US3695063A

US3695063A - Knitting method and knitted garment

Info

Publication number: US3695063A
Application number: US79545A
Authority: US
Inventors: Max William Betts; Frank Robinson
Original assignee: Courtaulds PLC
Current assignee: Akzo Nobel UK PLC
Priority date: 1969-10-31
Filing date: 1970-10-09
Publication date: 1972-10-03
Anticipated expiration: 1989-10-03
Also published as: BE757588A; FR2066770A5; ES194762U; GB1320686A; CS160666B2; CH531600A; IE34754L; LU61882A1; DE2050978A1; NL7015959A; ZA706759B; IE34754B1; ES194762Y

Abstract

A method of machine knitting a garment blank includes knitting a tube having portions constituting portions of sleeves and body of the garment located between the underarm region and neck of the garment and knitting an extension for each sleeve integral therewith, each extension constituting a shoulder portion of the garment and having edges arranged to be joined to the upper edges of the said single knitted tube.

Description

United States Patent Betts et al. 1 Oct. 3, 1972 [54] KNITTING METHOD AND KNITTED [56] RelerencesClted GARMENT UNITED STATES PATENTS [72] Inventors: Max William Betts, Coventry; Frank 7 Robinson, Bo owash both of En- RObIIISOII et X l d 2,004,699 6/ 1935 Krautkopf ..66/64 [73] Assignee: Clgiriiic'itaulds Limited, London, En- Primary Examiner Ronald Feldbaum g Attorney-Davis, Hoxie, Faithful & Hapgood [22] Filed: Oct. 9, 1970 21 Appl. No.: 79,545 ABSTRACT A method. of machine knitting a garment blank in- [30] Foreign Application Priority D t eludes knitting a tube having portions constituting portions of sleeves and body of the garment located Oct. 13, 1969 Great Britain ..5 3470/69 between h n arm regi n and neck of the garment and knitting an extension for each sleeve integral [2 (til therewith each extension constituting a shoulder p [58] Field o?sliiliiIIIIL'IIIIIIIIIIIIfffffiiis 176, 64 of the garment and having edges arranged to be joined to the upper edges of the said single knitted tube.

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) I! I j Inventors mm WILLIAM BETTS FRANK ROBINSON PM M40520 Home y s KNITTING METHOD AND KNITTED GARMENT This invention relates to a method of machine knitting a blank for making up into a knitted garment.

The methods normally employed for making garments involve a considerable amount of making up and the object of this invention is to provide a knitted garment and a method of making it which involve con siderably less making up than conventional garments and methods of making them. Hitherto, fully-fashioned knitted garments have generally been made by knitting pieces of the garments separately and subsequently sewing the separate pieces together after removal from the knitting machine. Similarly, cut-and-sew garments have been made by cutting out pieces of the garments from a length of knitted fabric and then sewing the pieces together. The purpose of the present invention is to reduce or substantially eliminate the number of sewing operations required in making up a garment and to simplify any sewing operation which may still be required in joining parts of the garment together.

The term course is used generally in the knitting art and in this specification to mean a row of loops in the fabric formed in the direction along the needle beds. A wale is a column of loops in successive courses.

By the method of the invention, the amount of work required in making up a garment is reduced because portions of the sleeves are knitted in one piece with the body of the garment and other portions of the sleeves intended to form the tops of the shoulder regions of the garment are knitted in one piece with the sleeves. These shoulder portions may also be knitted so as to join them with the top of the body portion of the garment. The operation of joining the sleeves to the body of the garment is thus entirely-or substantially carried out on the knitting machine. The method can be carried out on a knitting machine having at least one pair of opposed needle beds, means for operating the needles independently of one another and yarn carriers to supply yarn for the production of knitted loops on the needles. A flat bar knitting machine, for example, is suitable.

According to the invention a method of machine knitting a garment blank includes knitting a tube having portions constituting portions of sleeves and body of the garment located between the underarm region and the neck of the garment and knitting an extension for each sleeve integral therewith, each extension constituting a shoulder portion of the garment and having edges arranged to be joined to the upper edges of the said single knitted tube.

