Year: 1887

page_text: communication from JOHN BLACKLOCK, Woollen Manufacturer, and Joseph
SIMPSON, Woollen Manufacturer, both of the City of Toronto, in the County
of York, in the Province of Ontario, Canada.
1, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex
M.I.M.E. do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:―
The object of this Invention is to provide a method whereby fashioned plain hosiery
can be made by a circular knitting machine so as to conform (without wetting and
stretching the stocking on a frame) to the shape of the calf and ankle, and it consists
in removing a pair of needles (one on each side of the selvage) successively from the
needle cylinder, and knitting "flat-web" with each successive set of needles, thus
narrowing off the stocking until the requisite amount of fashioning has been accom-
plished, then running the work off the needle cylinder and setting it up on another
needle cylinder carrying a less number of needles, and completing the stocking with
this latter cylinder, as liereinafter explained.
Fig. 1 is a view of portion of needle cylinder with needles in their respective
grooves.
Fig. 2, is a similar view two needles being removed to commence "fashioning."

page_text: Fig. 3, represents part of stocking with fashioning done.
Fig. 4, is a view showing the open slit where "fashioning" has taken place.
Fig. 5 illustrates shape of stocking after being taken from knitting machine.
Fig. 6 represents a "fashioned stocking in process of formation, showing
triangular portion to be cut off.
23
By way of illustrating the method of making a fashioned plain stocking a 96-needle
cylinder may be employed and knitting commenced at the top of the stocking in the
usual manner the number of courses necessary for the length of the leg are knit
and the ribber stitch put in at the back of the stocking for the purpose of producing
an imitation seam, the work thus produced by the circular machine being tubular in
form. The operator then commences the improved method of narrowing or fashioning
the stocking and knits "flat-web" during the process of fashioning in the following
manner, reference being had here to Figs. 1 and 2.
A is a portion of the needle cylinder with the needles in position in their respective
grooves, being a part of a 96-needle cylinder.
This cylinder has been used in forming the leg of the stocking. a are the needles
which for the purpose of illustration are numbered 1, 2, 3, &c commencing at the
selvage needle No. 1 and numbered on both sides of it.
The operator commences "fashioning" by removing needles Nos. 7 and 7¹ from
the needle cylinder, and placing their stitches in the adjoining needles Nos. 8, 8'.
He then moves up needles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, (vide Fig. 2) so as to fill up the gap caused
by the removal of No. 7' on the one side, and also move up, 24, 31, 4, 5 and 6¹ so as
to fill up the gap caused by the removal of No. 71 on the other side, thus leaving a
space on the needle cylinder A, as shown in Fig. 2 between needles 1 and 2; 6 being
the empty needle grooves. He then knits flat-web with two needles removed
from the needle cylinder, for say four courses, when he removes the seventh needle
from the gap on each side, which are numbered 8 and 9, in Figs. 1 and 2 moving up
the needles as before, so as to fill up the space caused by the removal of the seventh
needle, transferring the stitches as before onto the next adjoining needle furthest from
the gap and knitting four courses of "flat-web" and opens up double the space on
the needle cylinder between needles 1 and 21 which space is without needles. He
then knits with six needles removed from the needle cylinder, another four courses
of "flat web" when he repeats the same process of removing two needles placing
their stitches on adjoining needles and moving the needles up to fill the gap before
knitting, with eight needles removed from the needle cylinder, the next four courses
of "flat-web."
It is usually found sufficient for the purpose of fashioning common or medium
hosiery to repeat the foregoing process removing two needles at a time until twelve
needles have been removed from each side of selvage, thus reducing the number of
needles in the 96-needle cylinder to 72 when the work is removed off the 96-needle
cylinder the stocking leg on its selvage side presenting the appearance in shape as
shown in Fig. 3.
Having thus removed the portion of the stocking knitted the work is run on to a
72-needle cylinder, and the operator again knitting tubular completes the ankle, heel,
foot and toe, in the ordinary manner, as desired. On finally removing the stocking
from this 72-needle cylinder, where the fashioning has been done, there is an open
slit along the selvage, as shown in Fig. 4.
The slit or opening B is then closed, the selvage stitches being taken up with the
crotchet or darning needle, and the toe closed in the usual manner, when the stocking
is complete, and has the outline as indicated in Fig. 5, when removed from the
knitting machine, without any damping or shaping on a board or shaper, as is
necessary for all stockings as hitherto made on a circular machine.
In Fig. 5, that portion from o to p indicates the portion knitted by the 96-needle
cylinder; from P to that where the fashioning has taken place, as herein before
described the balance of the stocking being knitted with the 72-needle cylinder.
In the ordinary style of knitted stocking made on circular machines, when the

