Making Half Cardigan Stitch
In the study of what follows it should be remembered that the illustration at Fig. 40 shows the locks bottom up, therefore in actual operation the lower set in the illustrations would be the back ones, and the upper set the front ones.
In making the half cardigan stitch it is customary to have the tuck or holdover stitch on the back plate; on the double-lock machine, where we have two feeds, it is on the back feed, and the plain course is on the locks that are leading. Therefore, to make a half cardigan stitch with these locks we would simply raise cams 2b and 3b up through the cam plate out of working position.
Now remembering that the cams 2c and 3c are free to swing up and down on the pivots, aa, and are held down in their present position by a small spring, it should be readily understood that in moving the carriage from, let us say, left to right, the butts of the needles would follow up the right side of cam 2a, and on up over 2c, therefore would knit out on this course. But when these butts came to the second set of locks they would move up the right side of cam 3a until they came to the upper right hand corner of this cam, and at this point, on account of cam 3b being up out of operation, they would move across and raise up cam 3c and pass under it. Cam 3a not being high enough to raise the needles to the point where the stitch would drop off the latches, obviously the needles must hold the two stitches on this side of these locks.
On the return of the carriage from right to left the operation of the needles would be reversed, that is, they would pass up over cam 3c and knit out on the locks in the lead and pass under cam 2c.
To sum up the whole operation in a few words, to make a half cardigan stitch we must alternate with the plain rib course and a course that tucks or holds the previous stitch, as well as the new one on one side. This half cardigan is the stitch used in making what is known as the “cotton back” sweater and other such fabrics.
By having one yarn carrier threaded with cotton and one threaded with wool or worsted, as the case may be, and changing these carriers at the end of every course so as to keep the cotton always knitting at the cams that are leading or making the plain stitch, the cotton alone will draw through on the back of the fabric while the worsted or wool will practically cover the face stitch of the cotton. This exchange of the yarn carriers at the end of each course is done automatically by the machine, therefore requires no attention by the operator.