GB1574736A

GB1574736A - Method of machine knitting of a clothing blank

Info

Publication number: GB1574736A
Application number: GB12167/77A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Stoll & Co
Current assignee: Stoll & Co
Priority date: 1976-04-02
Filing date: 1977-03-23
Publication date: 1980-09-10
Also published as: IT1077601B; BE853209A; JPS52121439A; DE2614283A1; ES456836A1; CH615963A5

Abstract

The knitting operation is started on all outer portions (11-15) of the garment blank (10), for example a back portion (11), two sleeve portions (12, 13) and two portions forming front-part halves (14, 15), at the end of the garment remote from the neck and having a fixed margin (16). These outer portions (11-15) are produced simultaneously until the arm-onset height (18) of the garment (10) is reached. The subsequent narrowing shoulder portion (19) is knitted in one piece by means of continuous stitch rows by the progressive shaping of the outer portion regions into one another according to a desired form of the transitions between these regions (19/1-19/5). The collar portion (24/1-24/3) is then knitted on in a one-part or multi-part manner. The garment blank is thus produced, in the desired final form of its portions, by means of stitch wales extending in the longitudinal direction. The capacity of the knitting machine is utilised as efficiently as possible. The completion of the garment requires only minor finishing work and no seams in the shoulder portion (19) which can be provided with a continuous patterning. <IMAGE>

Description

(54) METHOD OF MACHINE KNITTING OF A CLOTHING BLANK (71) We, H. STOLL & CO. Geschaeftsfuehrungsgesellschaft mbH, personally responsible partner of the firm H. STALL GmbH & CO., a company organised and existing under the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, of Stollweg 1, 7410 Reutligen Germany, do hereby declare the invention for which we pray that a Patent may be granted to us and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: This invention is concerned with a method of machine knitting of a one-piece blank for an article of clothing in the required end form of the individual sections of the article of clothing and with machine stitches extending in the longitudinal direction of the article of clothing and with clothing blanks manufactured in accordance with this method.

In order to reduce the large amount of labour and the wastage in fabrics which occurs during the making up of knitted clothing, proposals have already been made to make the knitted articles on the knitting machine in a predetermined shape for cutting. Thus it is known to make front parts, rear parts and arm parts individually and separately from one another on a flat knitting machine and to confer on these parts during the knitting operation a required outline shape by appropriate widening or narrowing as a result of the introduction or withdrawal of selvedge needles. These parts must be then connected together by stitching. This method has the disadvantage that it is practically impossible to connect together the pieces so as to form continuous patterning between these individual sections. In any case interruptions in the patterning cannot be hidden at the connecting seams. Furthermore, the maximum capacity of the knitting machines cannot be exploited when this method is applied.

U.K. Patent Specification No. 1,238,299 discloses a method of knitting multi-section clothing blanks in which the sleeve portions and at least one body portion are knitted simultaneously, initially being separate but knitted together at the shoulder region. In that region narrowing, or "fashioning", of the portions is performed at or close to the inclined connecting lines between the portions. This prior method, however, has the disadvantage that it is a very tedious operation on an ordinary knitting machine, since it includes the transfer of many stitches between needles.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of machine knitting a clothing blank which is shaped and of one piece and which can be made up subsequently into an article of clothing with a minimum of assembly work, in which the capacity of a flat knitting machine with a normal transfer mechanism is utilised to an optimum degree and a notably greater production of clothing blanks per unit of time can be achieved than has hitherto been the case with known methods.

According to the invention there is provided a method of machine knitting of a clothing blank into the required end shape of individual sections of the blank and with wales extending in the longitudinal direction of the blank, in which the knitting procedure at all outer sections of the blank is commenced at the end of the clothing blank removed from the neck by a welt, these outer sections are produced simultaneously until the level of the arm projections is reached, the ensuing shoulder section of the clothing blank which is narrowed to the collar extension is knitted integrally which continuous fashioning of the outer sections in accordance with a required form of the transitions between these areas, and in which finally a potential collar section is knitted in one or more parts and wherein the knitting is performed on a knitting machine with at least one needle bed associated with which is a counter bar which can be racked in parallel fashion and has stitch-receiving elements directed towards the needles of the needle bed, and that the narrowing of the outer section areas in the integral shoulder area is performed by continuous fashioning of the outer sections in the shoulder area by transferring all the stitches of at least one outer section to the stitch-receiving elements of the counter bar, subsequent parallel movement of this bar through an appropriate oblique movement of a transition between adjacent outer sections of a corresponding number of needle divisions and subsequent transfer back of all the stitches on the needles of the needle bed, whereby a fashioning of the outer section areas takes place alternately from one and from the other side of the clothing blank by alternate racking of the counter bar in one or the other direction.

