The present invention provides a knitted fabric of three-dimensional silhouette shape which comprises a front half and a back half coupled at side edges to each other forming a tubular shape and in which the circumferential length of the tubular shape is varied by increasing and/or decreasing the number of wales of one of the two, front and back, halves and also, a method of knitting the same.

In joining fabrics on a flat knitting machine, more specifically joining sleeves to a body, stitch courses are formed on both of the body and the sleeves. A stitch of the edge portion of a sleeve is overlapped with a stitch of the edge portion of the body. Stitch courses are formed on the body and on the edge portions of a sleeve. At least one stitch of the edge portion of the sleeve is overlapped with at least one adjacent stitch of the sleeve. With the decrease in knitting width, when joining the body and sleeve, double stitches are formed in two wales, on the edge portion of the body and on the edge portion of the sleeve.

A knitting method that can permit the forming of a connecting part of the knitting fabric overlapped in front and back, such as a pleat or fly, even when the knitting fabric is knitted in a double jersey stitch structure. The method comprises the steps that the first and second knitting fabrics are knitted in double jersey stitch structure; that stitch loops of one of the first and second knitting fabrics which are to be overlapped with related stitch loops of the other of the first and second knitting fabrics are transferred to the opposed needle beds, whereby the first and second knitting fabrics are divided between the first needle bed and the second needle bed; that stitch loops of one of the first and second knitting fabrics which are not to be overlapped with related stitch loops of the other of the first and second knitting fabrics are held on the needles of the opposed needle beds, whereby the stitch loops of the first knitting fabric are retained by the needles of the first needle bed and the stitch loops of the second knitting fabric are retained by the needles of the second needle bed; that the first needle bed and/or the second needle beds are racked in a direction of the first knitting fabric and the second knitting fabric being moved closer to each other, so that the first and second knitting fabrics can be overlapped with each other in front and back; that the stitch loops held on the needles of each of the opposed needle beds are transferred back to their original needle beds; and that stitch loops of the next course are formed in double jersey stitch structure in the needles belonging in the region in which the first and second knitting fabrics are retained with overlapped in front and back.

A method of forming a knitted body part of a knitted wear which includes knitting an integral pocket while knitting the body portion. A flat knitting machine with two pair of needle beds in a vertical direction is used. As soon as the body portion is knitted up to a predetermined position, the knitting machine is operated to branch out specific loops engaged with those knitting needles in a region corresponding to the predetermined width of a pocket.

A flat knitting machine based on a flat Vee-bed arrangement has four opposed needle beds comprising front and back main needle beds and front and back auxiliary needle beds located above the main beds. A carriage traversible the length of the beds includes a cam assembly for imparting knitting and loop transferring motions to the needles in all the beds. By selective co-operation of the several beds flat and tubular knitted fabrics of any known design can be produced.