5. The points have moved two needle spacings towards the centre of the fabric.
6. The narrowing points have again descended, and the needles have pressed against the points for the delivery of the carried loops. (While the points are lowered, the sinkers and dividers move over the fabric to retain the transferred loops, when the points rise again to prevent the loops from rising with them.) It will be noticed that there are two needles on the outside not covered by the points, and thus it is evident that these two needles have now lost their loops, these loops having been taken off and transferred to the next two needles, thereby narrowing the fabric.
7. The points leave the needles, rising again freed from the loops, and all the knitting elements commence to assume their normal positions for knitting.
METHOD OF WIDENING (BY YARN
CARRIERS) ON FULLY-FASHIONED
MACHINES
(which can be used in the manufacture of round-heel stockings)
This method of widening comprises the employing of two yarn feeding carriers, the draw of which is controlled so that one traverses two needles beyond the other at each edge, thereby increasing the draw of the carrier by two needles at intervals. The best results are obtained if the main yarn carrier is given the longer travel, while the splicing (or plating) carrier remains two needles less on each selvedge.This arrangement enables widenings to take place every four courses if required, simply by extending the travel of the yarn carriers by two needles each side. This method gives satisfactory and perfectly locked selvedges, with no possibility of the formation of runs in the stocking. (Runs do sometimes occur when the widening-by-points method is used.)
This two-needle difference in traverse is preferably used during the knitting of a round-heel stocking, where the heel is produced by widening and then narrowing the fabric so as to form a heel shape. (This can be better understood by referring to Fig. 33 this being described as follows.)
Fig. I-A. Shows the appearance of the fabric at the completion of the