This method has the great advantage that the arm parts are knitted simultaneously with the adjoining sections of the rear part and the front parts of the one-piece clothing blank and all these parts can be provided with the usual welts. The production of the shoulder section tapering to the collar section in one piece with continuous rows of stitches has the advantage that it caters for a continuous patterning in this area and the finished article of clothing does not have in this area any connecting stitches which interrupt the patterning, but knitted transitions between the individual areas. The needle capacity of the knitting zone of the machine required for production of the clothing blank can be utilised to an optimum degree. In the case of blanks for armless articles of clothing or for articles of clothing with arms which have the same length as the adjoining back part or the adjoining front parts of the article, the clothing blank can be knitted from a continuous welt in one piece until the height of the arm projections is reached and then subsequently further in one piece by fashioning in the shoulder section, and the sections of the blank which are to constitute the rear part, the halves of the front part and, optionally, the arms, can be obtained in due course by cutting out the one-piece welt to finish the article of clothing. In a preferred form of the method, which also allows for the simultaneous production of arms of different lengths relatively to the rear part section or the front part halves the outer sections of the clothing blank are made on a knitting machine over the width of one yarn guide width, and possibly additionally at the spacing required for an enlargement in width of an outer section, separately and all side-by-side and with selvedge edges. The knitting procedure is interrupted a multiplicity of times over individual courses to produce a greater length of arm section. Thus only a few needles do not participate in the knitting procedure with simultaneous knitting of the side-by-side individual outer sections of the clothing blank.

Also no needles are held stationary for a long period with retained stitches, as happens with known methods. This caters for a very high productivity for the knitting machine used, and no special machines are necessary.

The method can be practiced on any knitting machine which has at least one needle bed and a counter bar associated with this meedle bed, with stitch receiving elements for transfer of stitches and adapted to be racked relatively to the needle bed. A second needle bed with transfer needles, transfer jacks or fashioning points can be used as the counter bar. Consequently the method can for example, be used on flat knitting machines which are provided with a single needle bed and a counter bar, or with commercially available double bed knitting machines with the beds arranged in V-fashion or of links-links machine construction. Thus it is not necessary to use any machine in which more than two needle beds have to be employed or a plurality of beds arranged in different dispositions.

The fashioning of the outer sections into the shoulder section is obtained by transferring all the stitches of at least one outer section on to the stitch receiving elements of the counter bar, subsequent parallel movement of this bar through an appropriate oblique movement of a transfer between adjacent outer sections a corresponding number of needle divisions, and subsequent transfer back of all the stitches on to the needles of the needle bed, whereby a fashioning of the outer section areas takes place alternately from one end from the other side of the clothing blank by alternate racking of the racking bar in one or other direction. The production of the shoulder section narrowing towards the collar section thus does not follow the usual pattern of narrowing, in that needles are only taken out of the knitting process one by one at the outer welt of the clothing blank. The interlocking of the outer sections of the blank into the one-piece shoulder section described above produces the narrowing at every required transition area between the shoulder section and correspondingly a transition curve of required shape, thus catering for a great range of variety in the inner shaping of the shoulder section with continuous rows of stitches and, if required, continuous patterning, without requiring a subsequent cutting operation or the introduction of stitching or the like to produce this shape. Thus if, in a clothing blank for example a uniform width of the continusation of the rear section area and the front part halves is required into a one-piece and tapering shoulder section of the blank, the arm section areas can be reduced by fashioning in alternate courses into the adjoining areas of the front.parts and into the rear section areas to the collar section. If in contrast it is required in a clothing blank that the extensions of all the outer section areas into the shoulder section shall taper towards the collar section, this can be achieved by a uniformly distributed fashioning in alternate courses of at least two section areas simultaneously.

The knitting procedure according to the invention produces a clothing blank which is open at one part, preferably at the front part or the rear part of the final article of clothing.

