Knitting machine and knitting method

Abstract

A knitting mechanism 7 of a knitting machine 1 knits a knitted product by overlaying a knitted fabric in a plurality of layers. When knitting the knitted product, the knitting mechanism 7 retains a loop formed when knitting an (N−1)th-layer knitted fabric (N being an integer of 2 or more) even after completion of the knitting the (N−1)th-layer knitted fabric, and when knitting stitches in an Nth-layer knitted fabric, retains loops already formed in the Nth layer, knits the stitches by passing a new thread through both the loops already formed and retained in the Nth layer and, of the loops retained in the (N−1)th layer, loops at corresponding positions to the loops already formed in the Nth layer, and releases the retention of the loops at the corresponding positions in accordance with the knitting of the stitches, while continuing to retain the loops already formed in the Nth layer even after completion of the knitting of the Nth layer knitted fabric. As a result, the knitting mechanism 7 knits the knitted product formed of the plurality of layers of knitted fabric in which two layers of knitted fabric that are adjacent in the top-bottom direction are joined by connecting loops at mutually corresponding positions.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.