A circular knitting machine includes a needle-holding cylinder having plurality of longitudinal grooves arranged around central axis, and plurality of needles, each being housed in longitudinal groove. Drive chain for each needle is inserted into each groove and operatively placed between needle and actuating cams. Drive chain includes sub-needle slidingly arranged in groove and having a butt. Butt is radially movable between operating position, extracted to engage with respective first paths and cause activation of needle and stitch formation, and non-operating position, retracted so as not to engage with first paths. A selector is arranged under sub-needle, and punch is arranged between sub-needle and selector. An activating element is slidingly arranged in groove between sub-needle and selector, can be longitudinally moved with respect to punch and sub-needle, and can be operatively engaged with sub-needle to switch butt of sub-needle into and retain it in operating position.

The machine for making a shoe upper comprises a reel holder rack, a dial and a sinker crown, a needle cylinder with a vertical axis and forward and backward movement having a plurality of grooves, inside of which the needles are slidable, controlled by selection thereof, a cup element, at least four feeders assembled along the circumference of the machine, guide, first brake, first recovery means for recovering each of the threads to be fed to said needles for forming the upper and a suction bell for unloading said upper, said selection of said needles comprising a pre-selection cam defining a working path and a non-working path of the heels of the elastic jacks of the corresponding needles and sub-needles of said cylinder and a lifting cam defining a first path executing working stitches and a second lowered path with respect to the first path executing tuck stitches.

The machine for making a shoe upper comprises a reel holder rack, a dial and a sinker crown, a needle cylinder with a vertical axis and forward and backward movement having a plurality of grooves, inside of which the needles are slidable, controlled by selection thereof, a cup element, at least four feeders assembled along the circumference of the machine, guide, first brake, first recovery means for recovering each of the threads to be fed to said needles for forming the upper and a suction bell for unloading said upper, said selection of said needles comprising a pre-selection cam defining a working path and a non-working path of the heels of the elastic jacks of the corresponding needles and sub-needles of said cylinder and a lifting cam defining a first path executing working stitches and a second lowered path with respect to the first path executing tuck stitches.

Knit apparel formed using knitted structures and yarn content to create zonal properties provided. In aspects, garments, such as lower-body garments, have gradient missed-stitch structures creating protrusions on the external surface of the garment. Each gradient missed-stitch structure has at least a first missed-stitch segment and a second missed-stitch segment. The first missed-stitch segment is formed by a first set of float stitches along a first plurality of courses, and the second missed-stitch segment is formed by a second set of float stitches along a subset of the first plurality of courses. There may be additional missed-stitch segments formed across different quantities of courses such that the gradient missed-stitch structures are each tapered.

Knit apparel formed using knitted structures and yarn content to create zonal venting and material standoff are provided. In aspects, garments having standoff structures knitted into one or more zones within the garment, on an internal and/or external surface of the garment, include tops and half-tights. The standoff structures are created using missed stitches with floats adjacent knitted stitches are integral to the surrounding material. Additionally, garments having airflow apertures are included, with transfer-stitch structures creating integral openings within the surrounding material.

A method for producing a double jersey fabric on a double jersey, single jacquard circular knitting machine includes steps of knitting a front side of the fabric on a cylinder (C) and knitting the rear side of the fabric on a dial (D) of the machine, knitting a base yarn on a rear side of the fabric, except for connecting points where the base yarn is knitted on the front side of the fabric. The method additionally includes steps of inserting a pattern yarn before a start of a pattern unit, which is produced using the pattern yarn, knitting the pattern yarn on the front side of the fabric in the pattern unit and cutting off the pattern yarn after the pattern unit.

A method for producing a double jersey fabric on a double jersey, single jacquard circular knitting machine includes steps of knitting a front side of the fabric on a cylinder (C) and knitting the rear side of the fabric on a dial (D) of the machine, knitting a base yarn on a rear side of the fabric, except for connecting points where the base yarn is knitted on the front side of the fabric. The method additionally includes steps of inserting a pattern yarn before a start of a pattern unit, which is produced using the pattern yarn, knitting the pattern yarn on the front side of the fabric in the pattern unit and cutting off the pattern yarn after the pattern unit.

A jacquard fabric for a mattress ticking to be used for a bedding mattress and a method for knitting this jacquard fabric are provided. The method is for producing a jacquard fabric for a mattress ticking using a double-sided needle selection circular knitting machine of a rib gating type by which an arbitrary pattern is created by means of computer-based needle selection on a cylinder side, an arbitrary pattern is also created by means of computer-based needle selection on a dial side, and an arbitrary knitting structure is made in an arbitrary part by combining the pattern obtained on the cylinder side with the pattern obtained on the dial side. As a result of employing an irregular twill pattern as a background knitting structure serving as a base, a stretchable fabric that has a soft texture, a tight knitting structure, and strength similar to that of woven fabric is obtained.

A jacquard fabric for a mattress ticking to be used for a bedding mattress and a method for knitting this jacquard fabric are provided. The method is for producing a jacquard fabric for a mattress ticking using a double-sided needle selection circular knitting machine of a rib gating type by which an arbitrary pattern is created by means of computer-based needle selection on a cylinder side, an arbitrary pattern is also created by means of computer-based needle selection on a dial side, and an arbitrary knitting structure is made in an arbitrary part by combining the pattern obtained on the cylinder side with the pattern obtained on the dial side. As a result of employing an irregular twill pattern as a background knitting structure serving as a base, a stretchable fabric that has a soft texture, a tight knitting structure, and strength similar to that of woven fabric is obtained.

The machine for making a shoe upper comprises a reel holder rack, a dial and a sinker crown, a needle cylinder with a vertical axis and forward and backward movement having a plurality of grooves, inside of which the needles are slidable, controlled by selection thereof, a cup element, at least four feeders assembled along the circumference of the machine, guide, first brake, first recovery means for recovering each of the threads to be fed to said needles for forming the upper and a suction bell for unloading said upper, said selection of said needles comprising a pre-selection cam defining a working path and a non-working path of the heels of the elastic jacks of the corresponding needles and sub-needles of said cylinder and a lifting cam defining a first path executing working stitches and a second lowered path with respect to the first path executing tuck stitches.