Since, in the blank produced by the method just described, the sleeve extensions are already joined to the garment blank in thecorrect positions for joining to the upper edges of the said single tube, any subsequent sewing operation used to join the extensions to the tube is made easier than is the case when joining completely separate garment pieces together.

The method may include knitting portions of the body and sleeves extending up to the underarm region as three separate tubes.

The extensions of the sleeve can be joined to the said upper edges of the single knitted tube on the knitting machine by a joining, for example a linking, operation subsequent to the knitting or, advantageously, during the knitting of the garment blank.

Preferably, the extensions constituting shoulder regions are knitted on auxiliary needle beds movable longitudinally of a pair of opposed main needle beds. A flat V-bed knitting machine having such auxiliary beds is described, for example, in British Pat. Specification No. 991,943 and in U.S. Pat. Specification No. 3, l 67,938. Each extension can be knitted as a series of Ushaped courses, each end of each of these courses being joined to the end of a wale of the said single knitted tube, advantageously by knitting the end loop of a wale of the single knitted tube through the end loop of a U-shaped course of the extension or vice ver- The term longitudinally of the needle beds is used in this specification to mean a direction along the arrays of needles in the beds. It does not imply that the beds must be straight since the invention can be carried out on circular knitting machines capable of knitting tubes on needles of opposed beds.

The invention will be further described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which FIG. 1 is a view of a garment according to the invention, and

FIGS. 2 to 188 are diagrammatic plans showing various stages in the production of garments by methods according to the invention.

The drawings illustrating the method of the invention are purely diagrammatic and in particular, to simplify the drawings, the number of knitted loops shown has been greatly reduced compared with the number of loops to be found in an actual garment.

The knitted garment shown in FIG. 1 includes three tubes knitted separately on the machine and constituting respectively a tubular body portion A, and tubular sleeve portions B and C. The portions A to C extend to the underarm region D in the garment, their upper edges (that is their edges nearer the neck of the garment) being indicated by the broken lines E, F and G. A portion of the garment knitted as a single tube H constitutes the parts I and J of the sleeves and a part K of the body. The parts I and J of the sleeves are bounded by the broken lines F, R and R and G, S and S, respectively. The part K of the body comprises two flat panels one at the front and one at the back of the garment but these panels are not knitted as separate pieces but as parts of the tube H.

The portions I and J of the single tube H have wales L and M extending into sleeve tubes B and C while the panels constituting the part K of the garment have wales N extending into the body tube A. Sleeve extensions O and P are knitted integrally with the other parts of the sleeves and have wales extending into the sleeve portions I and J. The extensions 0 and P are joined to the upper edges of the part K of the body. In the garment of FIG. 1, each of the extensions 0 and P is knitted as a series of U-shaped courses, one end of each course being joined to one of the panels of the part K of the body and the other end of the course to the other panel of the part K. The wales Q of the extensions thus extend at right angles to the wales N of the body part K.

The extensions 0 and P constitute upper shoulder regions of the garment and the garment has a saddle shoulder appearance. The broken lines R and S in FIG. 1 mark the divisions between the parts I and J of the single tube H which are the parts of the sleeves, that is have wales extending into the sleeve tubes B and C, and the part K of the single tube comprising the two panels which are portions of the body. If the garment is knitted from the waist to the neck, the inclination of these lines R and S is produced by terminating (as will be described below), during the knitting of the single tube I-I, wales'which extend into the body tube A as well as wales which extend into the sleeve tubes B and C. The angle of inclination of the lines R and S may be altered by altering the number of wales terminated in the sleeves compared with the number of wales terminated in the body.

If the garment is knitted in the direction from the neck to the waist, the inclinationof the sleeves is produced by wale introduction instead of wale termination.

Instead of a single straight line marking the interconnection of each sleeve with the body, the sleeve-body interconnection may follow a discontinuous boundary. Such a boundary is shown by the broken line T in FIG. 1. In marking a garment with the sleeve-body boundary T by knitting in the direction from waist to neck, wales are terminated from both the body and the sleeve or from the body only along 'the line T but from the sleeve only along the line T. Thus along the length of the line T", the number of wales in the front and rear panels of the body part K remains constant whilethe number of wales in the sleeve parts I and J is reduced.