It is therefore particularly suited for the production of articles of clothing which are open at the front side. The advantage of the method is also achieved however in the case the production of closed articles of clothing, such as pullovers. In this event a clothing blank can be made with the rear part and the two arm parts together with a separate blank for the front part of the pullover.

A number of blanks of articles of clothing manufactured in accordance with the method of the present invention, and the articles of clothing made from these blanks, will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In these drawings: Figure 1 is a first embodiment of a onepiece clothing blank; Figure la is an elevational view of a knitted jacket made from the blank of Figure 1; Figure 2 is a second embodiment of a clothing blank; Figure 2a is a front view of a knitted jacket made from the blank of Figure 2; Figure 3 is a third embodiment of a clothing blank; Figure 3a is a front view of a knitted jacket with short arms made from the clothing blank according to Figure 3.

Figure 4 is a fourth embodiment of a clothing blank.

Figure 4a is a front view of a knitted coat made from the blank of Figure 4.

Figure 5 shows two clothing blanks for production of a pullover with long arms, as seen before being assembled.

The clothing blank illustrated in Figure 1 has been made in one piece on a conventional flat knitting machine with two needle beds as a single or double ply fabric. It has five outer sections, namely a rear secition 11, two arm sections 12 and 13 and two front sections 14 and 15. All five outer sections of the clothing blank begin with welt starting courses 16 and a final ribbed rand 17. All five outer knitted parts are commenced in common with the starting welt courses 16 and are knitted simultaneously side by side and separated from one another with selvedges up to the arm extension 18. The two arm sections 12 and 13 are ionger than the back section 11 and the sections 14 and 15 constituting the front part, hence comprising more rows of stitches. As has already been mentioned in the preamble this is achieved by a multiple individual coursewise interrupting of the knitting procedure in the sections 11,14 and 15, whereby the arm extension 18 is reached simultaneously in all five sections.

From the arm extension 18 onwards a one-piece shoulder section 19 is knitted with continuous rows of stitches, and this can be divided into the five areas 19/1,19/2, 19/3, 19/4, and 19/5. Area 19/1 represents the extension of the outer rear section 11, the areas 19/2 and 19/3 constitute the extensions of the outer arm sections 12 and 13 and the two areas 19/4 and 19/5 of the shoulder section 19 constitute the extension of the outer half-sections 14 and 15 of the front part of the knitted blank.

During knitting of the shoulder section 19 a continuous narrowing of the width of the shoulder section areas 19/2 and 19/3 is brought about by a fashioning in alternate courses of this area with the adjoining areas 19/4 and 19/5, and the adjoining back section area 19/1. The fashioning is effected in the manner stated above by transferring stitches of a plurality of areas to the stitch receiving members of the counter bar, subsequent racking of the counter bar in a direction for the desired narrowing step and transferring back the looped stitches on to the needles of the needle bed. For example the fashioning can be started by transferring the stitches from the areas 19/2,19/1, 19/3 and 19/5 to the counter bar, which then is racked in the direction of the area 19/4, and subsequently the looped stitches are transferred back, as a result of which during the subsequent knitting a part of the transfer 20 marked by the dotted lines is secured between the areas 19/2 and 19/4 of the shoulder section 19. Subsequently the stitches of areas 19/4,19/2, 19/1 and 19/3 andaracking of the counter bar towards the area 19/5 can be performed, as a result of which a part of the transition 21 is achieved by transferring back the needles. The other two transition portions 22 and 23 can be formed by transferring the stitches from the areas 19/4, 19/2 and fashioning in the area 19/1 or by transferring the stitches of the areas 19/5, 19/3 and fashioning in the area 19/1. The sequence of the individual forming steps can be effected as required and with reference to the required progress disposition of the transition 20, 23 which must not be rectilinear.

After the shoulder section 19 has been made, in the clothing blank 10 the collar 24 is simultaneously knitted in the form of three individual collar sections 24/1, 24/2 and 24/3. The edges of the collar sections 24/1 24/3 are then formed with a selvedge edge by narrowing. All, or one part only, of the sections of the clothing blank can be pro vided with a stitch pattern or collar pattern, and in particular the shoulder section 19 can have patterning which prevails over all areas thereof. The markings 25 and 26 in the rear section 11 and in the front part sections 14 and 15 seen in Figure 1 and extending in the direction of the small stitches indicate patterning of this kind. In addition a continuous patterned area 27 in the shoulder section 19 is indicated by a dotted strip extending over all areas.

