Patent ID: 7047768

Claim:
A method of knitting tubular knit fabric in which multiple tubular portions are knitted and connected using a flat-knitting machine including at least one pair of facing needle beds extending in the sideways direction and facing each other front to back, at least one of the facing needle beds being capable of racking in the sideways direction, and the flat-knitting machine being capable of transferring stitches between the facing needle beds, said method comprising: knitting a first tubular portion and a second tubular portion so that the first tubular portion has a first orientation with respect to the second tubular portion; turning the first tubular portion having the first orientation by a predetermined amount by transferring stitches of the first tubular portion and by racking of the needle bed so that a stitch of the first tubular portion farthest from the second tubular portion is transferred, whereby the first tubular portion is turned toward the second tubular portion and has a second orientation with respect to the second tubular portion; and knitting so as to link the first tubular portion to the second tubular portion while the first tubular portion is held in the second orientation so that the tubular knit fabric is shaped to match a configuration of a human body.