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• Vasant Kothari

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VASANT R KOTHARI - has done Master’s in Textiles Technology from DKTE’s Textile and Engineering Institute, Ichalkaranji (Shivaji University, Kolhapur), Maharashtra. He has also done Diploma in Export Management (Apparel Export) from the Indian Institute of Export Management, and Garment Export and Merchandising Management from NIFT, Bangalore. Presently, he’s working as an Assistant Professor in Department of Fashion Technology, NIFT, Bangalore. (This is his fifth input from the series of articles in Knitting Views)

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T

here are three principle stitches utilised in knit fabrics: Knit, tuck and miss stitch. These three stitches, or combinations of them appearing in the same fabric, form the basis of all knitted fabrics.

Formation of loop structures The weft knitted structures described so far have been totally composed of knitted loops, which are produced whenever the needle clears the old loop, receives the new yarn and knock over the old loop from the previous knitting cycle. Fig. 6.1 shows the three possible positions of the needle at the time of feeding the yarn. They are referred to as knit, tuck and miss positions. These different stitches are produced by controlling the height of the needles and the individual selection of needles enable knit, tuck or miss stitches to be formed. For different stitch requirements, swing cams or auxiliary cams are placed between the rising cams and the stitch cams to change the path of the needle butts to form a raceway and the needle butts travel in this restricted path accordingly to form knit, tuck and miss stitch.

Fig 6.1 Three needle positions for the production of three stitch types.

Fig 6.4 Tuck stitch produced on a latch needle machine

The tuck loop will always lie at the back of the held loop. The numbers of consecutive tucks on any one needle is limited by the amount of yarn that the needle hook can hold, with the maximum usually being between four to five loops. Fig 6.5 shows the technical face of the tuck stitch along with the knitting notations.

Fig 6.2 Cam setting for different stitches

Knit stitch The knit stitch is the basic stitch. It is also called the plain stitch. Knit stitch is formed when the needle carries out a complete stroke, reaching the maximum height on the looping plane.

Fig 6.5 Technical face of tuck stitch fabric with stitch notations

Fig 6.3 Face and back of knit stitch

Tuck stitch A tuck stitch is formed when a knitting needle holds its old loop and then receives a new yarn. Two loops then collect in the needle hook. The previously formed knitted loop is called the held loop and the loop which joins it is a tuck loop.

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The resultant stitch is elongated. Tuck stitches appear on the back of a fabric and may be recognised as an inverted V, sometime elongated for two or more courses, depending on how many times the stitched was tucked. Fig 6.6 shows a single tuck viewed from technical face and back of the fabric. Fig 6.7 shows a single tuck viewed from the technical back and, in addition, how this structure is represented using conventional stitch notations.

Miss stitch A miss stitch is created when one or more knitting needles are deactivated and do not move into position to accept the yarn. The yarn merely passes by and no stitch is formed. The float will lie freely on the reverse side of the held loop, which is the technical back, and in the case of rib and interlock structures it will be inside the fabric. Fig 6.10 illustrates that the float will extend from the base of one knitted or tucked loop to the next.

Fig 6.6 Tuck stitch

Fig 6.9 Float stitch produced on a latch needle machine

Fig 6.7 Tucking over four adjacent plain needles

Tuck stitches tends to reduce the length of the fabric and increase its width (Wales are pushed apart), resulting in the fabric being thicker (yarn from the tuck stitch lies on top of the preceding stitch) with less extension in the width. The tuck stitch is used in knitted fabric to create design effects in colour, raised surface texture, or a hole or eyelet effect. Fig 6.10 Technical face of float stitch

Miss stitch is also known as float stitch or welt stitch. Fig 6.11 shows the face and the back of the miss stitch. Fig 6.12 shows a four needle float viewed from the technical back, together with the conventional stitch notation used to represent this structure.

Fig 6.8 Tuck stitch (Face and Back)

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The introduction of miss stitches results in the fabric becoming narrower in width, since the wales are pulled closer together and the held loop ‘robs’ yarn from adjacent loops. This tends to improve fabric stability. The miss stitch also has a tendency to increase

fabric weight, and reduce both stretch, and width. A miss stitch is used to create colour and figure designs in knitted fabric since it permits the selective positioning of yarns in a fabric.

Fig 6.11 Miss stitch Fig 6.13 Miss stitch (Front and back)

Knit, tuck and miss stitches can be used in any of the four fabric types – single jersey, rib, purl or interlock – to produce a wide range of structural effects. Fig 6.14 shows the combination of all three stitches.

6.12 Floating across four adjacent plain needles

Fig 6.14 Successive tucks and floats

(In the next edition, we would be discussing about Weft Knitting.)

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