The garment shown in FIG. 1 has rib borders U at the waist and cuffs. These borders may comprise mock rib, that is plain knitting constructed in known manner in such a way that some wales are recessed and some are proud giving the appearance of rib knitting. Alternatively, the borders may comprise true rib" knitted on opposed needle beds. In this case, the garment will normally be knitted starting at the waist and cuffs and the rib border will be knitted first as separate rib strips on opposed beds of the machine, the strips being transversed after knitting, to needles of one bed. When all the rib strips have been completed and have been arranged opposite one another, tubular knitting will be commenced.

The garment shown in FIG. 1 is intended to extend only down to the waist of the wearer, but garments according to the invention can extend lower on the body. Such garments may, for example, be dresses or the legged garments known as cat-suits. The legs of such a garment may be knitted in one piece with the upper part of the garment. For example, a tube joining operation may be used in which two tubes, separately knitted, are located adjacent one another and then knitting is continued in the form of a single tube which joins the separately knitted tubes together.

' If the garment is knitted in the opposite direction, a single tube is divided into two tubes.

The leg tubes may be arranged so that they are inclined to one another by termination or introduction of wales in the single tube joining the two leg tubes.

The knitting of the garment shown in FIG. 1 is illustrated in FIGS. 2 to l l. The knitting operation is shown carried out on a completely conventional flat V-bed knitting machine and the garment is knitted in the direction from the waist and cuffs towards the neck. Rib or mock rib borders for the waist and cuffs are first knitted. In the case of mock rib borders, the borders may be knitted in the form of tubes and tubular knitting is thereafter continued to form the sleeve and body tubes. In the case of truerib borders, each border is knitted in the form of two rib strips knitted one after the other. Each strip is knitted on opposed needle beds and the loops of the strip are eventually transferred to one needle bed so that the rib strips for each cuff or waist are located opposite one another on separate needle beds ready for tubular knitting of the body or the corresponding sleeve to begin. When the garment has been removed from the knitting machine, the free edges of the rib borders are joined together, for example, by seaming.

After the rib or mock rib borders have been formed, knitting is continued on these borders to form the sleeve and body tubes A to C.

In making the tubes A to C in the present example of the method according to the invention, knitting takes place on only one bed of the machine in each traverse, and on completion of each traverse knitting is commenced in the reverse direction, using the same yarn carrier, only on the other bed of the machine. If each traverse is complete, this produces fabric which, though knitted in a flat condition, is continuous across the ends of the traverses and is tubular in form. If each traverse of the needles of one of the beds is reversed at an intermediate point in the bed a tube which is open throughout its length is produced, such as the body portion of a front-fastening style of jersey. If knitting is commenced with complete traverses in each direction and then after an appropriate number of rows the subsequent traverses are reversed at an intermediate point on one of the beds, a tube with an opening in part of its length is produced, and this could be used for a body portion of a jersey with a from opening at the neck. If the reversed traverses are progressively reduced, a V- neck style will result. In referring herein to a tubular portion or a portion knitted as a tube we include, where appropriate, a. complete tube, a tube open throughout its length and a tube with a longitudinal opening.

Other methods of knitting a body portion or a sleeve portion as a tube are also possible. For example, this can be done by employing a second yarn carrier and traversing the two yarn carriers simultaneously in such a way that at the end of a traverse each yarn carrier crosses over and supplies yarn to the needles. of the opposite bed. This method of knitting also produces fabric which is continuous across the ends of the traverses and is thus in the form of a tube but the knitting is carried out at twice the speed of the previously described method of knitting in a tube because both faces of the flattened tube are knitted simultaneously.

In knitting the garment of FIG. 1, the sleeve tubes are widened by needle introduction at appropriate courses according to the shape and size required.