Figure la shows the knitted jacket made from the clothing blank. In its fabrication the longitudinal edges of the rear section 11 are sewn together with the longitudinal edges of the arm sections 12 and 13 to form closed arms. In addition the collar sections 24/2 and 24/3 are sewn at one edge to the edges of the central collar section 24/1 and a shoulder seam 28 to be seen in Figure la is thereby formed. The edges 29 and 30 at the open side of the clothing blank have already been formed into button strips during the production of the knitted blank and the edge of the front part section 15 is provided afterwards with button-holes 31.

Figure 2 shows a clothing blank 40 again with five outer sections, namely back section 41. two arm sections 42 and 43 and two front half sections 44 and 45. The knitting of the outer sections again is performed to provide welt courses 16 and an adjoining ribbed rand 17 is begun simultaneously. and the sections are knitted side-by-side. separated from one another. and with separate thread feeders. as single or two-ply fabrics until the arm sections 46 are reached. Apart from the clothing blank 10 of Figure 1 the adjoining shoulder section is so knitted that all the shoulder section areas 47/1. 47/2. 47/3. 47/4 and 47/5 are narrowed to the integral collar section 48. This is produced by a simultaneously divided. but coursewise alternating fashioning of the stitches simultaneously of each set of at least two section areas. this producing the pair-wise reducing transition parts 49 between the individual areas 47/1 - 47/5 as indicated in dotted lines. Here again the transfer and racking sequence of the courses of stitches is chosen with an eye to a simultaneous distribution of the forming steps and the required layout of the transition area 49.

and here again an overall patterning of all the sections of the clothing blank is feasible.

In the clothing blank 40 the assembly work to form the knitted jacket seen in Figure 2a is less than in the case of the clothing blank 10 because no collar or shoulder seams are necessary.

The production of a knitted blank 50 as shown in Figure 3 uses substantially the same method as in the production of blank 10. The sole difference resides in the fact that the knitting procedure is commenced with the formation of the welt starting course 16 and the adjoining rand 17 of the rear section 51 and the two front half sections 52 and 53 alone, and that the additional knitting of the short arm sections 54 and 55 is only initiated later. Nevertheless with an appropriate setting up of the knitting machine for obtaining a rand at the welt even the two arm parts 45 and 55 are started with welt starting courses 16. Otherwise the beginnings of the arm sections 54 and 55 must subsequently be sewn off to hold them. The knitted jacket illustrated in Figure 3a differs from the knitted jacket of Figure la solely by the short arms.

Any description of the remaining sections of the clothing blank 50 is therefore omitted.

Figure 4 shows a clothing blank 60 for the production of a knitted coat as illustrated in Figure 4a. The clothing blank 60 is made in the same way as the clothing blank 40 of Figure 2, with the single difference that the rear section 61 and the two front half sections 62 and 63 are of greater length than the corresponding sections 41, 44 and 45 of the clothing blank 40. They are also of greater length than the two arm sections 64 and 65.

All outer sections 61 - 65 can again be started in common with welt starting courses and the shorter lengths of the arm sections 64 and 65 can be obtained by a multiple interruption.

one course at a time. of the knitting of the arm sections 64 and 65.

Figure 5 shows a first clothing blank 70 and a second clothing blank 80 which. when sewn together, make a pullover. The clothing blank 70 is made in the same way as the clothing blank 40 of Figure 2. with the difference that it has three outer sections. namely a back section 71 and two adjoining arm sections 72 and 73. Moreover there is no collar section with the clothing blank 70. A fashioning of the rows of stitches of the individual areas is formed in the shoulder section of the knitted blank (not shown in more detail) to form transition areas indicated by dotted lines 74 and 75. The outer edges 76 and 77 of the shoulder area are produced by conventional narrowing, that is to say successive withdrawal of selvedge needles from the knitting procedure.

