1.

There are three kinds of knitting machines: flat bed for lightweight items, mid gauge for mid-weight
items, and bulky or chunky for heavy items.
2. A flat bed knitting machine has small hooks placed .45 centimeters (4.5mm) apart. These
machines are good for Fairisle patterns, cables, and lace. Baby weight or sometimes even thinner yarn
can be used. The thickest yarn that can usually be used on a flatbed knitting machine is sport or DK.
3. A mid gauge knitting machine produces garments that look the most like hand knitting. The hooks
are placed .65 centimeters (6.5mm) apart. Sometimes baby weight or chunky yarns may be used, but not
always. Common worsted, sport, and DK yarns usually work best, but check with the manufacturer's
instructions.
4. A bulky or chunky knitting machine has hooks placed .9 centimeters (9mm) apart and is perfect for
making heavy sweaters. Cables and Fairisle patterns usually work well. Sport or DK are the smallest
weight of yarns that should be used on a bulky knitting machine, but will not work on some models. Bulky
or chunky style yarns work best.
5.

Types of Knitting Machines : Warp Knitting, Weft Knitting, Knitting

Intarsia, Double Knitting, Flat Knitting, Circular Knitting, Different Types
of Knitting Machines

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Types of Knitting Machines : Warp Knitting, Weft Knitting, Knitting Intarsia, Double
Knitting, Flat Knitting, Circular Knitting, Different Types of Knitting Machines

Types of Knitting Machines

Warp Knitting | Warp Knitting Machines
is a family of knitting methods in which the yarn zigzags along the length of the fabric, i.e., following adjacent columns ("wales") of
nitting, rather than a single row ("course"). For comparison, knitting across the width of the fabric is called weft knitting.

Since warp knitting requires that the number of separate strands of yarn ("ends") equals the number of stitches in a row, warp knitting is
lmost always done by machine, not by hand.

Types of Warp Knitting

Warp knitting comprises several types of knitted fabrics, including tricot, raschel knits, and milanese knits. All warp-knit fabrics are
esistant to runs and relatively easy to sew.

Tricot is very common in lingerie.

Milanese is stronger, more stable, smoother and more expensive than tricot and, hence, is used in better lingerie. Milanese is
now virtually obsolete.
Raschel knits do not stretch significantly and are often bulky,consequently, they are often used as an unlined material for coats,
jackets, straight skirts and dresses.

Weft Knitting | Weft Knitting Machines

Weft-knit fabrics may also be knit with multiple yarns, usually to produce interesting color patterns. The two most common approaches

Double Knitting
n intarsia, the yarns are used in well-segregated regions, e.g., a red apple on a field of green.In that case, the yarns are kept on
eparate spools and only one is knitted at any time.
n the more complex double knitting, two or more yarns alternate repeatedly within one row and all the yarns must be carried along the
ow, as seen in Fair Isle sweaters. Double knitting can produce two separate knitted fabrics simultaneously, e.g., two socks.However, the
wo fabrics are usually integrated into one, giving it great warmth and excellent drape.

Knitting Intarsia
ntarsia is a knitting technique used to create patterns with multiple colours. As with the woodworking technique of the same name, fields
f different colours and materials appear to be inlaid in one another, but are in fact all separate pieces, fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Unlike other multicolour techniques (including Fair Isle, slip-stitch colour, and double knitting), there is only one "active" colour on any
iven stitch, and yarn is not carried across the back of the work; when a colour changes on a given row, the old yarn is left hanging. This
means that any intarsia piece is topologically several disjoint columns of colour; a simple blue circle on a white background involves one
olumn of blue and two of white---one for the left and one for the right. Intarsia is most often worked flat, rather than in the round.
However, it is possible to knit intarsia in circular knitting using particular techniques.
Common examples of intarsia include sweaters with large, solid-colour features like fruits, flowers, or geometric shapes. Argyle socks
nd sweaters are normally done in intarsia, although the thin diagonal lines are often overlaid in a later step, using Swiss darning or
ometimes just a simple backstitch.

ntarsia Patterns
nitting in intarsia theoretically requires no additional skills beyond being generally comfortable with the basic knit and purl stitches.
Materials required include multiple colours of yarn, standard needles, and bobbins. Bobbins serve to contain the inactive yarn and help
eep it from getting tangled. Unlike the narrow, wooden ones used to make bobbin lace, modern intarsia bobbins resemble translucent
lastic yo-yos that can snap tight to prevent the yarn from unwinding.

After winding a few yards of each colour onto its own bobbin (and possibly several bobbins' worth of some colours), the knitter simply
egins knitting their pattern. When they arrive at a point where the colour changes, the knitter brings the new colour up underneath the
 nitting, and the knitter returns back the way they came.
he simplest intarsia pattern is for straight vertical stripes. After the first row, the pattern is continued by always working each stitch in the
ame colour as the previous row, changing colours at the exact same point in each row. To make more elabourate patterns, one can let
his colour boundary drift from row to row, changing colours a few stitches earlier or later each time.
ntarsia patterns are almost always given as charts (which, because of the mechanics of knitting, are read beginning at the lower right
nd continuing upward boustrophedonically). The charts generally look like highly pixellated cartoon drawings, in this sense resembling
ot-matrix computer graphics or needlepoint patterns (though usually without the colour nuance of the latter).

