Healds.
In Stockport counts four healds are considered as a set, and having one thread through each eye are dubbed of similar counts to the reed—e.g., a 60’s set of healds has 15 stitches per inch in each set, equalling 60 ends per inch in the reed, which is a 60’s reed, Stockport.
In spaced healds some are knitted finer than others and consequently numbered differently. In this point draft:—
55
44 4 4
333
22
1
twelve ends are drawn on five healds, one end on the 1st heald, two on the 2nd, three on the 3rd, four on the 4th, and two on the 5th. Four different degrees of fineness are required in the five heald staves, and the above draft is given to the knitter with instructions for so many patterns to the inch. Say five patterns per inch: 5 × 12 would give a 60 reed, and the number of stitches per inch would be respectively 5, 10, 15, 20 and 10—the front one being equal to a Stockport 20’s, for if there were four similar to it in a set, the number of ends would be 20. Similarly the second stave equals a Stockport 40’s, the third 60’s, the fourth 80’s, and the fifth same as the second, a 40’s. To prove this, the requisite set of five staves might be obtained by taking one stave out of a plain 20’s set, two staves of a plain 40’s, one stave from a 60’s, and one from an 80’s set.