Method of knitting plating stitch and knit fabric

A method of knitting a knit fabric which is knitted by a flat knitting machine with a plurality of yarn carriers having the following steps: (a) knitting the first half knitting portion of a course to a plating stitch with a first ground yarn and a plating yarn; (b) knitting the second half knitting portion of the course to a plating stitch with a second ground yarn and the plating yarn; (c) knitting the first half knitting portion of a next course to be coupled with the course to a plating stitch with the second ground yarn and the plating yarn; and (d) knitting the second half knitting portion of said next course to a plating stitch with the first ground yarn and the plating yarn.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a method of knitting a plating stitch 
capable of forming a clear colored pattern and a knit fabric. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
A colored design can be knitted by a plating stitch using a flat knitting 
machine having a plurality of yarn carriers which can be driven 
independently of one another and through which threads reciprocatingly 
move to the right and the left (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent 
Publication No. 5-321101). The term "plating stitch" used hereinafter is 
defined as a method of knitting carried out using two types of different 
threads each having a different color, gloss, thickness, twist and fiber 
material wherein one of the threads appears on a front side and the other 
appears on a back side. 
For example, when a knit fabric A as shown in FIG. 5 is to be knitted, a 
plainly stitched structure portion A1 is knitted by an plating yarn "c" 
only at the first half portion of a first right-going course C1. The 
platingly stitched portion A2 of the plainly stitched structure is knitted 
by a ground yarn "a" and the plating yarn "c" in the second half portion 
of the first course C1. A similar platingly stitched portion A2 is knitted 
in the first half portion of a next left-going course C2, the plainly 
stitched structure portion A1 is knitted by the plating yarn "c" only in 
the second half portion of the next course C2 and the same procedure is 
repeated thereafter. 
As a result, there can be knitted the knit fabric A having a colored 
pattern and design arranged such that the plating yarn "c" and the ground 
yarn "a" appear to the surface of the plainly stitched structure portion 
A1 and the platingly stitched portion A2, respectively. Since this 
knitting method can continuously form the plainly stitched structure over 
the entire portion of the respective courses C1 and C2 and thus since it 
is sufficient only to cause all the needles to carry out knitting 
operation, the method has high productivity and there is no possibility 
that a defect in the outside appearance of the stitched structure occurs 
at the boundary A0 between the plainly stitched structure portion A1 and 
the platingly stitched portion A2. 
It should be noted that in FIG. 5, the symbols (c, a) in the second half 
portion of the right-going course C1 and the symbols (a, c) in the first 
half portion of the next left-going course C2 shows the plating stitch 
made by the ground yarn "a" and the plating yarn "c". The reason why the 
symbols a and c are reversed in those courses is that a thread fed from 
the yarn carrier preceding a knitting direction appears to a front stitch 
and a thread fed from the thread feed port following the above thread feed 
port appears to a back stitch in the plating stitch. Further, arrows shown 
in the respective courses C1, C2 show the directions in which the 
respective courses C1, C2 are knitted and symbol trains .OMEGA., .OMEGA. . 
. . .OMEGA. written parallel to the straight lines showing the respective 
courses C1, C2 show that the needles for knitting the respective courses 
C1, C2 carry out knitting operation. 
In the above noted prior art, since the plainly stitched structure portion 
and the platingly stitched portion forming the colored pattern of the knit 
fabric. The plainly stitched structure portion is knitted by the plating 
yarn only and the plating stitch of the latter is formed by the ground 
yarn and the plating yarn. As a result, there is a drawback that since the 
thickness the platingly stitched portion of the knit fabric forming the 
colored pattern is different twice as compared with that of the plainly 
stitched structure portion, the range to which the knit fabric is applied 
is limited. Further in the case where the thickness of the ground yarn is 
reduced to flatten the variation of the thickness of the knit fabric by 
extremely thinning the size of the ground yarn, it is difficult to 
completely cover the plating yarn with the ground yarn and it is observed 
that the plating yarn is mixed with the front stitch of the platingly 
stitched portion, there is a possibility that the tone of color of a 
colored pattern is lowered. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Taking the above problems of the prior art into consideration, an object of 
the present invention is to provide a method of knitting plating stitch 
and a knit fabric for eliminating the change in thickness of a knit fabric 
at the respective portions thereof where colored patterns are formed by a 
common plating yarn by causing platingly stitched portions to locate 
adjacent to each other and permit the colored patterns to be realized in a 
clear tone of color. 
