Fig. 41 shows a yarn carrier used for plating on a flat machine. By plating is meant where two threads of different quality, say worsted and cotton, are used in the same course, and the worsted is laid in the fabric so as to show on the outside and the cotton is in the middle. To do this the worsted yarn, d, d, would pass through the center hole, b, and the yarn c, c, passing through the crescent-shaped hole, a, would be the cotton. It will be noted that the angular draw of the yarn from the bottom of the guide into the needles will always keep the yarns in the positions shown. When the end of the course is reached, and the movement of the carriage is reversed, the cotton yarn c, c, will swing around to the opposite end of the crescent-shaped hole, a, and in this way will always be in the same relative position to the worsted yarn d.
CHAPTER VI
Fashioned Goods
Fashioned goods are garments which, while being knit on the machine, are made the proper shape to fit the wearer.
If the garment to be fashioned is a sweater, the fashioning or shaping to be done is the sleeve, the neck opening, the collar, and at times in the better class of sweaters, the arm holes are narrowed back from the lower part to the shoulder in order to shorten the shoulder length, thereby insuring a better fit. When making underwear not only the sleeves have to be shaped but the legs of the drawers are shaped also. In the ladies’ high class fashioned underwear and tights the bust and hips are shaped. Much of this class of work, with the exception of hosiery, is made on the hand machines and involves much more labor, time and skill, than where the work is knit in a straight piece and made the proper shape by other means after being taken off the machine.
There are three advantages in fashioning the garments in the knitting operation. First, there is a saving in material as there is no material cut off in order to get the shape. This saving, however, would pay but a small part of the extra labor involved. Second, fashioned goods make up into better looking and as a rule better fitting garments than cut goods. Third, on account of the edges being selvage, not cut and raw, it is possible to join two edges so the place of joining will look much like a wale in the fabric, thereby avoiding the unsightly seams of the cut garment.
In fashioning of this character it is customary to set the machine up and start at the widest part of the garment, if possible, so that in getting the required shape the fabric will be made narrower instead of wider, though this is not essential, as it is practical to widen the fabric as well as to make it narrower.
The Narrowing Comb
Fig. 42.
Narrowing Comb or Decker
and Work Hook.