the stitches of the left front body held on the needle beds are respectively moved in the direction of moving away from the boundary line. When performing the flechage knitting, a widening stitch is formed on the knitting needle, which becomes an empty needle due to the movement of the stitches. Such widening stitch is then excluded from the knitting of the next and subsequent courses, and the moving of the stitches and the performing of the flechage knitting described above are repeated. The knitting width of the neckline portion at the front body can be made greater than that of the back body by performing the series of knitting, so that the deeper neckline portion, that is, the neckline portion with large frontal drop can be formed than that in the related art. According to such technique of the Patent Document, the peripheral length of the neckline portion becomes longer (stitches increase) by the dropped amount of the neckline portion, and the neckline portion is not simply stretched by the dropped amount, and hence a high quality knitted fabric in which the stitches of the neck portion and the neckline portion are balanced can be knitted.

PRIOR ART DOCUMENT

PATENT DOCUMENT

[Patent document 1] Japanese Patent Publication No. 3863018

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED BY THE INVENTION

In knitting the tubular knitted fabric with the flat knitting machine, the number of stitches held at the front and back needle beds needs to be substantially the same number so that an excessively large tension does not act on a knitting yarn thus breaking the knitting yarn at the boundaries of the front and back knitted fabrics. In view of such aspect, the stitches at an end in the knitting width direction of the front side knitted fabric portion (front body and front sleeve) are fed to the needle bed on which the back side knitted fabric portion (back body and back sleeve) is held to reduce the difference in the number of stitches at the front and back needle beds in the technique of Patent Document 1. Such feeding requires transfer of stitches, racking of needle beds, and the like, and hence the knitting steps increase and the productivity of the knitted fabric is lowered.
The present invention has been made in view of the above situations, and an object thereof is to provide a method for knitting a neckline portion capable of knitting a tubular knitted fabric having a deep neckline portion with a simple knitting step, and a tubular knitted fabric having a neckline portion knitted by applying the method for knitting a neckline portion of the present invention.

MEANS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEMS

This and other objects are solved by a knitting method having the features and steps, respectively, as set forth in claim 1. A preferred embodiment of the knitting method is defined in claim 2.
A method for knitting a neckline portion of the present invention is a method for knitting a neckline portion of setting a boundary in a knitting width direction of a front body to divide the front body to a left front body and a right front body, and performing flechage knitting with the left front body and the right front body connected to a back body through sleeves when forming a neckline portion in a tubular knitted fabric including the body and the sleeves using a flat knitting machine having at least a pair of front and back needle beds, in which at least either of the front and back needle beds is capable of being racked in a transverse direction and stitches can be transferred between the front and back needle beds. The method for knitting a neckline portion of the present invention includes the steps of moving a stitch row including a stitch at a closest position from the boundary of the stitches of the front body held on one of the front or back needle beds formed by the flechage knitting in a direction of moving away from the boundary, and overlapping the stitch at the most distant position from the boundary in the moved stitch row on the stitch at the closest position from the boundary in a non-moved stitch row on the farther side in the knitting width direction of the moved stitch row; and feeding a yarn to an empty needle between the boundary and the stitch at the closest position from the boundary in the moved stitch row to form a pickup stitch configuring the neckline portion; wherein the pickup stitch is remained held on the knitting needle of the needle bed until the formation of the neckline portion is finished.
In the knitting method of the present invention, all the stitches of the front body are held on one of the front or back needle beds, all the stitches of the back body are held on the other needle bed, and the flechage position is on the needle bed on which the stitches of the front body are held. The stitch row may be configured with a single stitch, or may be configured with a plurality of stitches. The knitting method of the present invention has a feature in knitting the neckline portion by performing the flechage knitting, and how the back body is knitted is not relevant. For example, after the neckline portion of the right front body is formed with the flechage knitting, the back body may be knitted using a yarn feeder different from the yarn feeder used for the relevant knitting, and then the yarn feeder may be changed to a yarn feeder different from the yarn feeder used in the knitting of the back body before knitting the left front body to knit the left front body.
In the method for knitting a neckline portion of the present invention, the position of overlapping the moved stitch and the non-moved stitch is not particularly limited, but is preferably a position where a double stitch does not stand out. For example, the position may be in the vicinity of the end on the boundary side of the right and left front bodies (neckline portion side) or in the vicinity of the end in the knitting width direction of the front body (sleeve side), and more preferably in the vicinity of the end in the knitting width direction of the front body including the position of the sleeve. The vicinity of the end in the knitting width direction of the front body includes, for example, the vicinity of a joining line (sleeve attaching portion) of the body and the sleeve, and the vicinity of a shoulder attachment part in a knitted fabric where the shoulder attachment part is positioned in the front and back bodies in addition to the joining line as with the epaulet sleeve.
The objects are also solved by a tubular knitted fabric as stated in claim 3.
A tubular knitted fabric having a neckline portion of the present invention is a tubular knitted fabric having a neckline portion knitted by flechage knitting using a flat knitting machine having at least a pair of front and back needle beds, in which at least either of the front and back needle beds is capable of being racked in a transverse direction and stitches can be transferred between the front and back needle beds. The tubular knitted fabric having a neckline portion of the present invention includes a stitch at a termination of a forward knitting course knitted by the flechage knitting, a stitch at a starting end of a backward knitting course formed by the flechage knitting, a widening stitch being directly connected to the stitch at the starting end and the stitch at the termination, being adjacent to the stitch of the starting end or the stitch of the termination in the knitting width direction, and configuring the neckline portion, and a narrowing stitch formed so that the knitting width of the knitting course does not increase by the formation of the widening stitch in the knitting course in which the widening stitch is adjacent.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION

