US3678712A

US3678712A - Combined crocheting and looping needle

Info

Publication number: US3678712A
Application number: US26690A
Authority: US
Inventors: Richard L Singleton
Original assignee: LOOPCO
Current assignee: LOOPCO
Priority date: 1970-04-08
Filing date: 1970-04-08
Publication date: 1972-07-25
Anticipated expiration: 1989-07-25

Abstract

A sewing needle having an eye at one end and a crochet hook at the other end. Yarn is passed through the eye which serves its customary function during the making of loops and which serves as a yarn guide and yarn feed control during the making of crochet stitches. The relationship of the hook and the eye is such that the needle can be used to form successively loop and crochet stitches and vice versa. The needle is also provided with an annular stop means for limiting the size of loop formation, such stop means being frictionally adjustable on the needle in its spacing from the eye.

Description

United States Patent Singleton [4 1 July 25, 1972 [54] COMBINED CROCHETING AND 2,309,528 1/1943 Otting et al ..66/1 17 LQOPING NEEDLE 3,228,212 1/1966 Huber ..66/1 17 72] Inventor: Richard L. Singleton, Wichita, Kans. FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS [73] Assignee: Loopco, Wichita, Kans. 976,717 1 1/ 1950 France ..66/ 1 [22] Filed: April 1970 Primary Examiner-Jordan Franklin 2 L N 26,690 Assistant Examiner-George H. Krizmanich Attorney-Robert E. Breidenthal [52] US. Cl ..66/1 18 57 ABSTRACT [51] Int. Cl. ..D04b 3/02 58 Field of Search ..223/102; 66/1 17, 1 18, l 19, A Sewmg needle haw"; eye end and crochet hook 66/] at the other end. Yarn is passed through the eye which serves its customary function during the making of loops and which 56 R f C} d serves as a yarn guide and yarn feed control during the making I 1 e arenas I e of crochet stitches. The relationship of the hook and the eye is UNITED STATES PATENTS such that the needle can be used to form successively loop and crochet stitches and vice versa. The needle is also provided 386,723 7/1888 Sm'th "223/102 with an annular stop means for limiting the size of loop formal358'067 1/1920 Ensfield "66/1 18 tion, such stop means being frictionally adjustable on the neel,540,790 6/1925 McCray .223/102 X dle in its Spacing from the 2,217,524 10/1940 Neyschwanger et a1. ..66/118 v 2,234,061 Porter et al ..66/l17 4 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures Patented July 25, 1972 3,678,712

2 Sheets-Sheet l RICHARD LS/NGLETO/V YNVENTOR.

ATTORNEY Patented July 25, 1972 3,578,712

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 &/2

RICHARD L.S/NGLETON INVENTOR- ATTORNEY COMBINED CROCHETING AND LOOPING NEEDLE The present invention relates to new and useful improve ments in sewing needles for loop stitching and crochet stitching, and more particularly pertains to a single needle enabling the successive making of either type of such stitches.

Crochet hook or crochet stitching needles and loop stitching needles are both well known; but heretofore, when it has been desired to produce a fabric incorporating both loop and crochet stitches so as to enjoy the almost unlimited versatility and advantages of the styles of fabric thereby realizable, it has been necessary to employ two separate needles a looping needle and a crocheting needle.

When the looping needle was to be used, the crochet hook or needle had to be laid aside, which was not only inconvenient, but occasionally resulted in at least the temporary misplacement of the same. A much greater inconvenience was entailed when the crochet needle was used as the yarn must continue to be passed through the eye of the looping needle, and the looping needle had to be moved along the yarn between the fabric and the ball or supply of yarn each time its use was discontinued, as well as commenced; for otherwise the looping needle would subject the user to the disturbing nuisance of jerking about on the yarn as the latter was manipulated while making crochet stitches.

It is the paramount object of the present invention to spare the person alternately forming one or more crochet stitches and one or more loop stitches the necessity for employing two separate needles and the attendant inconveniences mentioned above.

It is another important object of the invention to provide a sewing needle enabling the selective making of either loop and crochetstitches.

Yet another important object of the invention is to provide a needle in accordance with the above objects wherein the eye customarily associated with a looping needle serves the function of a yarn guide and a means enabling the user to control the rate of yarn fed in the making of each crochet stitch when the needle is employed to make crochet stitches.

Broadly, the invention comprises the provision of a sewing needle having a crochet hook at one end and a loop eye adjacent its other end. Preferably the invention also comprises the needle being provided with a means intermediate its ends facilitating finger gripping, and the provision of stop means adjustably positionable along the needle between the finger gripping means and the eye for limiting the size of loops formed in the loop stitches.

