Patent ID: 7536878

Claim:
A method of knitting a double tubular knitted fabric including an inner tubular section and an outer tubular section made up of a front knitted fabric part and a back knitted fabric part, using a flat knitting machine having at least a pair of front and back needle beds extending in a transverse direction and disposed opposite to each other in a cross direction, at least either of the front or back needle bed being capable of being racked in the transverse direction so that loops can be transferred between the front and back needle beds, the method comprising steps of: forming the inner tubular section using a yarn fed from one of at least two yarn feeders; and forming the outer tubular section using a yarn from another yarn feeder of the at least two yarn feeders by return-knitting in which loops are formed continuous in a returning course with the loops formed in a going course, and connecting the loops to each other at the boundary of the returning part so as to form a tubular shape, wherein the front knitted fabric part of the inner tubular section is transferred to the other opposing needle bed while knitting the front knitted fabric part of the outer tubular section on one needle bed, and the back knitted fabric part of the inner tubular section is transferred to the one opposing needle bed while knitting the back knitted fabric part of the outer tubular section on the other needle bed; wherein each of the front knitted fabric parts of the inner tubular section and the outer tubular section is assigned to either one of the front and back needle beds, and each of the back knitted fabric parts of the inner tubular section and the outer tubular section is assigned to the other of the front and back needle beds, and the respective yarn feeders are moved when knitting the inner tubular section and the outer tubular section such that the yarn for knitting the inner tubular section and the yarn for knitting the outer tubular section do not intersect.