The clothing blank 70 which is to form the pullover with the front part 81 which has a pointed collar 72 is made separately from the clothing blank 70. It is shaped in the shoulder and collar areas in conventional fashion bv narrowing or widening the blank, which latter likewise is provided at its edge remote from the collar with selvedge courses.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. A method of machine knitting of a clothing blank into the required shape of individual sections of the blank and with wales extending in the longitudinal direction of the blank. in which the knitting procedure at all outer sections of the blank is commenced at the end of the clothing blank

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. vided with a stitch pattern or collar pattern, and in particular the shoulder section 19 can have patterning which prevails over all areas thereof. The markings 25 and 26 in the rear section 11 and in the front part sections 14 and 15 seen in Figure 1 and extending in the direction of the small stitches indicate patterning of this kind. In addition a continuous patterned area 27 in the shoulder section 19 is indicated by a dotted strip extending over all areas. Figure la shows the knitted jacket made from the clothing blank. In its fabrication the longitudinal edges of the rear section 11 are sewn together with the longitudinal edges of the arm sections 12 and 13 to form closed arms. In addition the collar sections 24/2 and 24/3 are sewn at one edge to the edges of the central collar section 24/1 and a shoulder seam 28 to be seen in Figure la is thereby formed. The edges 29 and 30 at the open side of the clothing blank have already been formed into button strips during the production of the knitted blank and the edge of the front part section 15 is provided afterwards with button-holes 31. Figure 2 shows a clothing blank 40 again with five outer sections, namely back section 41. two arm sections 42 and 43 and two front half sections 44 and 45. The knitting of the outer sections again is performed to provide welt courses 16 and an adjoining ribbed rand 17 is begun simultaneously. and the sections are knitted side-by-side. separated from one another. and with separate thread feeders. as single or two-ply fabrics until the arm sections 46 are reached. Apart from the clothing blank 10 of Figure 1 the adjoining shoulder section is so knitted that all the shoulder section areas 47/1. 47/2. 47/3. 47/4 and 47/5 are narrowed to the integral collar section 48. This is produced by a simultaneously divided. but coursewise alternating fashioning of the stitches simultaneously of each set of at least two section areas. this producing the pair-wise reducing transition parts 49 between the individual areas 47/1 - 47/5 as indicated in dotted lines. Here again the transfer and racking sequence of the courses of stitches is chosen with an eye to a simultaneous distribution of the forming steps and the required layout of the transition area 49. and here again an overall patterning of all the sections of the clothing blank is feasible. In the clothing blank 40 the assembly work to form the knitted jacket seen in Figure 2a is less than in the case of the clothing blank 10 because no collar or shoulder seams are necessary. The production of a knitted blank 50 as shown in Figure 3 uses substantially the same method as in the production of blank 10. The sole difference resides in the fact that the knitting procedure is commenced with the formation of the welt starting course 16 and the adjoining rand 17 of the rear section 51 and the two front half sections 52 and 53 alone, and that the additional knitting of the short arm sections 54 and 55 is only initiated later. Nevertheless with an appropriate setting up of the knitting machine for obtaining a rand at the welt even the two arm parts 45 and 55 are started with welt starting courses 16. Otherwise the beginnings of the arm sections 54 and 55 must subsequently be sewn off to hold them. The knitted jacket illustrated in Figure 3a differs from the knitted jacket of Figure la solely by the short arms. Any description of the remaining sections of the clothing blank 50 is therefore omitted. Figure 4 shows a clothing blank 60 for the production of a knitted coat as illustrated in Figure 4a. The clothing blank 60 is made in the same way as the clothing blank 40 of Figure 2, with the single difference that the rear section 61 and the two front half sections 62 and 63 are of greater length than the corresponding sections 41, 44 and 45 of the clothing blank 40. They are also of greater length than the two arm sections 64 and 65. All outer sections 61 - 65 can again be started in common with welt starting courses and the shorter lengths of the arm sections 64 and 65 can be obtained by a multiple interruption. one course at a time. of the knitting of the arm sections 64 and 65. Figure 5 shows a first clothing blank 70 and a second clothing blank 80 which. when sewn together, make a pullover. The clothing blank 70 is made in the same way as the clothing blank 40 of Figure 2. with the difference that it has three outer sections. namely a back section 71 and two adjoining arm sections 72 and 73. Moreover there is no collar section with the clothing blank 70. A fashioning of the rows of stitches of the individual areas is formed in the shoulder section of the knitted blank (not shown in more detail) to form transition areas indicated by dotted lines 74 and 75. The outer edges 76 and 77 of the shoulder area are produced by conventional narrowing, that is to say successive withdrawal of selvedge needles from the knitting procedure. The clothing blank 70 which is to form the pullover with the front part 81 which has a pointed collar 72 is made separately from the clothing blank 70. It is shaped in the shoulder and collar areas in conventional fashion bv narrowing or widening the blank, which latter likewise is provided at its edge remote from the collar with selvedge courses. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A method of machine knitting of a clothing blank into the required shape of individual sections of the blank and with wales extending in the longitudinal direction of the blank. in which the knitting procedure at all outer sections of the blank is commenced at the end of the clothing blank

