A method of forming piping at the end of a knitted fabric and a knitted fabric having piping formed at its fabric end

Abstract: A method of forming piping at the end of a knitted fabric with a flat knitting machine having at least a pair of front and rear needle beds on each of which a plurality of knitting needles are arranged retractably. The method comprises holding loops of the knitted fabric with knitting needles on either the front or rear needle beds to empty knitting needles on the other needle bed. An elastic yarn is hooked with the specified knitting needles on the front and rear needle beds and a piping fabric part is knitted with the knitting needles not emptied, or with the knitting needles not emptied and the empty knitting needles on the other needle bed. The hooked yarn and the loops held with the knitting needles on the other needle bed are transferred to the needle bed on which loops at the end of this piping fabric part are held. An elastic yarn is supplied to the knitting needle placed at either right-edge or left-edge of the knitting needles holding the loops and a new loop is formed with the supplied yarn. The new loop is transferred to the adjacent knitting needle. The latter three steps are repeated to release the loops from the knitting needles. The method provides a knitted fabric having piping formed at its fabric end, comprising elastic yarns used at a joining part of an end of a piping fabric part and an end of the knitted fabric.

Description: This invention relates to a method of forming piping at the end of a knitted fabric for knitted garments such as pullover and cardigan sweaters, vests, etc., and to a knitted fabric having piping formed at its fabric end. For example, when forming piping on the neckline (fabric end) of a sweater or other knitted garment, with the prior art, after the body (fabric) of the garment had been knitted, a fabric knitted into a strip shape for the purpose of forming the piping was folded in half and its loose edges were joined to the neckline of the garment by linking or some other method, thus forming piping on the neckline. In addition, with integral knits, a common method was to knit the garment with a collar attached to a crew neck or a boat neck, and then, after finishing the fabric end of the neck opening, to use a hook stitch to join the fabric end to the place where the knitting of the neckline began. With the methods of the prior art described above, when the fabric for forming the piping was folded in half and joined to the neckline by linking or some other method, in addition to the knitting of the fabric of the garment body, it was necessary to also knit the fabric knitted into a strip shape for the purpose of forming the piping, thus decreasing productivity. Moreover, whether the fabric for forming the piping was folded in half and joined to the neckline by linking or some other method, or whether a hook stitch was used to join the end of the collar to the place where the knitting of the neckline began, considerable time and labour were required for the joining work, and this resulted in a decrease in productivity. Thus, this invention has been proposed in consideration of the problems mentioned above, and the objective of the invention is to make it possible to provide knitted garments which are comfortable to wear while at the same time increasing productivity. FR-A-2653790 describes a tubular knitted article having at one end a double rib border including an inner and an outer portion joined at their ends and joined to the body of the knitted fabric by continuous stitching. The invention provides a method of forming piping at the end of a knitted fabric with a flat knitting machine having at least a pair of first and second needle beds on each of which a plurality of knitting needles are arranged retractably, the piping consisting of an end of fabric joined together with the start of the same fabric, comprising holding loops of the knitted fabric with knitting needles on a first needle bed to empty knitting needles on a second needle bed, hooking an elastic yarn with the specified knitting needles on the first needle bed and the second needle bed, knitting a piping fabric part with the knitting needles holding loops on the first needle bed or with the knitting needles holding loops on the first needle bed and the still empty needles on the second needle bed, the elastic yarn being held on the specified needles of the second needle bed, joining together the hooked elastic yarn and the loops held with knitting needles at the start of the fabric and the loops at the end of this piping fabric part, supplying an elastic yarn to the knitting needle placed at either right-edge or left-edge of the knitting needles holding the loops, forming a new loop or loops at the end of the piping fabric with the elastic yarn, transferring the new loop or loops to adjacent knitting needles, and, repeating the latter three steps to release the loops from the knitting needles. In addition, the knitted fabric having piping formed on its fabric end has the elastic yarn hooked at the part where the formation of the piping at the fabric end is begun joined together with the loops at the end of the piping fabric