Needle introduction is effected in a conventional manner by arranging that needles required to be out of action are pushed to positions where their butts will not enter the knitting cam track of the cam box. When a needle is to be brought into action, it is pushed to a position where its butt will enter the knitting cam track as the cam box traverses the beds, causing the needle to knit.

bed and from right to left along the front bed 2 in the usual manner. This joins the three tubes A to C by means of the single tube H which will form the top part of the garment. FIG. 3 shows the joining course. By this method of joining, a small hole will be left between the inner edges of the sleeve tubes and the outer edges of the body tube, that is at the underarm position in the garment. This hole may be closed when knitting is completed.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show a method for joining the tubular body and sleeve portions without producing a distinct hole at the underarm. FIG. 4 shows the first course of knitting with a single yarn carrier to join the tubes A, B and C. In this course, the cams are set so that knitting is from left to right first along the needles of the rear bed I-carrying the left-hand sleeve tube B, then along the needles of the front bed 2 carrying the body tube A and then along the needles of the rear bed 1 carrying the other sleeve tube C, and on the reverse traverse from right to left along the needles of the front bed 2 carrying the sleeve tubes and the rear bed I carrying the body tube. This produces a cross of yarn where the small hole would otherwise appear at the underarm position of the garment. Two courses may be knitted in this manner, to produce a double cross of yarn, and then knitting continues in the usual way with the cams reset to knit on the rear bed 1 from left to right and the front bed 2 from right to left, in the usual manner, as shown in FIG. 5, producing a single tube H which will form the top part of the garment from the underarm region to the neck.

FIGS. 6 to 9 show various ways in which the number of wales can be reduced to narrow the garment after the joining stage, for shaping the top part during knitting and causing the sleeve portions B, I and C, J to lie at an angle to the body tube A in the finished garment. The particular way in which the narrowing is car ried out will depend upon the shape of the top part required and also upon the style of garment required.

In each of FIGS. 6 to 9 the wales are reduced by one in each course'on the front and back at each side of the garment. FIG. 6 shows at the left-hand side, the transfer of

stitches

5 and 6 from the needles which originally formed the inner wales of the sleeve tube B to the needles carrying the stitches 7 and 8 of the adjacent wales which originally formed the outer edge of the body tube A.The stitches 9 located outwardly of the

stitches

5 and 6 are then transferred inwardly, each by one needle giving the situation illustrated at the left-hand side of FIG. 7. The needles 12 of the

beds

1 and 2 which are in FIG. 1 is a style line produced by narrowing in'this way.

On the right-hand side of FIG-6 is shown another narrowing procedure in which stitches I3 and 14 are transferred from the needles of the

beds

1 and 2 which formed the innermost wales of the sleeve tube C outwardly on to the adjacent needles. The doubled

loops

13, 15 and l4, l6 and the stitches l5 and 16 located outwardly of these loops are then moved inwardly each by one needle giving the condition shown at the righthand side of FIG. 7.

If the garment is repeatedly narrowed in this manner, again the number of 'body wales remains constant and a style line is once more produced parallel with the outermost of the wales forming the adjacent part of the body as is the case with the style line T in FIG. 1. Again, this narrowing causes the sleeve to lie at an angle to the body in the finished garment.

FIGS. 8 and 9 illustrate a shaping procedure in which stitches on needles which originally formed the body wales are transferred outwardly to needles holding stitches of sleeve wales. On the left-hand side of FIG. 8 is shown the transfer of loops I7, 18 from the outermost needles which originally formed the body tube A to the needles carrying the innermost wales extending into the sleeve tube B. The doubled

loops

17, 19 and 18, 20 and the stitches 21 located outwardlyof these loops are then moved inwardly by one needle pitch. The left-hand side of FIG. 9 shows the result of these transfers.

On the right-hand side of FIG. 8 is shown a shaping procedure involving transfer of the

stitches

24, 25 from the needles which originally formed the outermost wales of the body tube A inwardly on to the adjacent needles of the

beds

1 and 2 and subsequent inward movement of the stitches 24' and 25 located outwardly of the

stitches

24, 25. The right-hand side of FIG. 9 shows the result of these transfers. After narrowing to shape the tube H by one of the procedures of FIGS. 6 to 9, a further course or courses is/are knitted before further narrowing is carried out.

Repeated narrowing by one of the procedures or a combination of the procedures just described produces a style line lying at an angle to the body wales.

