US2361152A - Knitted fabric - Google Patents

Description

1944- w. A. SAUSSAMAN ETAL 2,361,152

KNITTED FABRI C Filed Nov. 27, 1943 IN VEN TORS JEREM/Af/ 15E BAUSHEA By WAL TERA. 54055/1 M/J/V A770 EV Patented Oct. 24, 1944 UNITED STATES PAT KNITTED FABRIC Application November 27, 1943, Serial No. 511,900

(Cl. 66ll72) 7 Claims.

The present invention relates to the art of knitting and has for an object thereof a novel method of knitting and the novel knitted fabric and article of knitting resulting therefrom. It is a further object of this invention to provide a fabric in which the body portion thereof is ornamented with raised stitches of walewise extending wrap threads, the individual ornamental raised stitches of the wrap threads being larger than the corresponding individual stitches of the body portion of the fabric.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description of the invention taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure l is a view of a stocking embodying the invention,

Figure 2 is an enlarged stitch diagram of a part of the ornamented top of the stocking shown in Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a modification of Figure 2,

Figure 4 is a section on line 4-4 of Figure 2,

Figure 5 is a section on line 5-5 of Figure 2 and Figure 6 is a section on line 6-6 of Figure 3.

In Figure 1 is shown a stocking having the foot portion I, the leg portion 8 and the top portion 9. The top 9 when mad of rib fabric is joined in the usual manner to the leg 8, of plain fabric, along the line l0, known in the art as the transfer line. The present invention is not limited to rib fabric but includes plain or jersey fabric within its scope and accordingly the top 9 may also be made of plain fabric in which event there will be no transfer line In in the stocking, as is well understood in the art.

The top 9, shown for illustrative purposes, has the sections ll, l2 and. I3, of which the sections H and iii are not ornamented and of which the section 12 is ornamented with raised hollow diamond shaped figures. It is obvious that the ornamentation may assume any other desired configuration. In the section 13 of the top there is shown diagrammatically a garter portion IS in the area of which the fabric of the top is contracted in diameter due to the tension of the elastic yarn forming the garter. The sections H and I3 are knit of the usual textile yarn,

In Figure 2 is shown a stitch diagram of three wales and five courses of rib fabric comprising a small portion of the ornamented section 12 of the top 9. The outside or plain wale is shown at l6 and the inside or rib wales are shown at H and It, the fabric itself being knit of the yarn l9 and the wale I6 being ornamented with the walewise extending wrap yarn 20, which by either knitting 0r floating, as in course it, determines the pattern, as is well understood. On adjacent plain wales, in the section it, there are other wra yarns similar to yarn fill each of which either knit or float as the design requires. The wrap yarns Ware of the usual textile character and may be cotton, wool, rayon or silk and are relatively inelastic as that term is known in the art as compared to those yarns which are elastic such as those which are made of natural or artificial rubber or of other synthetic or natural materials having the characteristics which are similar to those of rubber. The yarn Ill-l forming the base fabric of the section i2 is of an elastic yarn of the type which has just been described. The elastic yarns are knit and may be stretched, and in Figur 2 the fabric is shown stretched or expanded to the point where the stitches of elastic yarn l!) are as large as the stitches of the inelastic textile wrap yarn 20, which is the size of these stitches when drawn by the needles of the knitting machine making the same.

In the knitting of the top 9, the unornamented section II is knit of the usual textile body yarn of a certain diameter or denier, by feeding the same to the needles of a circular knitting machine and then when the section l2 starts, the body yarn is changed to a suitable elastic yarn under tension, as will be explained, and this is knitted on the needles along with the usual textile wrap yarns, the latter selectively, to form the ornamented section l2, then to form the section 13, the elastic yarn is changed and the usual textile body yarn is again knitted on the needles of the machine. It is customary to keep the textile yarns under a certain amount of tension for good knitting, but the tension on the elastic yarn is governed by other considerations, as will be explained. It will be noted that the sections ll, [2 and I3, except for the garter area in the latter, are of substantially the same diameter, this diameter being that usually obtained by the knitting of the usual textile body yarn upon any given size machine, thus so far as the diameter of the sections II and I3 of the top is concerned, it is normal, however to provide that the section I2 also have substantially this diameter certain steps are necessary. An elastic yarn is knit under tension adjusted so that when the elastic stitches come off the machine needles and contract, the diameter of the elastic fabric is the same as the diameter of the textile fabric. Usually as much tension as possible is taken off the elastic yarn as the needle drawing action alone in knitting is suillcient to provide enough tension on the elastic yarn to cause the stitches of the same to contract when they are cast off the needles and become part of the fabric. The denier of the elastic yarn maybe from one and one-half to five times the denier of the textile yarn used and the amount of tension to be used on the elastic yarn will vary with the denier, the gauge of the machine, whether the machine is rib or plain, as well as with the particular commercial type of machine. With these variable factors involved, the knitter need only adjust the tension, more or'less, on the elastic yarn until the fabric coming off the machine has the desired diameter. In the case of a Fidelity rib wrap machine of thirty-six gage an elastic yarn with a denier of about three times the denier of the textile yarn and fed under as light a tension as possible, has given good results.