To achieve the above object according to this invention, a method of 
knitting a plating stitch is utilized to form a knit fabric by a flat 
knitting machine with a plurality of yarn carriers, wherein the first half 
knitting portion of a course is knitted to a plating stitch with a first 
ground yarn and a plating yarn, the second half knitting portion of the 
course is knitted to a plating stitch with a second ground yarn and the 
plating yarn, the first half knitting portion of a next course to be 
coupled with the above course is knitted to a plating stitch with the 
second ground yarn and the plating yarn, and the second half knitting 
portion of the next course is knitted to a plating stitch with the first 
ground yarn and the plating yarn. 
It may be appreciated that the boundaries between the first half knitting 
portions in the course and the next course and the second half knitting 
portions therein can be located at the same position in a wale direction 
or at different positions in the wale direction. 
The terms wale direction and course direction used throughout this 
description are defined as follows: 
The course direction corresponds to a direction parallel to the movement 
direction of the yarn carrier. The wale direction is defined as a 
direction perpendicular to the wale direction. 
According to the above knitting method, the first half knitting portion of 
the course and the second half knitting portion of the next course are 
knitted to the plating stitch with the first ground yarn and the plating 
yarn. The second half knitting portion of the course and the first half 
knitting portion of the next course are knitted to the plating stitch with 
the second ground yarn and the plating yarn which is common to the above 
plating yarn. The respective knitted portions can be formed to the design 
of a colored pattern with the first and second ground yarns appearing to a 
front stitch. 
When the boundaries between the respective first half portions in the 
course and the next course and the respective second half portions therein 
are located at the same position, a vertically-striped pattern can be 
formed in the wale direction. In addition, when the boundaries are 
regularly shifted in the wale direction by the predetermined number of 
stitches, an obliquely-striped pattern and a diamond-shaped pattern can be 
knitted. Furthermore, when the stitches are smoothly varied and located at 
different positions, a water-flow-shaped vertically-striped pattern can be 
knitted. 
The knit fabric according to the present invention for achieving the above 
object comprises a first platingly stitched portion knitted with a first 
ground yarn and an plating yarn and a second platingly stitched portion 
adjacent to the first platingly stitched portion in a flat direction and 
knitted with a second ground yarn and the plating yarn, wherein the first 
and second platingly stitched portions are coupled with each other in a 
course direction through the plating yarn. 
It may be appreciated that the first and second platingly stitched portions 
form a continuous plainly stitched structure. 
According to the above knit fabric, since the first ground yarn and the 
second ground yarn appear to a front stitch in the adjacent first and 
second platingly stitched portions, respectively, the design of a colored 
pattern with a clear color tone can be formed. Further, since the first 
and second platingly stitched portions are coupled with each other in the 
course direction through the common plating yarn and the first and second 
ground yarns appearing to the respective front stitches are perfectly 
separated from each other in the course direction, the respective portions 
forming the colored pattern substantially form an intersia pattern. 
When the first and second platingly stitched portions are knitted by the 
continuous plainly stitched structure, since there is no variation of a 
knitted structure therebetween, the knit fabric can be knitted to a 
uniform structure as a whole. 
Note that the knitting mentioned in the above passages is to be executed by 
the flat knitting machine with a plurality of the independently operable 
yarn carriers and the flat knitting machine described in, for example, 
Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 1-12855 may be used as the flat 
knitting machine for this purpose. 
These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will 
become more apparent upon reading the detailed description of the 
preferred embodiment with reference to the appended drawings.

DETATLED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
In FIG. 1, a knit fabric B is composed of a first platingly stitched 
portion B1 and a second platingly stitched portion B2 which are adjacent 
to each other. 
More specifically, the first platingly stitched portion B1 is knitted to a 
plating stitch of a plainly stitched structure by a first ground yarn 1 
and an plating yarn "c". Further, the second platingly stitched portion B2 
is knitted to a plating stitch of the plainly stitched structure by a 
second ground yarn 2 and a plating yarn "c" common to the above plating 
yarn "c". However, the knitting method of FIG. 1 is expressed in 
accordance with the method of expression shown in FIG. 5. 
In the knit fabric B, the first half knitting portion of a right-going 
first course C1 is knitted using a preceding yarn carrier 11 which guides 
the first ground yarn 1 and a yarn carrier 11c which guides the plating 
yarn "c" and follows the yarn carrier 11 as shown in FIG. 2A. In the 
drawing, however, knitting is carried out in the direction of an arrow X 
and the first ground yarn 1 and the plating yarn "c" are simultaneously 
captured by needles 21, 21 . . . which sequentially move from a clearing 
position to a knit position on a needle bed 20. FIG. 2A shows guides 22, 
22 . . . for guiding the needles 21, 21 . . . together with the hooks 21a 
and the latches 21b of the respective needles 21. However, the open state 
of the latches 21b is shown by hatching in FIG. 2A, an actual opening 
state of needle 21 is shown in FIG. 2B. 