Narrowing of the top part of the garment may be carried out by terminating some sleeve wales and some body wales. The frequency of wale termination and the choice of wales for termination determines the style line at the sleeve-body joins and the angle of inclination of the sleeves to the body. The style lines R and S in FIG. 1 are produced by terminating wales alternately from body and sleeve whereas the style line T is produced by terminating more body wales than sleeve wales and the style line T" is produced as mentioned above, by terminating only sleeve wales and allowing the number of body wales to remain constant.

When a sufficient number of wales of the sleeves has been terminated so that the remaining sleeve wales are those which must continue into the sleeve extensions 0 and P knitting of the single tube H is stopped and further knitting is carried on by forming a series of U- shaped courses. This stage of the knitting is illustrated in FIGS. 10 and 11 where only the right-hand part of the garment is shown, the left-hand part being omitted.

sleeve C indicated by stitches 26' in FIG. 10. This Y number of stitches corresponds to the desired width (FIG. 1) of the extensions and P from the course in the upper edges of the body portion K to the top of the garment. (This is the vertical height W of the extensions in FIG. 1). As shown in FIG. 11, to form the extension P, a series of U-shaped courses is knitted onto the stitches 26 using a single yarn carrier and after each U-shaped course has been formed, the innermost end stitches 27 of the U-shaped course are transferred to the needles carrying the outermost body stitches 28. The other stitches 29 of the U-shaped course are each transferred inwardly by one needle pitch. In FIG. 11 the path 32 of the yarn carrier 33 when forming one U- shaped course of extension P is shown, and the first U- shaped course 34 is also shown.

The next reciprocation of the yarn carrier 33 takes place in the opposite direction to that shown in FIG. 11 to form the next U-shaped course. In knitting this course, the stitches 28 are pulled through the innermost loops of the new U-shaped course together with the innermost loops 27 of the previous U-shaped course 34. The pair of innermost stitches of the new U- shaped course are then transferred to the needles carrying the uppermost stitches of the wales 35 of the body which are now outermost and the remaining stitches of the U-shaped course are each transferred inwards by one needle pitch as before. In this way, U-shaped courses are formed and are joined, in the present garment, to end stitches of wales constituting a continuation of the body tube A. The stitches of successive U-shaped courses moved inwardly until the knitting of the extension P has been completed. The stitches of the final course of extension P are then pressed off the needles.

The extension 0 is in the same manner as the extension P knitted in the form of a series of U-shaped courses and is joined to the body wales in the same manner as extension P. The extensions P and 0 may be knitted simultaneously or successively.

When the garment is removed from the knitting machine it is only necessary to cut out and finish the neck opening as desired.

The knitting of the sleeve extensions 0 and P in a garment having a sleeve-body join which follow a style line such as T, T" also follows the procedure described above.

An alternative procedure for knitting a garment blank by the method of the invention is illustrated in FIGS. 12 to 188. This procedure employs a flat bed knitting machine having auxiliary needle beds movable longitudinally of the main beds of the machine. Such a machine is described in British Pat. Specification No. 991943 (US. Pat. Specification No. 3,167,938) and machine also incorporates needles of a construction permitting them to be operated to shift stitches between needles of the machine. A machine conforrn ing to the description in the said patent specification is in commercial production by the firm of Edouard Dubied et Cie S.A., Neuchatel, Switzerland.

A machine for carrying out the present procedure may be fitted with a presser foot (that is a hold down element) such as is described in British Pat. Specification No. 867678, in place of roller take down. The-auxiliary beds of the machine are used, as will be explained below, to carry stitches of the sleeves of the garment blank and must contain enough needles to hold 'the stitches of the longest course of a sleeve.

In knitting the garment blank of FIG. 1, by the method illustrated in FIGS. 12 to 188, the garment is knitted in the direction from the waist and cufis towards the neck. Rib or mock rib borders for the waist and cuffs are first knitted in the manner described above with reference to the method of FIGS. 2 to 11 but in the present method, the borders for the sleeves of the garment blank are knitted on

auxiliary needle beds

102 and 103, and the borders at the waist of the body are knitted on the main needle beds 101.

