Patent ID: 6857294

Claim:
A method of knitting an intarsia pattern knitting fabric, said method comprising: providing a flat intarsia knitting machine having a plurality of thread feeding members, the flat intarsia knitting machine being operable to displace a position at which a yarn is fed from any one of the thread feeding members to a needle gap during intarsia knitting, the needle gap being formed between a plurality of opposing needle beds; using the thread feeding members to feed yarn to the needle gap of the flat intarsia knitting machine while traveling along a longitudinal direction of the opposing needle beds so as to knit a cylindrical knitting fabric in which a front knitting fabric and a back knitting fabric are joined at both ends with an intarsia pattern inserted therein; halting the thread feeding members for feeding the yarn at a final stitch of the intarsia pattern after knitting the intarsia pattern; knitting a knitting fabric opposing the knitting fabric into which the intarsia pattern is knitted such that a yarn extending from a knitting needle holding the final stitch of the intarsia pattern to a yarn feeding portion of any of the thread feeding members is hooked on an unused knitting needle on one of the needle beds opposing the other of the needle beds to which the knitting needle belongs; and releasing the hooked yarn after knitting the knitting fabric opposing the knitting fabric into which the intarsia pattern is knitted.