Fig. 30 shows a half cardigan stitch ready to rack, as it is customary to make the one needle rack on this stitch. It should be noticed that the racking is done on the course that holds, or does not cast the previous stitch off on one side. Fig. 31 shows the stitch after the plate has been racked over one needle. This illustration practically explains the whole principle of the rack stitch. The rack will show on the side that casts the stitches off the needles. It is customary to hold the stitch or tuck on the back plate, therefore the rack shows on the front side of the fabric, or the side toward the operator of the machine.
Operation of Racking
It is understood, of course, that on a flat machine there must always be an end needle on one plate or the other. Usually the knitter sets up his machine with one plate carrying the end needle on one side of the work and the other plate carrying the other end needle. Which end of the respective plates carries this needle depends on the position of the racking cam. In the illustration, Fig. 30, the front plate has the end needle on the right and back plate has the end needle on the left. After racking as in Fig. 31, these positions are reversed. It will be noted that the front plate has been racked or moved over one needle so the front needles will come up through and operate between the next two needles to the left of their previous positions.
Or to explain it in a different way, in Fig. 30, before racking, the front plate has the end needle on the right and operates outside of the last needle in the back plate, but after racking, as in Fig. 31, this end needle on the front plate has been shifted over so it comes up inside the last needle in the back plate.
After racking over one needle there must be one full round or two courses put on before racking again; that is while racking on the half cardigan stitch, and then the plate is racked back to the first position. This operation of racking first one way and then the other with a round between each rack is continued until the necessary number of racks are finished and then the operator proceeds with the plain half cardigan.
This procedure would make a plain rack on one side of the fabric only. We have assumed in this explanation that the back is stationary and the front plate is the one that moves, but I wish to have it understood here that it makes no difference which plate is stationary and which one racks or is movable; the results are the same.
Some writers use the words shog or shogged in place of rack or racked, but the writer of this work has avoided the use of these words as they are seldom or never used by the practical knitter, at least not in this country.
The Racking Mechanism
In most of the modern flat machines the plate that racks has enough end clearance to rack over at least two needles, and some of them as many as four, though racking two needles is sufficient for all ordinary work. Fig. 32 shows the method of racking or moving the plate to make the rack stitch, or at least this is the principle used as a rule on the imported machines, with some modifications by some makers. This also applies to the method shown of attaching the plates to the frame.