removed from the neck by a welt, these outer sections are produced simultaneously until the level of the arm projections is reached, the ensuing shoulder section of the clothing blank which is narrowed to the collar extension is knitted integrally with continuous fashioning of the outer sections in accordance with a required form of the transitions between these area, and in which finally a potential collar section is knitted in one or more parts, and wherein the knitting is performed on a knitting machine with at least one needle bed, associated with which is a counter bar which can be racked in parallel fashion and has stitch-receiving elements directed towards the needles of the needle bed, and that the narrowing of the outer section areas in the integral shoulder area is performed by continuous fashioning of the outer sections in the shoulder area by transferring all the stitches of at least one outer section to the stitch-receiving elements of the counter bar, subsequent parallel movement of this bar through an appropriate oblique movement of a transiiton between adjacent outer sections of a corresponding number of needle divisions and subsequent transfer back of all the stitches on the needles of the needle bed, whereby a fashioning of the outer section areas takes place alternately from one and from the other side of the clothing blank by alternate racking of the counter bar in one or the other direction.

2. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the clothing blank is of constant width and the rear body section area and the front body half areas are made in one piece and the tapering shoulder section of the arm section areas are tapered by alternate fashioning coursewise into the adjacent front part half areas towards the collar section.

3. A method according to Claim 1, wherein in the clothing blank all the outer section areas in the shoulder section taper towards the collar section, and an automatically distributed coursewise fashioning takes place simultaneously between at least two section areas.

4. A method according to any one of Claims 1 to 3, wherein a stitch- and/or colour-patterning is produced in the clothing blank extending over the complete width of the tapering shoulder section and in correct fashion into the individual section areas.

5. A clothing blank made in accordance with the method of any one of claims 1 to 4, having two front part halves which are flat and are each provided with a welt and with selvedges two arm sections, and a back part which merge seamlessly into a shoulder section knitted with continuous courses of stitches adjoined to an open collar selvedge liekwise without stitching.

6. A clothing blank according to Claim 5, including a stitch and/or colour patterning at least in the shoulder section there of, which patterning extends over the complete width and length of the shoulder section.

7. A clothing blank according to either of Claims 5 and 6 wherein the shoulder section knitted with continuous courses of stitching, has a plurality of areas with recognisable transitions in the stitch pattern, which transitions extend from the selvedge extended portions of the arm section and the back part towards the collar section.

8. A clothing blank according to Claim 7, wherein the transitions extend rectilinearly at an angle to the selvedges of the arm sections and into the extension of the selvedges of the back part and constitute a selvedge of the halves of the front part.

9. A clothing blank according to Claim 7, wherein the transitions extend rectilineatly or in curved fashion at an angle to all the selvedges of the adjoining outer sections.

10. A clothing blank according to any one of Claims 5 to 8 wherein the collar section is composed of a plurality of individual areas which are knitted in each case to another area of the shoulder section and extend in each case over a part only of the selvedge width of the area of the shoulder section concerned.

11. A clothing blank according to any one of Claims 5 to 9 wherein the collar section extends over the complete length of the collar adjacent selvedge of the shoulder section.

12. A method of machine knitting of a clothing blank substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figures 1 and la according to the accompanying drawings.

13. A method of maching knitting of a clothing blank substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figures 2 and 2a according to the accompanying drawings.

14. A method of machine knitting of clothing blank substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figures 3 and 3a of the accompanying drawings.

15. A method of machine knitting of a clothing blank substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figures 4 and 4a according to the accompanying drawings.

16. A method of machine knitting of a clothing blank substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figure 5 according to the accompanying drawings.

17. A clothing blank substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figure 1 and la of the accompanying drawings.

18. A clothing blank substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figure 2 and 2a of the accompanying drawings.

19. A clothing blank substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figure 3 and 3a of the accompanying drawings.

20. A clothing blank substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figure 4 and 4a of the accompanying drawings.

21. A clothing blank substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figure 5 of the accompanying drawigns.