As in the method of FIGS. 2 to 11, the sleeve tubes are widened by needle introduction at appropriate courses according to the shape and size required. In FIG. 12, the knitting of the separate tubes A, B and C has been completed and the pairs of

auxiliary beds

102 and 103 have been moved inwardly in order to place the tubes adjacent one another,

FIG. 13A and 13B show an alternative method of arranging the tubular portions adjacent to each other, simply by widening. FIG. 13A shows the pairs of aux- "iliary beds already located in the positions they are required to occupy immediately before the knitting of the single tube H (FIG. 1) is begun. In this view, tubular knitting of the sleeves and body has been commenced. FIG. 133 shows the situation when each of the tubes A to C has been widened as before by the introduction of further needles on each bed, at which stagethe innermost stitches of the sleeve portions B and C are spaced only one needle pitch from the outermost stitches of the body portion 12, as is the case in FIG. 2.

-Since clearance has to be provided for the normal type of yarn carrier, the last stage of widening in FIGS. 13A and 13B cannot be performed with simultaneous knitting of the body and sleeve tubes using a normal yarn carrier. Instead, the last stage of widening is performed first, either on the sleeve tubes or on the body tube, then the needles carrying the sleeve tubes or the body tube are taken out of action and knitting is continued on the remaining tube or tubes to effect the last stage of widening thereof and thereby bring the nearest stitches of the body and sleeve tubes adjacent one another.

After the three tubes have been arranged adjacent to each other by the sequence of operations described with reference to FIG. 12 or FIGS. 13A and 138, they are joined together for example by the procedure described above with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 or FIGS. 4 and 5.

FIGS. 14A, 14B, 14C and 14D show a method of joining the tubular portions so as to avoid a hole. In this method, when the tubes A to C are arranged adjacent to each other, their end stitches are overlapped and transferred so that the four stitches at the adjacent edges of a sleeve tube and the body tube are carried on two needles, on either the main or the auxiliary beds. On the left-hand side of FIGS. 14A to 14D is shown the transfer of sleeve tube stitches to the needles of the first beds 101 carrying the body tube stitches, and on the right-hand side is shown the transfer of body tube stitches to the needles of the auxiliary beds 103 carrying sleeve tube stitches.

FIG. 14A shows the tubular portions positioned for ready joining. The arrows X. show the intended transfer of stitches from the needles d of the auxiliary beds 102 to the needles e of the main beds 101, and the arrows Y show the intended transfer from the needles k of the main beds 101 to the needles e of the auxiliary beds 103.v The method by which the transfer is carried out depends upon the facilities available on the machine being used. Various known methods available have already been described.

Whenthe transfers have been carried out FIG. 14A, the needles d of the auxiliary beds 102, and the needles k of the main beds 101, from which the stitches have been transferred, are taken out of action, and the yarn carriers previously used to knit the body portion A and the right-hand sleeve portion C are removed.

FIG. 14 shows the first course of knitting after the transfer, with one yarn carrier traversing all the needles which carry stitches, and it will be seen that not only are the three tubular portions joined into a single tubular portion H to form the top part of the garment but also there has been a reduction in the number of wales which originally formed the sleeve tube B and of the wales which originally formed the body tube A, wales on the right-hand side of the tube A being eliminated.

During knitting of the tubular portion H, the number of wales is reduced to narrow the garment as. in the method described above. FIGS. 15 and 16 show how this can be done using

auxiliary beds

102 and 103. Shaping the top part H in the manner shown causes the sleeve portions B, I and C, J to lie at an angle to the body tube A in the finished garment (FIG. 1). The particular way in which the narrowing is carried out will depend upon the shape of the top part required and also upon the style of garment required. In each of FIGS. 15A and B and 16, the wales are reduced by one in each course on the front and back at each side of the garment, and the

auxiliary beds

102 and 103 are moved inwardly by one needle-pitch before the next course of knitting. FIG. 15A shows in view (a) at the left-hand side, the way in which stitches can be transferred from the needles which originally formed the inner wale of the sleeve tube B to the needles carrying the stitches of the adjacentwales which originally formed the outer edge of the body tube A. The transfer of the stitches can be effected either directly, or through the intermediary of a transfer element, or an introduced needle of the opposite bed 102. Suitable needles and transfer elements are mentioned in British Pat. Specification No. 991943. The beds 102 are moved laterally inwardly before or after the transfer, depending upon how the transfer is made, by one needle pitch, giving the situation illustrated at the left-hand side view FIG. 153. The needles of the beds 102 from which the stitches have been transferred are taken out of action.

