A method of producing figured knitted fabric lengths on a flat knitting machine

With certain advanced knitting methods it is possible to produce arbitrarily figured knitted fabrics, but when using a flat knitting machine the figuring has so far been limited to the inclusion of transverse, throughgoing stripes made of one or more rows of stitches. With the invention advantage is taken by the fact that the needles (4) of such a machine are switchable between an operative and a non-operative condition, as it is hereby possible to knit in one or more rows of stitches (20-24) of a figure producing yarn along only a partial width of the fabric, from one edge thereof, while thereafter, optionally after addition of an additional throughgoing stripe of one or more rows (28) of stitches, it is possible to effect a complementary knitting in of stitches and stitch rows (30) from the opposite edge of the fabric, whereby the earlier introduced wryness of the fabric will be relieved or compensated for. The result is a flat knitted fabric that may show stripe figures terminating at places on the very fabric surface spaced from one of the edges thereof, and/or stripes (28) stretching partially in a curved manner.