According to the method for knitting a neckline portion of the present invention, the stitches of the right and left bodies having a boundary in between are moved in the direction of moving away from the boundary when forming the neckline portion, so that the stitches are arrayed with the knitting direction spaced apart in Y-shape with the boundary in between. Therefore, when the knitted fabric is removed from the needle beds after the formation of the neckline portion is finished, the stitches of the body tend to return toward the boundary side and move closer to the lower end side of the neckline portion, and hence the neckline portion drops deeply. According to the method for knitting of the present invention, the knitting width of the front body does not increase in the front and back needle beds even if a widening stitch is formed to form a deep neckline portion in the front body, since the narrowing stitch (double stitch) is formed to cancel out the widening stitch. As a result, the stitches of the needle bed on which the front body is held do not need to be fed to the opposing needle bed in the process of forming the neckline portion, so that the tubular knitted fabric of the present invention having a deep neckline portion can be knitted with few number of knitting steps.
A deeper neckline portion can be formed when the position of forming the double stitch is positioned in the vicinity of the end in the knitting width direction of the front body, that is, the position distant from the boundary of the right and left bodies, than when the position of forming the double stitch is on the boundary side of the right and left bodies. Since the double stitch is set at a position distant from the boundary, the stitches of the right and left bodies are moved in the direction of moving away from the boundary as a whole, so that the neckline portion seems as if stretched. When the knitted fabric formed with such neckline portion is removed from the needle bed, the stitches of the right and left bodies move closer to the boundary side as a whole, so that a lower end of the neckline portion drops to a hem side of the knitted fabric thus forming a deep neckline portion.
The tubular knitted fabric having a neckline portion of the present invention has a deep neckline portion with a steeper angle from the lower end side to the upper end side of the neckline portion than the tubular knitted fabric in which the neckline portion is formed by the flechage knitting. The tubular knitted fabric of the present invention does not include twisted stitches even if the widening stitch is formed in the neckline portion of the front body to form the deep neckline portion, and hence has satisfactory appearance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a sweater having a neckline portion and a neck portion formed at the neckline portion.
Fig. 2 is a first knitting step diagram of the sweater having the neckline portion shown in an embodiment.
Fig. 3 is a second knitting step diagram of the sweater having the neckline portion shown in the embodiment.
Fig. 4 is a loop diagram of the vicinity of the neckline portion of the sweater obtained by the knitting steps of Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be hereinafter described in detail based on the drawings. In this embodiment, an example of knitting a sweater 100 serving as a tubular knitted fabric including a body 50 and set-in type sleeves (right sleeve 61, left sleeve 62) as shown in Fig. 1 with a two bed flat knitting machine in which at least either one of a pair of front and back needle beds disposed opposite to each other is capable of being racked in the traverse direction and stitches can be transferred between the front and back needle beds will be described. The flat knitting machine for use may, obviously, be a four bed flat knitting machine.
The sweater 100 (tubular knitted fabric) shown in Fig. 1 has a neck portion 70 formed at a substantially U-shaped neckline portion 71. The method for knitting a neckline portion of the present invention is used in the knitting of the neckline portion 71. The type of sleeves is not particularly limited, and may be raglan type, epaulet type or the like.
In order to knit the sweater 100 shown in Fig. 1 using the flat knitting machine, the body 50 and the sleeves 61, 62 are knitted up to the position of the lower end of the neckline portion 71, and then the contour of the neckline portion 71 is formed through a C-shaped reciprocate knitting while performing the knitting and narrowing of the sleeves 61, 62. The neck portion 70 is knitted by performing circling knitting in continuation to the stitches configuring the neckline portion 71. The following is a description of the knitting from the position at the lower end of the neckline portion 71 until the neck portion 70 is formed.
Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 are knitting step diagrams according to the present embodiment, and show the held state of the stitches on the needle beds. In the figure, "S + number" indicates the number of the knitting step, FB indicates the front needle bed, BB indicates the back needle bed, 1 to 36 indicate the position of the knitting needles, ● indicates the stitch newly knitted in each knitting step, ○ indicates the old stitch held on the knitting needle, ⊚ indicates the double stitch, and V letter indicates a pick up stitch. The arrow shown in the figure indicates the movement state of the stitches by the transfer carried out using empty needle of the opposing needle bed and the racking of the needle bed. The illustrated number of knitting needles is less than the actual number in Figs. 2 and 3 for the sake of convenience of the explanation.
Fig. 4 is a loop diagram of the right front body 51 having the neckline portion 71 of the sweater 100 knitted in the knitting step described above. The numbers in the figure correspond to the positions of the knitting needles in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. In the figure, the stitches extending toward the upper right at the right side are the stitches of the neck portion 70.
In S1 of Fig. 2, a state in which the body 50 and the right and left sleeves 61, 62 are joined, and the circling knitting is performed is shown. The stitches held on the knitting needles 1 to 6 are the stitches of the right sleeve 61, the stitches held on the knitting needles 31 to 36 are the stitches of the left sleeve 62, and the stitches held on the knitting needles 7 to 30 are the stitches of the body 50. Between the knitting needle 18 and the knitting needle 19 is the center position in the knitting width direction of the sweater 100, which becomes the center position of the neckline portion 71. The stitches of the FB on the left side in the plane of drawing are assumed as the stitches of the right front body 51, and the stitches of the FB on the right side in the plane of drawing are assumed as the stitches of the left front body 52 with such center position as a boundary CL.