part, and the loops of said joined part are released from the knitting needles using elastic yarn. A fabric is knitted on a flat knitting machine, and when the end of the fabric where the formation of the piping is to begin is reached, first, with the loops which compose the fabric hooked onto either the front or rear knitting needles, the other set of needles is kept empty, and elastic yarn is hooked by specified front and rear needles. Next, of the hooked elastic yarn, with that hooked by the knitting needles on the empty-needle side kept hooked, the piping fabric part is knitted by the other knitting needles. Because one end of this knitted piping fabric part is kept hooked by the knitting needles on the empty-needle side, it is difficult for the knitted piping fabric part to drop down; however, by using a stitch presser or a sinker, for example, to press down the loops of the piping fabric, the elastic yarn hooked by the knitting needles on the empty-needle side stretches, and an appropriate amount of tension act upon the loops of the piping fabric, thus making it possible to perform quality knitting. Thus, when the piping fabric part is knitted to the specified length and the end of the piping fabric part is reached, the loops at the fabric end are joined to the elastic yarn hooked by the knitting needles on the empty-needle side, and then the loops of the joined part are released from the knitting needles using elastic yarn, thus accomplishing the knitting of a fabric having piping formed on it. With the piping part of the fabric knitted in this way, in addition to the end of the piping fabric part being strongly pulled in by the elasticity of the elastic yarn inserted at the start of the piping fabric part, the part released from the knitting needles by the elastic yarn is also sufficiently compressed in the direction at right angles to the wale by this elasticity of the elastic yarn. The invention also provides a knitted fabric as recited in claim 2. The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig.1 shows a simplified front view of a pullover sweater knit by the method of this invention. Fig.2 shows one knitting course of the method of this invention. Fig.3 shows another knitting course of the method of the invention. Fig.1 shows a front view of a pullover sweater, which is one type of knitted garment. Using a flat knitting machine (not shown) on which are arranged at least one pair of front and rear needle beds in which multiple knitting needles are retractably inserted, knitting of the sweater 1 is begun from a bottom hem rib part 2, continuing up from the top if the hem rib part 2, a body part (fabric) 3 having a plain-knit structure is knitted by the front knitting needles, and then the end of the body part 3 is a neckline part 4 formed into the shape of piping using a rib stitch. Next, the knitting of the neckline part 4 which is the end of the body part 3 will be explained based on Fig.2. However, although the wale which corresponds to the body part 3 and the neckline part 4 is actually knitted by a specified number of multiple knitting needles, for convenience, only the part corresponding to seven knitting needles is shown, and the numbers along the left edge of the figure indicate the knitting courses. First, in course 1, ground yarn is supplied to the front knitting needles and the end of the body part 3 is knitted in a plain-knit structure. Then, in course 2, elastic yarn is supplied and hooked in a zig-zag pattern by the specified front and rear knitting needles. For the elastic yarn used here, it is preferable to use yarn which shrinks when heated and which maintains its elasticity after shrinking. However, it is also possible to use a textile fiber having contraction-expansion elasticity, such as spandex, or a yarn which, when heated, will shrink and the outer part of which will fuse and provide adhesiveness, and which maintains its elasticity after shrinking and adhesion, such as a textile fiber with a three-layer construction composed of a textile fiber layer having contraction-expansion elasticity for its core part, a protective textile fiber layer for its middle part, and a heat-fusing layer for its outer part. In course 3, in order to form a 1x1 rib fabric on the neckline part 4, the loops of every other one of the front knitting needles which knitted the end part of the body part 3 using ground yarn are transferred to the corresponding rear knitting needles. In course 4, the rear knitting needles are moved one-half pitch to the left, and then ground yarn is supplied and the knitting of the fabric is begun. In courses 5 and 6, the 1x1 rib fabric is knitted using ground yarn. This knitting in courses 5 and 6 is repeated the specified number of times, and then in course 7 the ground yarn is removed from the knitting process. Because the part at which the knitting of the 1x1 rib fabric knitted in courses 5 and 6 starts is held by the elastic yarn which was hooked in course 2, it is difficult for the knitted piping fabric part to drop down; however, by using a stitch presser or a sinker, for example, to press down the loops of the piping fabric, the elastic yarn which is holding the part at which the knitting of the rib fabric starts