Knitting - Basics

R.Senthil Kumar,
Senior lecturer,
KCT,Coimbatore-06.
sen29iit@yahoo.co.in
 Knitting
 Second Most frequently used method for
making fabric
 Gaining immense popularity
 Construction is different from Woven
Fabric
 Broadly 2 types of Fabric
 Weft Knitted and Warp Knitted
 Weft Knitting

 Most Common
 One Continuos Yarn forms Courses across the fabric
 Wales- Loops running Lengthwise (Warp)
 Courses- Loops running Widthwise (Weft)
 Evaluating Factor: Stitch length,Stitch
Density(Gauge),GSM,Dia
 Types of Knitting Machines
 Flat knitting machines or V bed knitting machines.
 Circular knitting machines.
 Flat machines are of different gauge and of different bed
length
 Circular machines are of different gauge and of different
diameter.
Flat Knitting Machine
Circular Knitting Machine
 Types of Weft knitted fabrics

Plain, Rib, Interlock and Purl are the four primary

structures from which all other weft knitted structures are
derived. Each structure is composed of a different
combinations of face and reverse meshed stitches knitted
on a particular arrangement of needles and beds.
Plain or Single Jersey
Plain fabric is produced by using only one set of needles by
drawing the yarn from technical back to the technical face.
Needles are arranged in a needle bed which may be either
flat or circular. These machines have one needle for every
wale in the fabric
 The fabric has one appearance on the face and a
different on the back side. The side on which the straight
parts of the loops appear in ‘V’ formation is called the face
side (technical face) of the fabric. The reverse side
(technical back) has twin rows of opposed semi circles.
 Rib
 A fabric in which both back and front loops occur along the
course, but all the loops contained within any wale are of the
same type. In other words, a rib structure implies a weft knitted
fabric with face and back loops occurring in the same course but
not in the same wale.
 It requires two sets of needles operating in between each other so
that wales of face stitch and wales of back stitch are knitted on
each side of the fabric.
 These fabrics can be produced on V-bed flat machines and
circular machines, where one set of needles draw new loops on
the face of the fabric and other at the back side of the structure.
 Every needle pulls a face loop towards the needle bed in which
it is located and hence produce a wale made only of those
loops. In this way, there are wales made of face loops on both
sides of the fabric. When all the needles in the machine
participate in the knitting process a 1x1 rib is formed as shown
in Fig.
Rib Fabric
 When the fabric is viewed from one side, it exhibits one
wale made of face loops, one wale made of reverse loop
and so on. The wales made of reverse loops are in fact the
wales exhibiting face loops when the fabric is viewed from
the other side.

 The order in which the needles are arranged decides the

nature of the fabric e.g. 1x1,2x1, 3x1, 2x2, 6x3 etc. These
fabrics are specially suitable for extremities of garments.
 Interlock
 Interlock is the name given to a double faced rib based structure
containing two 1x1 rib interlocked together.

 Interlock fabric is therefore made of two rib structures which are

knitted alternately, first a course of one, then a course of the
second, so that the two individual structures are intermeshed in a
single composite fabric.

 The face loops of one fabric are directly in front of the back loops
of the other fabric in one wale, and then the order is reversed in
the next wale as shown in Fig.
Plain Interlock
 Warp Knitting

• Not very common

• Extremely Strong
• Complex Structure