Repeated reduction of the wales in this manner causes the sleeve wales to blend successively into the outermost body wales, producing style lines along the outermost body wales and causing the sleeve to lie at an angle to the body in the finished garment. The line T" in FIG. 1 is a style line produced by narrowing in this way.

On the right-hand side of FIG. 15 is shown the transfer of stitches from the needles of the beds 103 which formed the innermost wales of the sleeve tube C outwardly on to the adjacent needles, the beds 103 being moved inwardly to take account of the sleeve narrowing which results, giving the condition shown at the right-hand side of FIG. 158.

If the garment is repeatedly narrowed in this manner, again the number of body wales remains constant but in this case the sleeve wales are successively reduced and a style line is produced parallel with the outermost of the wales forming the adjacent part of the body as is the case with the style line T" in FIG. 1. Again, this narrowing causes the sleeve to lie at an angle to the body in the finished garment.

FIGS. 16A and 16B illustrates shaping in which needles which originally formed the body wales are taken out of action while those which originally formed the sleeve tubes B and C continue knitting. On the lefthand side of view (a) is shown the transfer of loops from the outermost needles which originally formed the body tube A to the needles of the beds 102 carrying the innermost wales which originally-formed the sleeve tube B. The left-hand side of view (b) shows the result of the transfer.

On the right-hand side of FIG. 16A is shown a transfer of the stitches-from the needle which originally formed the outermost wale of the body portion inwardly on to the adjacent needles of the bed 101, and the right-hand side of FIG. 168 shows the result of the transfer. Both the transfers shown in FIGS. 16A and 16B are accompanied by inward movement of the beds 103 to take account of the reduction of the number of needles which originally held the body portion, the needles form which the stitches have been transferred are taken out of action in conventional manner and a further course or courses is/are then knitted on the ,As in the method previously described, narrowing of the top part of the garment may be carried out by terminating some sleeve wales and some body wales and the frequency of wale termination and the choice of wales for termination determines the style line at the sleeve-body joins and the angle of inclination of the sleeves to the body.

When a sufficient number of wales of the sleeves has been terminated so that the remaining sleeve wales are those which must continue into the sleeve extensions 0 and P, knitting of the single tube H is stopped and further knitting is carried on by forming a series of U- shaped courses on each of the two pairs of

auxiliary beds

102 and 103. This stage of the knitting is illustrated in FIGS. 17A and 17B where only the beds 103 are shown, the beds 102 being omitted.

After termination of sleeve wales by transfer as described above has been completed, each of the auxiliary beds 103 (and 102) will still carry a small number of stitches of the sleeve C (respectively B). This number of stitches corresponds to the desired width (FIG. 1) of the extensions 0 and P from the course in the upper edges of the body portion K to the top of the garment. (This is the vertical height W of the extentube H. To form the extension P, a series of U-shaped courses is knitted on the auxiliary beds 103 using a single yarn carrier and after each U-shaped course has been formed, the adjacent outermost stitches of the tube H on needles of the beds 101 are transferred to the needles carrying the innermost end stitches of the U- shaped course. In FIG. 17B the path 110 of the yarn carrier 110' in forming one U-shaped course of extension P is shown. The first U-shaped course 113 is also shown and the subsequent transfer of

stitches

111 and 112 from needles of the beds 101 to needles 114, 115 of the auxiliary beds 103 carrying the innermost end loops of the U-shaped course 1 13 is indicated. The next reciprocation of the yarn carrier 1 takes place in the opposite direction to that shown in FIG. 173 to form the next U-shaped course. In knitting this course, the stitches ll 1 and 112 are pulled through loops of the U- shaped course formed on needles 114 and 115 of beds 103. The pair of

stitches

116, 117 on the beds 101 are then transferred to the needles 114, 115 of the beds 103 before knitting of the next U-shaped course. In this way, U-shaped courses are formed and are joined in the present garment, to end stitches of wales constituting a continuation of the body tube A. The auxiliary beds 103 are moved inwardly until the knitting of the exten sion P has been completed. The fabric is then pressed off the needles of beds 103 and these beds are withdrawn. The extension 0 is then knitted in the form of a series of U-shaped courses on beds 102 and is joined to the body wales in the same manner as extension P.