Double Knitting | Double Knitting Machines

Double knitting is a form of knitting in which two fabrics are knit simultaneously with two yarns on one pair of needles. The fabrics may be
nseparable, as in interlock knitted fabrics, or they can simply be two unconnected fabrics. In principle, an arbitrary number n of fabrics
an be knitted simultaneously on one pair of knitting needles with n yarns, as long as one is careful.

Double Knitting Patterns

here are several methods for double knitting, including flat knitting on doubled-pointed knitting needles; after one row has been knit with
ne yarn, the crafter slides the stitches to the other end of the needle and begins the next row with the next yarn. Only half the stitches
re knit with any one yarn; the rest are slipped. After both rows are done, you then turn the work and begin another pair of rows.

Flat Knitting versus Circular Knitting

Circular knitting (also called "knitting in the round") is a form of knitting that creates a seamless tube. Knitting is worked in rounds (the
quivalent of rows in flat knitting) in a spiral. Originally, circular knitting was done using a set of four or five double-pointed knitting
eedles. Later, circular needles were invented. A circular needle resembles two short knitting needles connected by a cable between
hem. Flat knitting, on the other hand, is used, in its most basic form, to make flat, rectangular pieces of cloth. It is done with two straight
nitting needles and is worked in rows, horizontal lines of stitches.

Circular knitting is employed to create pieces that are circular or tube-shaped, such as hats, socks, mittens, and sleeves. Flat knitting is
sually used to knit flat pieces like scarves, blankets, afghans, and the backs and fronts of sweaters.

Circular Knitting Machines

Circular knitting or knitting in the round is a form of knitting that creates a seamless tube. When knitting circularly, the knitting is cast on
nd the circle of stitches is joined. Knitting is worked in rounds (the equivalent of rows in flat knitting) in a spiral. Originally, circular
nitting was done using a set of four or five double-pointed needles. Later, circular needles were invented, which can also be used to do
ircular knitting.The circular needle looks like two short knitting needles connected by a cable between them. Machines also do circular
nitting; double bed machines can be set up to knit on the front bed in one direction then the back bed on the return, creating a knitted
ube. Specialized knitting machines for sock-knitting use individual latch-hook needles to make each stitch in a round frame.

Many types of sweaters are traditionally knit in the round. Planned openings (arm holes, necks, cardigan fronts) are temporarily knitted
with extra stitches, reinforced if necessary. Then the extra stitches are cut to create the opening, and are stitched with a sewing machine
o prevent unraveling.

Flat Knitting Machines

lat knitting is a method for producing knitted fabrics in which the work is turned periodically, i.e., the fabric is knitted from alternating
ides. The two sides (or "faces") of the fabric are usually designated as the right side (the side that faces outwards, towards the viewer
nd away from the wearer's body) and the wrong side (the side that faces inwards, away from the viewer and towards the wearer's

lat knitting is usually contrasted with circular knitting, in which the fabric is always knitted from the same side. Flat knitting can
omplicate knitting somewhat compared to circular knitting, since the same stitch (as seen from the right side) is produced by two
ifferent movements when knitted from the right and wrong sides. Thus, a knit stitch (as seen from the right side) may be produced by a
nit stitch on the right side, or by a purl stitch on the wrong side. This may cause the gauge of the knitting to vary in alternating rows of
tockinette fabrics; however, this effect is usually not noticeable, and may be eliminated with practice (the usual way) or by using needles
f two different sizes (an unusual way).
n flat knitting, the fabric is usually turned after every row. However, in some versions of double knitting with two yarns and double-
ointed knitting needles, the fabric may turned after every second row.
n Industrial Knitting applications, the terms "Flat" and "Circular" have very different meanings to those given above. A "Flat" or Vee Bed
nitting machine consists of 2 flat needle beds arranged in an upside-down "V" formation. These needle beds can be up to 2.5 metres
wide. A carriage, also known as a Cambox or Head, moves backwards and forwards across these needle beds, working the needles to
electively, knit, tuck or transfer stitches. A flat knitting machine is very flexible, allowing complex stitch designs, shaped knitting and
recise width adjustment. It is, however relatively slow when compared to a circular machine. The two largest manufacturers of industrial
at knitting machines are Stoll of Germany, and Shima Seiki of Japan.

Properties Of Knitted Fabrics | Knitted Fabric Properties | Textile Knitting Process

he topology of a knitted fabric is relatively complex. Unlike woven fabrics, where strands usually run straight horizontally and vertically,
arn that has been knitted follows a loopy path along its row, as with the red strand in the diagram at left, in which the loops of one row
ave all been pulled through the loops of the row below it.
Because there is no single straight line of yarn anywhere in the pattern, a knitted piece can stretch in all directions. This elasticity is
navailable from woven fabrics, which only stretch along the bias. Many modern stretchy garments, even as they rely on elastic synthetic
materials for some stretch, also achieve at least some of their stretch through knitted patterns.
Stitches can be worked from either side, and various patterns are created by mixing regular knit stitches with the "wrong side" stitches,
nown as purl stitches, either in columns (ribbing), rows (garter, welting), or more complex patterns. Each such fabric has different