In S2, the stitches are formed on the knitting needles 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 of the FB by the forward knitting of the flechage knitting in which the knitting advances toward the boundary CL side, and in S3, the stitch row held on the knitting needles 9, 11, 13, 15 of the FB formed in S2 is moved by two needles in the direction of moving away from the boundary CL (direction of sleeve 61). The stitch farthest from the boundary CL (stitch held on the knitting needle 9 in S2) in the stitch row moved in S3 is overlapped on the stitch closest to the boundary CL (stitch held on the knitting needle 7) in the stitch row not moved in S3. The stitches held on the knitting needles 17, 19 of the FB become the stitches of the lower end of the neckline portion 71.
In S4, the pickup stitch is formed on the knitting needle 15 of the FB that became an empty needle as a result of the transfer of stitches carried out in S3 and the stitches are formed on the knitting needles 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1 of the FB by the backward knitting of the flechage knitting in which the knitting advances in the direction of moving away from the boundary CL. As shown in Fig. 4, the pickup stitch of the knitting needle 15 is formed at the termination of the forward knitting course (second row from the bottom in Fig. 4) and becomes the widening stitch that configures the neckline portion 71. The pickup stitch is excluded from the subsequent knitting target and is remained held on the FB until the knitting of the neckline portion 71 is finished.
Although the widening stitch is formed in S4, the knitting width is narrowed in S3 before forming such widening stitch, and hence the widening stitch and the narrowing stitch cancel each other out. Therefore, the knitting width is not changed from the state of S1, which is before the widening stitch is formed, although the widening stitch is formed in S4, and the stitches of the FB do not need to be fed to the BB.
In S5, the stitches held on the knitting needles 1, 3, 5 of the FB (stitches on the front side of the right sleeve) are transferred to the knitting needles 3, 5, 7 of the FB, respectively, and new stitches following the stitches of the back body and the stitches on the back side of the sleeves 61, 62 held on the BB are formed. In S6, the stitches are formed on the knitting needles 35, 33, 31, 29, 27, 25, 23 of the FB, and the stitches held on the knitting needles 2, 4, 6 of the BB (stitches on the back side of the right sleeve) are transferred to the knitting needles 4, 6, 8 of the BB, respectively. The transfer of the stitches of the sleeve 61 carried out in S5 and S6 is the knitting performed in accordance with the shape of the human body so that the knitting width of the sleeve 61 is reduced from the hem side toward the neck side of the sweater 100, and is the knitting also performed in the conventional sweater.
In S7, S8 shown in Fig. 2 and S9, S10 shown in Fig. 3, the knitting similar to the knitting shown in S3 to S6 of Fig. 2 is carried out for the left side (right side in the plane of drawing) of the sweater 100. The state of the right front body 51 side at the time point where S10 is finished is the state of being knitted from the first row to the third row in the loop diagram of Fig. 4.
Thereafter, the forming position of the pickup stitch at the right and left front bodies 51, 52 is shifted to the edge side in the knitting width direction (direction of moving away from boundary CL), and the formed pick up stitch is excluded from the sequential knitting so as to be in a non-acting state to form the neckline portion 71. Such knitting of the neckline portion is carried out with the procedure similar to the knitting shown in S2 to S10 other than that the forming position of the pickup stitch is shifted. Furthermore, narrowing is carried out on the sleeves 61, 62, and the bind off process, or the like is carried out on the shoulder part of the sweater 100. For the specific knitting steps, only one part following S10 is illustrated in S11 to S14 of Fig. 3.
The state in which the neckline portion 71 is formed by repeating the formation of the pickup stitch in the above manner is shown in S15. As shown in S15, the neckline portion includes the stitches (stitches at the lower end of the neckline portion held on the knitting needles 17, 19) and the pickup stitches in the FB, and the neckline portion 71 including the stitches is formed in the BB.
Lastly, in S16, the neck portion 70 including a new stitch continuing to the stitches and the pickup stitches forming the neckline portion is formed by circling knitting.
As shown in Fig. 4, in the sweater 100 knitted through the above knitting steps, the widening stitches (position of knitting needles 15, 13, 11) are formed adjacent to the stitches at the termination of the forward knitting course (second, fourth, sixth rows of Fig. 4) of the flechage knitting, the widening stitches configuring the neckline portion. In the forward knitting course to which the widening stitches are adjacent, the narrowing stitch (position of knitting needle 7) is formed to cancel out the widening stitches.
In the embodiment described above, substantially all the stitches of the right front body 51 (left front body 52) lined in the knitting width direction are moved to the right sleeve 61 (left sleeve 62) side, but the number of stitches to be moved is not particularly limited. However, it is preferably carried out near the position where the line originally serving as a design of the knitted fabric is present, i.e., the boundary portion of the right front body 51 and the right sleeve 61 as shown in the embodiment. As opposed to the embodiment, all the stitches of the right front body 51 may be moved and overlapped on the stitches of the right sleeve 61. The vicinity of the neckline portion 71 may be a position where the line serving as the design is present. In this case, only the stitch held on the knitting needle 15 in S2 of Fig. 2 is moved to the knitting needle 13 in S3 to form a double stitch.
In one tubular knitted fabric, the conventional flechage knitting using the tuck, the method for knitting the neckline portion of the present invention in which the double stitch is formed in the vicinity of the neckline portion, and the method for knitting the neckline portion of the present invention in which the double stitch is formed on the side distant from the boundary may be carried out in combination. In particular, it is preferable if the three knitting methods are carried out in the described order in order from the lower end side of the neckline portion since the angle of the neckline portion gradually become steeper and a satisfactory U-shaped neckline portion can be formed.
Furthermore, the method for knitting a neckline portion of the present invention can also be applied to the neckline portion such as a square neck or a V-neck other than the U-neck described in the embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