These and other objects, as well as important features and advantages, will become manifest during the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, such description being given in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the needle of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a reduced side elevational view of the needle shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is another elevational view of the needle, this view being taken at right angles to the view shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional fragmentary detail view taken upon the plane of section line 4-4 in FIG. 2;

' FIG. 5 is an enlarged transverse sectional view taken upon I the plane of the section line 5-5 in FIG. 3; and,

FIG. 6 is an enlarged transverse sectional view taken upon the plane of the section line 6--6 in FIG. 5.

Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various views, the reference numeral 10 designates generally the needle of the invention.

The needle 10 is comprised of an elongated body designated generally at 12 and an annular stop member designated generally at 14. The body 12 can be made of metal such as steel or aluminum, synthetic resin or plastic such as nylon or the like, or fine-grained hardwood such as maple, walnut or lemonwood. The stop member is preferably of a resilient elastomeric material such as to have a substantial coefficient of friction with respect to the material of the body 12 such as neoprene or the like.

The body 12 has a notch 16 adjacent one end thereof to define a barb 18. The shape of the notch 16 and the barb I8 is such as to constitute a conventional crochet hook designated generally at 20 having a smoothly rounded or contoured tip 22 of relatively reduced transverse dimensions. As is customary all the surfaces of the crochet hook 20 are, as shown, smoothly rounded or contoured to prevent snagging on or cutting the yarn and to enable smooth operation of the needle 10 during the making of crochet stitches.

Intermediate its ends, the body 12 of the needle 10 is shaped and given a surface finish to constitute a finger gripping means designed generally at 24 whereby the body 12 can be readily manipulated by the fingers as to all movements that are necessary in the making of loop and crochet stitches, particularly such as entail turning the body 12 about and along its longitudinal dimension or axis. The means 24 preferably takes the illustrated form of an intennediate longitudinal extent of the body 12 having a pair of longitudinally spaced

noncircular portions

26 and 28 of substantially rectangular transverse cross section such as shown in FIG. 6 relative to the body portion 26. The

portions

26 and 28 are substantially identical to each other. The transverse ends of the

portions

26 and 28 are rounded as shown at 34 in FIG 6. As will be apparent on inspection of FIG. 2, the

opposite side surfaces

30 and 32 are also of concave character with respect to their longitudinal dimensions.

The finger gripping means 24 is spaced from the hook 20 by an extent 36 of the body 12 that is of circular cylindrical transverse section as shown in FIG. 5, and the body 12 also includes a longitudinal extent 38 that is tapered as shown to smoothly merge at its opposite ends with the body extent 26 and the hook 20. The tapered extent 38 of the body 12 is of substan tially circular or of slight elliptic character in transverse section along its length.

The body 12 is provided with a transverse opening or eye 40 therethrough that is closely spaced adjacent the end 42 of the body 12 remote from the hook 20. Except as indicated to be otherwise, the body 12 is of cylindrical configuration, preferably circular as shown, throughout its axial or longitudinal extent between the finger gripping means 24 and the end 42 of the body 12, such cylindrical extent being designated by the reference numeral 44. Certain parts of the needle 10 have been described and shown as being of circular cylindrical character. It is to be understood that the term cylindrical per se is employed in the broad sense such as to describe any surface that can be generated by moving a directrix line about a simple closed curve while the line is maintained parallel to a given line. Accordingly, unless the term cylindrical" is modified by a term such as circular," the broad sense is intended and includes by way of example a cylindrical body of elliptical transverse section.

The surfaces of the body 12. defining the eye 40 therethrough are such as are customary in the case of conventional looping needles such as those commercially available from The Grant Company of 4149 North Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, Ill. (Zip Code 60641), and depicted in a booklet published by them' in 1969 with the title Grants One Needle Looping. In particular the internal body surface 46 of the eye 40 remote from the body end 42 is convex as clearly shown in FIG. 4. The internal body surface 48 nearest the end 42 is generally of a partial cylindrical configuration as shown in FIG. 4. All surfaces of the body 12 in and about the eye 40 are smoothly contoured in the conventional manner to prevent snagging and cutting of yarn, not shown, passed therethrough.

The body 12 has an extreme end portion 50 intermediate the eye 40 and the end 42 that is progressively tapered from the transverse dimensions of the extent 44 and which is smoothly rounded off at the end 42 to constitute a convex and blunt tip 54 of reduced size as clearly shown in the drawings.