Alternatively, the extensions 0 and P can be knitted simultaneously, clashing of the two pairs of auxiliary beds being avoided by transferring the stitches of the U-shaped courses inwardly to other needles of the same beds, the beds being moved outwardly to maintain these stitches in the same positions relative to the main beds of the machine. An example of such an operation is illustrated in FIGS. 18A and 188 in which the stitches carried on the needles of the beds 103 are all moved inwardly by one needle pitch, FIG. 18A, and the beds 103 are moved outwardly by one needle pitch to the positions shown in FIG. 188. The beds 103 are subsequently moved inwardly on knitting further U-shaped courses.

The method set out above allowing simultaneous knitting of the extensions 0 and P can be practiced only when the extensions have a smaller number of wales than the main portions of the sleeves. A number of needlesat the inner ends of the

auxiliary beds

102 and 103 will then be left empty after the termination of sleeve wales during knitting of the upper regions I and J.

I When the garment is removed from the knitting machine, it is only necessary to cut out and finish the neck opening as desired.

The knitting-of the sleeve extensions 0 and P in a garment having a sleeve-body join which follow a style line such as T, T" also follows the procedure described above.

' What is claimed is:

1. In a method of knitting, on a knitting machine havingtwo opposed ne dl beds, a blank for a garment having sleeves and a y portion, said sleeves and said body portion having upper sections extending above the armpit region of said garment, the improvement which comprises knitting the upper sections of said sleeves and the'upper section of said body portion as a single tube, varying the number of stitches in said tube to shape the upper sections of said sleeves and said upper body portion and to form the axes of said sleeves in angular relationship with the axis of said body portion, and reciprocally knitting an extension of each of said sleeve portions with the wales of the extensions continuous with sleeve wales at opposite edges of said single tube, and forming the courses of the extensions so that each extension comprises fabric at the front and back of said garment blank and has the ends of its cour ses located for joining to the upper ends of body wales of said single tube, whereby, in the finished garment, the wales of said extensions run substantially perpendicular to the wales of said upper body section. I

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 including knitting, in the form of three separate tubes, portions of the body and sleeves of the garment extending up to the underarm region.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 including the step of joining the extensions of the sleeves to the upper edges of the said single knitted tube on the knitting machine.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the extensions are joined to the upper edges of the single knitted tube during knitting of the blank.

5. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein each extension is knitted as a a series of U-shaped courses, each end of each of these courses being joined to an end of a wale of the said single knitted tube.

6. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein each extension is knitted as a series of U-shaped courses, each end of each of these courses being joined to an end of a wale of the said single knitted tube by knitting the end loop of a wale of the single knitted tube through the end loop of a U-shaped course of the extension.

7. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein each extension is knitted as a series of U-shaped courses, each end of each of these courses being joined to the end of a wale of said single knitted tube by knitting the end loop of a U-shaped course of the extension through the end loop of a wale of the single knitted tube.

Claims

1. In a method of knitting, on a knitting machine having two opposed needle beds, a blank for a garment having sleeves and a body portion, said sleeves and said body portion having upper sections extending above the armpit region of said garment, the improvement which comprises knitting the upper sections of said sleeves and the upper section of said body portion as a single tube, varying the number of stitches in said tube to shape the upper sections of said sleeves and said upper body portion and to form the axes of said sleeves in angular relationship with the axis of said body portion, and reciprocally knitting an extension of each of said sleeve portions with the wales of the extensions continuous with sleeve wales at opposite edges of said single tube, and forming the courses of the extensions so that each extension comprises fabric at the front and back of said garment blank and has the ends of its courses located for joining to the upper ends of body wales of said single tube, whereby, in the finished garment, the wales of said extensions run substantially perpendicular to the wales of said upper body section.