1 to 36 knitting needles
100 sweater (tubular knitted fabric)
50 body 51 right front body 52 left front body
61 right sleeve 62 left sleeve
70 neck portion 71 neckline portion

Claims

A method for knitting a tubular knitted fabric (100) having a neckline portion (71) by setting a boundary (CL) in a knitting width direction of a front body (50) to divide the front body (50) into a left front body (52) and a right front body (51), and performing flechage knitting with the left front body (52) and the right front body (51) connected to a back body through sleeves (61, 62) when forming the neckline portion (71) in the tubular knitted fabric (100) including the body (50) and the sleeves (61, 62) using a flat knitting machine having at least a front and a back needle bed, in which at least one of the front and back needle beds is capable of being racked in a transverse direction and stitches can be transferred between the front and back needle beds, wherein the method for knitting the neckline portion is characterized by the steps of:
moving stitches of a stitch row including a stitch at a closest position to the boundary (CL) of the stitches of the front body (50) held on one of the front or back needle beds formed by the flechage knitting in a direction away from the boundary (CL), and overlapping the stitch at the most distant position from the boundary (CL) of the moved stitches on the stitch at the closest position to the boundary (CL) of non-moved stitches on the farther side from the boundary (CL) in the knitting width direction of the moved stitch row; and

feeding a yarn to an empty needle between the boundary (CL) and the stitch at the closest position to the boundary of the moved stitches to form a pickup stitch configuring the neckline portion (71); wherein
the pickup stitch remains held on the knitting needle of the needle bed until the formation of the neckline portion (71) is finished.
The method for knitting a tubular knitted fabric (100) having a neckline portion (71) according to claim 1, wherein the position of overlapping the moved stitch and the non-moved stitch is in the vicinity of an end in a knitting width direction of the front body (50).
A tubular knitted fabric having a neckline portion (71) which is characterized by:
a stitch at the end of a forward knitting course knitted by the flechage knitting;

a stitch at the start of a backward knitting course formed by the flechage knitting;

a widening stitch being directly connected to the stitch at the start and the stitch at the end, being adjacent in a knitting width direction to the stitch at the start or the stitch at the end, and configuring the neckline portion (71); and

a narrowing stitch formed in the knitting course to which the widening stitch is adjacent so that the knitting width of the knitting course does not increase by the formation of the widening stitch.