stretches, and an appropriate amount of tension acts upon the loops of the knitted piping fabric, thus making it possible to perform quality knitting. In course 8, when the elastic yarn hooked by the rear knitting needles and the loops of the rear knitting needles used in the knitting of the rib fabric in courses 4 through 7 explained above are transferred to the front knitting needles, the end of the rib fabric is joined together with the place at which the knitting of the rib fabric starts, thus forming the piping. Later, after elastic yarn is supplied from the left or the right to the front right-edge knitting needles and a loop is formed in courses 9 and 10, this loop is transferred to the adjacent knitting needle to the left in course 11 and the loop of the front right-edge knitting needles is cast off. By repeating these courses 9 through 11 over and over again from course 12 through course 26, the loops hooked in course 8 onto the front knitting needles, of which for convenience only the part corresponding to seven needles is shown, are bound off by elastic yarn, leaving the loop hooked onto the left-edge needle, and the bound-off loops are cast off from the knitting needles. Then, after loops are formed in courses 27 through 29, the loop hooked onto the left-edge knitting needle is cast off from the needle. With the piping part of the fabric knitted in this way, in addition to the fabric end being strongly pulled in by the elasticity of the elastic yarn inserted at course 2, the part bound off by the elastic yarn in courses 9 through 29 is also sufficiently compressed in the direction at right angles to the wale by this elasticity of the elastic yarn. It should be noted that although in the embodiment described above the neckline part 4 is formed of 1x1 rib fabric, it is of course also possible, as shown in Fig. 3, to use a plain-knit structure in place of this rib fabric. In other words, in place of the part from course 2 through course 7 in Fig. 2 of the embodiment described above, in Fig. 3, elastic yarn is hooked by all of the knitting needles in course 2, and then in courses 3 through 6, ground yarn is used to form a plain-knit structure, with all of the other compositions and actions being the same as in the embodiment described above. In addition, although the finishing process of the piping fabric part in the embodiment described above is done by transferring to adjacent knitting needles every two stitches formed at two courses using elastic yarn, it is of course also possible to transfer every stitch formed at a course or to transfer every three stitches formed at three courses. Furthermore, although in the embodiment described above the explanation was for the neckline of a pullover sweater, if, for example, the knitting is begun from the neckline of the sweater and the rib part is the end of the fabric, it is of course possible to form the piping on this rib part. In the same way, it is of course possible to apply this invention for sleeve cuffs, and also to apply it for knitted garments other than pullover sweaters.

Claims: A method of forming piping at the end of a knitted fabric with a flat knitting machine having at least a pair of first and second needle beds on each of which a plurality of knitting needles are arranged retractably, the piping consisting of an end of fabric (4) joined together with the start of the same fabric (4), comprising; holding loops of the knitted fabric with knitting needles on a first needle bed to empty knitting needles on a second needle bed, hooking an elastic yarn with the specified knitting needles on the first needle bed and the second needle bed, knitting a piping fabric part (4) with the knitting needles holding loops on the first needle bed, or with the knitting needles holding loops on the first needle bed and the still empty needles on the second needle bed, the elastic yarns being held on the specified needles of the second needle bed, joining together the hooked elastic yarn and the loops held with knitting needles at the start of the fabric and the loops at the end of this piping fabric part, supplying an elastic yarn to the knitting needle placed at either right-edge or left-edge of the knitting needles holding the loops, forming a new loop or loops at the end of the piping fabric with the elastic yarn, transferring the new loop or loops to adjacent knitting needles, and, repeating the latter three steps to release the loops from the knitting needles. A knitted fabric having piping formed at its fabric end, the piping consisting of an end of fabric (4) joined together with the start of the same fabric (4), and comprising elastic yarns used at a joining part of an end of a piping fabric part and an end of a knitted fabric, characterised by the elastic yarns binding off the joining part to finish the piping such that the loops at the start of the piping fabric are joined to the loops at the end of the piping fabric by the elastic yarn and the fabric part bound off by the elastic yarns is compressed in the direction at right angles to the wale.

Inventors: OKUNO MASAO, OKUNO, MASAO
Applicants: SHIMA SEIKI MFG, SHIMA SEIKI MFG., LTD.
Application year: 1993
Main classification: D04B1
IPC codes: D04B1, D04B7