Circular Knitting

Hi All
I have just done a sample piece of circular knitting for the first time on my Toyota KS901 and KR501 ribber. I used 3-ply and tension 4/4. The trouble is that both edge stitches for the full length of the tubular piece are very untidy and any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Very kind regards.

Hi Alan
Yes it is possible. ‘A Machine Knitter’s Guide’ by Lewis and Weissman explains how.
You need to punch a card with the colours separated one colour per row starting with the backing colour as for double jacquard.
The card feed has to be set to the back position so that the card will only rotate every other row.
Set the main carriage to slip in both directions and the ribber carriage to slip to the right and knit to the left.
RC1 the foundation row is knitted from right to left; the ribber needles will knit and the patterning needles on the main bed will be set.
RC2 knit from left to right; only background needles on main bed will knit.
Now push all needles on main bed back to ‘B’ so that they will not knit on the next row.
Change yarn.
RC3 knit design colour on ribber bed and select needles for design colour on main bed.
RC4 knit design stitches on main bed.
Push all needles on main bed to ‘B’ so they will not knit on the next row.
Change yarn.
These four rows form one complete row of pattern.
To compensate for there being more rows knitted on the ribber you need a smaller stitch size and extra weights.
This will produce a very firm fabric of one row stripes on the ribber suitable for soles of socks or palms of gloves and mittens.
There are other combination of stitches shown in the book but I will not give details here as it will confuse matters.
I have not tried this out myself yet but it has possibilities!
Hope you succed regards Sue.
Sue P
2013-05-03 16:49:59
Hi

There are several points you could check:

Is the tension on the yarn mast correct? If it is too loose you will get loops at the edges which make the stitches larger.

Don’t take the carriages too far past the knitting as that can also cause loops.

Whilst knitting circular have the beds set at P so that the needles are opposite each other; this closes the gap between the end stitches on each bed.
However if you change to ribbing make sure you set the beds on H again so that the needles do not hit into each other.

One other thing you might find that you need the tension on the ribber dial set to 4.2 as ribbers usually knit a bit tighter than the main bed.

Hope this helps
Sue.

Sue P
2013-03-07 10:30:56
Hi
Thanks for the advice I hadn’t put the needles directly opposite each other the tubular knitting is working perfectly now. Is it possible to include punchcard patterns on these machines with tubular? I understand that the ribber has no pattern facility but thought maybe it is possible to do patterning on the main bed so that I get a tube with patterning on one side. Trouble is I seem to have tried every combination of the cam set levers on the main bed but always the knitting reverts to a single knitted piece. Am I missing something or is it not possible? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Very kind regards Alan
Stivi
2013-05-03 11:09:43
Hi Alan
Yes it is possible. ‘A Machine Knitter’s Guide’ by Lewis and Weissman explains how.
You need to punch a card with the colours separated one colour per row starting with the backing colour as for double jacquard.
The card feed has to be set to the back position so that the card will only rotate every other row.
Set the main carriage to slip in both directions and the ribber carriage to slip to the right and knit to the left.
RC1 the foundation row is knitted from right to left; the ribber needles will knit and the patterning needles on the main bed will be set.
RC2 knit from left to right; only background needles on main bed will knit.
Now push all needles on main bed back to ‘B’ so that they will not knit on the next row.
Change yarn.
RC3 knit design colour on ribber bed and select needles for design colour on main bed.
RC4 knit design stitches on main bed.
Push all needles on main bed to ‘B’ so they will not knit on the next row.
Change yarn.
These four rows form one complete row of pattern.
To compensate for there being more rows knitted on the ribber you need a smaller stitch size and extra weights.
This will produce a very firm fabric of one row stripes on the ribber suitable for soles of socks or palms of gloves and mittens.
There are other combination of stitches shown in the book but I will not give details here as it will confuse matters.
I have not tried this out myself yet but it has possibilities!
Hope you succed regards Sue.
Sue P
2013-05-03 16:49:59
Hi

There are several points you could check:

Is the tension on the yarn mast correct? If it is too loose you will get loops at the edges which make the stitches larger.

Don’t take the carriages too far past the knitting as that can also cause loops.

Whilst knitting circular have the beds set at P so that the needles are opposite each other; this closes the gap between the end stitches on each bed.
However if you change to ribbing make sure you set the beds on H again so that the needles do not hit into each other.

One other thing you might find that you need the tension on the ribber dial set to 4.2 as ribbers usually knit a bit tighter than the main bed.

Hope this helps
Sue.

Sue P
2013-03-07 10:30:56
Hi
Thanks for the advice I hadn’t put the needles directly opposite each other the tubular knitting is working perfectly now. Is it possible to include punchcard patterns on these machines with tubular? I understand that the ribber has no pattern facility but thought maybe it is possible to do patterning on the main bed so that I get a tube with patterning on one side. Trouble is I seem to have tried every combination of the cam set levers on the main bed but always the knitting reverts to a single knitted piece. Am I missing something or is it not possible? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Very kind regards Alan
Stivi
2013-05-03 11:09:43