In the preferred construction, the book 20 has an axial plane of symmetry as does also the eye 40, and such planes of symmetry are at right angles to each other. In other words, it is preferred that, as shown, the plane of the barb 18 is at right angles to the axis of the transverse extent of the eye 40 through the body 12.

The annular stop means 12 is of somewhat elastic character and of frictional nature. The annular stop means 12 comprises a disc 56 of neoprene or the like having a central cylindrical opening 58 therethrough (of ashape similar to the body extent 44) through which the cylindrical extent 44 of the body 12 extends. The stop disc 56 has a snug and frictional fit of the body extent 44 inasmuch as the internal diameter of the opening 58 has a slightly less diameter than the diameter of the body extent 44 when the disc is in a state of repose. The relationship is such that the stop disc 56 tends fairly strongly to be frictionally retained at whatever position it is axially disposed along the body extent 44, but can be adjusted in position therealong when subjected to forces considerably in excess of the forces to which the same is subjected in the forming of loops in loop stitching. The disc 56 can of course be removed from and replaced on the body 12 as may be desired. As shown, the outer periphery is axially convex at 60.

While the needle is susceptible to many and varied uses limited in number only by the ingenuity and imagination of the user, a brief description of the use of the same in connection with alternate loop stitching and crochet stitching will adequately suggest the versatility of the sewing instrument.

Yarn, not shown, is passed through the eye, and a fabric can be partially formed by loop stitching in the customary manner (such as any of the ways described in the previously mentioned publication of The Grant Company), with the size of the loops being controlled by the position to which the stop disc 56 is adjusted on the body extent 44 and its spacing from the eye 40. Upon the completion of the making of one or more of the loop stitches, an additional short length of yarn is passed through the eye 40, and the direction of the needle 10 with respect to the fabric is reversed so that the hook 20 can be applied to the same and the length of the yarn extending between the fabric and the eye 40. Crochet stitches can now be executed in the usual manner with yarn being fed through the eye 40 which then takes on the function of a guide for the yarn. Such guiding function essentially eliminates any possibility of the yarn kinking, or becoming tangled near the fabric.

While crocheting with the yarn passed through the guiding eye 40, the extent of the yarn intermediate the eye 40 and the workpiece or fabric, not shown, can be played or fed either through the hand with which the user grips the needle or through the fingers of the users other hand, and in either case, if desired the user can with the hand holding the needle coordinate the gripping of yarn against the needle 10 adjacent the eye 40 to control the rate of feeding of the yarn. This use is enhanced by the hook 20 being at right angles to the eye 40, though such angular relationship is not essential. It will be noted that the preferred arrangement works equally well for persons that are rightand left-handed.

The needle 10 can be fabricated by any conventional and well known techniques appropriate to the materials employed. Metals can be stamped or cast, while injection molding can be applied in the case of nylon or the like. Wood can be carved to the desired shape.

Having described the invention, its fabrication and use to convey a full and complete appreciation thereof to those familiar with the art, attention is now directed to the appended claims as to the scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. A sewing needle comprising a straight elongated body having first and second ends, said body having a barb shape at the first end thereof defining a crochet hook, said body having an end portion terminating at the second end of the body, said end portion having an opening extending transversely therethrough defining an eye intermediate the longitudinal extent of said end portion, said end portion having an external configuration that is smoothly contoured longitudinally along the entire longitudinal extent thereof and being smoothly rounded off and blunt at the second end of the body, said end portion of the body with the eye therethrough being so constructed and arranged as to constitute a looper means for knitting by looping, with said eye and said crochet hook being so constructed and arranged that the eye constitutes means for guiding yarn along a portion of a travel path thereof on its being fed to the crochet hook, and said body being provided with an external configuration constituting finger gripping means intermediate and spaced from the crochet hook and said end portion of the body, whereby a user can with finger pressure turn the body about and move the same along its longitudinal extent.

2. The combination of claim 1, wherein the body is provided with a stop means between and spaced from the eye and the finger gripping means for limiting the foremost insertion of the second end of the body into a fabric.

3. The combination of claim 2, wherein said end portion includes a longitudinal extent that is of cylindrical configuration, and wherein the stop means is an annular member of elastomeric material embracing and frictionally engaging said cylindrical extent of said end portion, whereby the annular stop means can be forced longitudinally along the cylindrical extent of said end portion to a position of selected spacing from the eye.

4. The combination of claim 2, wherein the barb shape at the first end of the body has a plane of symmetry coincident with the longitudinal extent of the body, and wherein said end portion of the body inclusive of the opening therethrough has a plane of symmetry coincident with the longitudinal extent of the body, with said planes of symmetry being at right angles to each other.