In FIG. 1, the second half knitting portion of the right-going course C1 is 
knitted by causing a yarn carrier 12, which guides the second ground yarn 
2, to precede in place of the yarn carrier 11 which guides the first 
ground yarn 1. Further, it is sufficient only to knit the first half 
knitting portion of a next left-going course C2 by causing the yarn 
carrier 12, which guides the second ground yarn 2, to precede and the yarn 
carrier 11c which guides the plating yarn "c" to follow the yarn carrier 
12 and it is sufficient only to knit the second half portion of the next 
course C2 by replacing the yarn carrier 12 with the yarn carrier 11 which 
guides the first ground yarn 1 to precede. The knit fabric B can be 
knitted by repeating the same procedure thereafter. 
As shown in FIG. 3, since the first ground yarn 1 and the second ground 
yarn 2 appear as a front stitch on both the sides of the boundary B0 
between each first half knitting portion and each second half knitting 
portion of the course C1 and the next course C2, that is, the boundary B0 
between the first and second platingly stitched portions B1, B2, colored 
patterns of a clear tone of color can be formed on both sides of the 
boundary B0 in the first and the second platingly stitched portions B1, 
B2. Further, the first and second platingly stitched portions B1, B2 have 
the ground yarns 1 and 2 forming respective front stitches in the state 
that they completely separated from each other in the portion of the 
boundary B0 and these portions B1, B2 are coupled with each other through 
the common plating yarn "c" only to thereby form an intersia pattern. 
Note that the boundary B0 between each first half knitting portion and each 
second half knitting portion of the course C1 and the next course C2 is 
not limited to the one which knits a vertically-striped straight pattern 
by being located at the same position in a wale direction as shown in FIG. 
1 but may knit a vertically-striped oblique pattern or a diamond-shaped 
pattern by being shifted sequentially and regularly in the wale direction 
and moved to different positions. Further, a knit fabric having an 
arbitrary colored pattern such as a water-flow-shaped (S-shaped) 
vertically-striped pattern and the like may be knitted by smoothly 
changing the boundary in the wale direction and positioning it at 
different locations. 
In the above description, the first and second platingly stitched portions 
B1, B2 may be formed to a rib stitched structure instead of the plainly 
stitched structure. In this case, the first ground yarn appears to the 
surface and the back of the first platingly stitched portion B1 as well as 
the second ground yarn 2 appears to the surface and the back of the second 
platingly stitched portion B2. Note, the rib stitched structure may be 
formed to any one of the first and second platingly stitched portions B1, 
B2 and the other of it may be formed to a plainly stitched structure. 
Further, the rib stitched structure and a pearl stitched structure may be 
mixed and combined with suitable courses of the first and second platingly 
stitched portions B1, B2 of the plainly stitched structure. 
FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the knitting method of the present 
invention, wherein a first to n-th platingly stitched portions Bi(i=1, 2 . 
. . n) are formed to a knit fabric B. That is, it suffices for an i-th 
platingly stitched portion Bi to be knitted to a plating stitch by an i-th 
ground yarn i(i=1, 2 . . . n) and a common plating yarn "c" and at the 
time the i-th and j-th platingly stitched portions Bi and Bj which are not 
adjacent to each other (i.noteq.j) can commonly use the i-th ground yarn 
i. Different from a jacquard structure, even if a multi-color 
vertically-striped pattern is knitted, since there is no other useless 
plating yarn but the plating yarn "c". Thus there is no chance that the 
thickness of the knit fabric B is unduly increased. 
Note, in FIG. 4, the (i-1)-th and i-th platingly stitched portions Bi-1 and 
Bi and the i-th and (i+1)-th platingly stitched portions Bi and an Bi+1 
which are adjacent to each other can be caused to individually correspond 
to the first and second platingly stitched portions B1, B2 of FIG. 1, 
respectively. 
As described above, according to the knit fabric of the present invention, 
since the first and second ground yarns appear to the front stitch of the 
adjacent first and second platingly stitched portions respectively and 
they are coupled with each other through the common plating yarn, the 
respective portions forming the colored pattern has a uniform thickness 
and the colored pattern of the clear tone of color made by the intersia 
pattern can be realized. In addition to the above, a special stitched 
structure need not be interposed between the boundary portions and the 
entire portion of the knit fabric can be knitted in the plainly stitched 
structure; therefore, high productivity can be maintained. 
Further, according to the knitting method of the present invention, the 
above knit fabric can be smoothly knitted by knitting the first half 
knitting portions and the second half knitting portions of the respective 
courses to the plating stitch by changing the combination of the first and 
second ground yarns and plating yarn. 
Although the present invention has been fully described by way of examples 
with reference to the accompanied drawings, it is to be understood various 
changes and modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art 
without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention. 
Accordingly, the invention should not be limited by the foregoing 
description but rather should be defined only by the following claims.