The elastic yarn in the completed stitches is still under a certain amount of tension and this causes the yarn to be formed into very tight close compact stitches in each of which the parts of the knitted loops are as close to ether as possible and the stitches themselves in each wale and course are likewise drawn very close to each other. This is in contrast to a textile yarn fabric in which the yarn is not under tension and in which the stitches are relatively open with spaces between the parts of the knitted loops and between the wales and the courses. The knitted stitch of a textile yarn is generally longer, in a walewise direction, than it is broad due to the drawing of the loop by the needle, but in the case of the knitted stitch of an elastic yarn under tension in the stitch this is not true as the elastic yarn contracts, the contraction being greater walewise than coursewise. It is because the completed stitches of the elastic yarn are smaller or tighter than the completed stitches of the textile yarn that the larger diameter elastic yarn is required to give the same diameter in the finished elastic fabric as is present in the textile yarn knitted fabric, however since the stitches of the elasticyarn contract more walewise than they do coursewise, the resultant elastic yarn fabric while having the same diameter as the textile fabric will be somewhat shorter than the same in a walewise direction.

Those textile wrap yarn stitches which have been drawn with the elastic yarn stitches are of a normal size and remain so after the elastic yarn stitches have contracted with the result that the wrap yarn stitches extend upwardly away from the face of the base fabric as a distinctly raised ornamentation as clearly appears in the drawing.

In the Figure 2 the body elastic yarn I9 has been shown stretched to show the wrap yarn and the body loops of equal size as they are drawn by the needles. In Figure 4 the elastic fabric has been shown partially contracted and the loops of wrap yarn 20 are shown as being larger than the loops of the yarn I9 and as extending outwardly from the face of the fabric. The reason for showing the elastic partially contracted in this view is that the stitch diagram is thus plainly visible while still illustrating the invention clearly. The Figure shows the fabric in section with the elastic almost fully contracted and from this view it is likewise apparent how the larger wrap stitches stand out as raised ornamentation.

The Figure 3 is similar to Figure 2 except that it shows the invention as applied to a plain knit fabric in which all the wales 22, 23, and 24 are drawn in the same direction. It is obvious that the invention is equally applicable to plain fabric as well as to rib fabric. The elastic yarn is shown at 25 and the wrap yarn at 25. The Figure 6 is a cross section of the plain fabric and illustrates how the stitches of the wrap ram 26, which are larger than the contracted stitches of the tensioned elastic yarn 25, extends upwardly from the face of the base fabric as raised ornamentation.

In the top '8 the section I2 is shown as ornamented with the sections II and I3 plain and knitted of textile yarns. If it should be desired to have the entire top ornamented with a design of the raised wrap stitches, then the base fabric for the entire top would be knit of the elastic yarn. In other words, the elastic yam need only be used in that area of the fabric where the raised ornamentation is desired. Or the area I2 may have the raised wrap ornamentation described, while either one or both of the sections II and I3 may have the usual type of wrap thread ornamentation on a base of textile yarn.

It will be noted that the section I2 is of elastic yarn under a certain amount of tension and thus has a garter effect in itself to a certain degree. This section of knitted elastic yarn may be stretched in two directions, walewise and coursewise, and due to the presence of the walewise extending textile wrap threads, the stretch in a walewise direction is limited and controlled by the extent to which the limited length of the wrap yarns will permit the fabric to stretch.

It will be obvious that the invention is not limited to tubular fabrics and is equally applicable to flat knit fabrics which are wrap ornamented. In the application of the invention to flat knit fabrics it is only necessary that the sections knit of textile yarns have substantially the same width as the sections knit of elastic yarns, with the stitches of elastic yarn under tension and contracted. The contracted elastic stitches will, as explained, cause the corresponding plated wrap stitches to extend upwardly from the face of the fabric to form a raised design.

We claim: 4

l. A knitted fabric comprising a base of wales and courses knit of an elastic textile body yarn under tension and selectively knit walewise/extending non elastic textile wrap yarns, the wrap yarn stitches being larger than the body yarn stitches and extending upwardly from the face of the fabric to form a raised design,

2. The method of knitting raised wrap designs on a base fabric including the step of feeding an elastic textile body yarn under tension to a series of needles and of feeding walewise extending non elastic textile wrap yarns to selected needles, the step of drawing equal length stitches of body and of wrap yarns on said needles and the step of casting off said stitches, the cast off elastic stitches contracting in size.

3. A tubular knitted fabric comprising wales and courses knit of an elastic textile body yarn under tension and of walewise extending non elastic textile wrap yarns selectively plated thereon, the wrap yarn stitches being larger than the body yarn stitches and extending upwardly from the face of the fabric to form a raised design.

4. A tubular rib knitted fabric comprising inside rib and outside plain wales knit of an elastic textile body yam under tension and of walewise extending non elastic textile wrap yarns individual to the outside plain wales and selectively plated thereon, the body yarn stitches under tension being contracted in size and forcing the rela tively larger and looser wrap yarn stitches upwardly from the face of the fabric to form a raised design. a

5. A tubular rib knitted fabric comprising inside rib and outside plain wales knit of an elastic textile body yarn under tension and of walewise extending non elastic textile wrap yarns individual to the outside plain wales andvselectively plated thereon, th wrap yarn stitches being larger than the body yarn stitches and extending upwardly from the face of the fabric to form a raised design. l

6. A tubular rib knitted fabric comprising inside rib and outside plain wales knit of an elastic textile body yarn and of walewise extending non elastic textile wrap yarns individual to the outside plain wales and selectively plated thereon.

7. A tubular rib knitted fabric comprising inside rib and outside plain wales knit of an elastic textile body yarn under tension and of walewise extending non elastic textile wrap yarns individual to the outside plain wales and selectively I plated thereon, the body stitches being contracted

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