Patent ID: 7113844

Claim:
A yarn length control method for controlling the length of yarn forming a knitting stitch loop in producing, in a flat knitting machine provided with a front and a back needle bed opposing to each other at a needle bed gap, a tubular knitted article in which a front knitted fabric and a back knitted fabric are joined together at both ends thereof in a knitting width direction, while allocating a plurality of knitting needles which are arranged along a longitudinal direction of each of the needle beds, alternately to the front knitted fabric that is produced basically at the front needle bed and to the back knitted fabric that is produced basically at the back needle bed so that drawn off stitch is performed, and moving a carriage mounted on a knitting lock which lets each of the knitting needles perform a knitting operation, along the longitudinal direction, wherein when knitting with knitting needles allocated to each of the knitted fabrics, a hung stitch is formed by hanging yarn over knitting needles that are adjacent to the knitting needles performing the knitting which are on the front needle bed for the front knitted fabric or on the back needle bed for the back knitted fabric or on the back needle bed for the back knitted fabric which are under a condition of retaining no knitting stitch loop, and the hung stitch is shook off, and a knitting stitch loop formed on the knitting needles which have performed knitting is taken as a drop loop, and wherein a length of yarn used for knitting the drop loop is controlled to be a predetermined constant yarn length in such a manner that the length of yarn is separated for a front knitted fabric and a back knitted fabric, and further separated based on whether knitting needles for knit knitting that are adjacent to each other having a hung stitch therebetween belong to the same needle bed or belong to the other needle bed.