page_text: work is first removed from the machine the ankle is as wide as the leg that portion
which is intended to cover the calf and ankle being a piece of straight work, and the
usual method of shaping and fashioning it has hitherto been by wetting the stocking
and stretching it onto a board or shaper. By this old method, relying entirely on
the board to shape the stocking it will shortly lose the shape given it by the shaper;
whereas by the method herein described of taking out successive pairs of needles for
the purpose of fashioning and then finishing the work on a smaller cylinder, the
stocking is knit so as to conform to the shape of the calf and ankle and a permanent
shape is given to the hosiery, and the same article is produced as is produced by hand
knitting, and it is the same as regards durability and shape as the hard frame knit
stocking.
It will be understood that the foregoing description is not intended to indicate the
precise needle in which the fashioning should be done, nor the exact number of
courses knitted between the narrowings, nor the number of needles to be removed
from the cylinder, nor the size of cylinder, or number of needles carried by the
cylinders when filled.
:: full-
The stocking made by the method hereinbefore described may be termed a
fashioned" stocking but there is another method of forming a fashioned stocking so
as to produce the same effect as the aforesaid fashioning method at a less expense
and it consists in knitting tubular with say a 96-needle cylinder the leg of the
stocking from to s (vide Fig. 6,) so as to cover the lower rounding of the calf, then
removing or running the work off the cylinder and running it onto the needles of a
72-needle cylinder, and then completing the ankle, heel, foot and toe, knitting tubular
in the ordinary manner. The triangularly shaped portion is then doubled in and
the stocking sewn along the dotted line, when it may be turned inside out and the
doubled-in portion cut and trimmed off with a pair of scissors.
This method of "fashioning" also dispenses with the usual mode of knitting "short-
stitch" at the ankle, and a more uniform article can be produced the stitch being the
same throughout.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention
as communicated to me by my foreign correspondents and in what manner the same
is to be performed I declare that what I claim is
1. A stocking formed on a circular knitting machine, with a uniform stitch
throughout, and fashioned on the machine by the successive reduction of the number
of stitches in the course, so as to conform when knitted to the shape of the calf and
ankle, before being placed on a board or shaper, substantially as described and
specified.
2. The method of producing full-fashioned plain hosiery with a uniform stitch
throughout, by a circular knitting machine, so as to conform to the shape of the
calf and ankle without wetting and stretching the stocking on a frame, by the
successive removal from the needle-cylinder of one or more needles at a time from
each side of the selvage, the stitches on the needles removed being placed on the next
adjoining needles and knitting "flat-web" with each successive set of needles for
several courses further from the selvage, then narrowing the stocking until the
requisite amount of fashioning has been accomplished, then removing or running the
work off this needle cylinder, and running it onto another needle cylinder carrying a
less number of needles, less by the number of the needles so removed from the first
cylinder, and completing the stocking in the usual manner with the latter needle
cylinder, when the opening at the part "fashioned can be closed by stitching or
crotchet, and the stocking completed substantially as described and specified.
"
3. A stocking knit on a circular machine, with a uniform stitch throughout, and
fashioned at the lower swell of the calf and ankle by stitching along the selvage, the
superfluous matter having been doubled in and trimmed off so as to form a stocking
which will conform to the shape of the calf and ankle before being placed on a board
or shaper substantially as specified.

page_text: 4. The method of producing "fashioned" plain hosiery by knitting on a circular
machine the leg of the stocking adapted to cover the lower rounding of the calf, then
removing the work off this cylinder and running it onto the needles in a needle
cylinder carrying the requisite lesser number of needles, and completing the stocking
in the usual manner with this latter cylinder, doubling in the corner formed above the
work knitted by the latter cylinder, stitching it along the selvage so as to conform to
the shape of the leg, turning the stocking inside out and removing and trimming off
the part so doubled in substantially as specified.