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
[Illustration: Fig. 42. Narrowing Comb or Decker and Work Hook.]
The letter _a_ in Fig. 42 shows the instrument used for narrowing by
hand. It is called a decker or narrowing comb. It will be noted that it
consists of long slim points clamped in a handle, with an eye in the
free end of each point. There may be any desired number of points
clamped in the handle, the limit being only the width of the clamp, but
the usual number for this work is from three to five. These points must
be set at a distance from one another to correspond to the cut of the
machine on which they are to be used; that is, if the needle plates are
cut for six needles to one inch the spacing of the decker points must be
the same. I might add that these deckers are sometimes made by stamping
the whole decker, points and all, out of sheet steel, and sometimes by
soldering the round points on to a handle.
[Illustration: Fig. 43. Set Up Comb.]
Perhaps the best way to explain the use of this decker is to give
directions for making a sleeve. First we must have a set up comb, shown
in Fig. 43, the use of which will be understood as we proceed. Then we
must have weights with which to hold the work down on the needles, for,
as stated before, in the operation of knitting there must always be
means provided to pull the fabric onto and away from the needles. These
weights are simply a stand made from a short iron rod about
three-sixteenths inch in diameter and about seven to eight inches long,
with a hook turned on one end, a small round iron disc attached to the
other, and a number of round iron weights slotted to the center to allow
the operator to slip them on or off the stand to secure the desired
pull. In fact, the stand and weights are a duplicate of the stand and
weights we see hanging on the end of the beam of a common platform
scale.
To make the sleeve we would put up the required number of needles for
the full width of the sleeve, let us say 100, and set the locks for half
cardigan stitch. We would then draw the yarn through the yarn guide and
down through the throat between the needle plates. Then we would move
the carriage across the machine to the opposite side, and we should find
that each needle had caught the yarn and drawn it back and forth across
the throat. We would now take our set up comb, illustrated in Fig. 43,
and push the points which project at the top up through the throat, from
underneath, until the upper ends are above the yarn, which has been
drawn back and forth across the throat, after which we push the wire,
shown just above the comb, through the eyes in the end of the points, as
indicated by the dotted line. Now we can pull the comb down on to the
yarn and the wire will rest on it. We then hang a weight in the center
hole at the bottom and are ready to proceed with the knitting.
Operation of Narrowing
The first thing we would do after hanging on our weights would be to
rack over one needle to give that end of the sleeve a smooth selvage
finish. We would now put on five rounds, after which we would begin to
narrow. Stopping the carriage on the left side of the machine, we would
take the decker and place the hooks of the three end needles, in the
back plate on the right, in the eyes of the three points of the decker,
draw the needles up until the stitch dropped down below the latch, then
push them down to their first position. We find that the stitches have
dropped off over the end and free of the needle on to our decker. We now
carry the stitches in toward the center one needle, hook on to these
three needles and pull them up through the stitches, being careful not
to pull them up so far that the stitches will drop down below the
latches. After this has been done we have the end needle without a
stitch and therefore pull it down where it is out of operation.
We go through this same performance on the front needle plate, right
side, then move the carriage over to the right and do the same with the
left side. It is obvious that when we have finished we shall have put
four needles out of operation, or what would count as two in the width
of the garment. We would repeat this after every five rounds for
twenty-five rounds, so at this point our sleeve would be ten needles
narrower than when we started, although we would have put out of
operation twenty needles in narrowing. It is customary to reckon only
with the needles of one plate, as the wales of one side only are counted
in the width of a rib fabric.
Shaping a garment in this manner leaves a selvage edge for joining,
consequently when the garment is finished the seams, when properly put
together, are small with an appearance much like a wale in the fabric.
They also have the same stretch or elasticity as the fabric.
[Illustration: Fig. 44. Outline of Fashioned Sleeve.]
Fig. 44 is an outline of approximately the shape the sleeve should be
when finished and shows the direction of the wales and the places where
the ones doubled up terminate. This is shown on one side and edge only,
although the other side and edge would be the same.
It is understood, of course, that the sleeve is shown opened up flat,
and in being put on a garment would be doubled over and the edges joined
on the underside of the arm. To reduce the size from the forearm to the
wrist or cuff it is usual, in sweaters, to depend on the change to the
plain rib stitch, for as explained previously the plain rib will come
out much narrower than the half or full cardigan with the same number of
needles and the same yarn. In underwear and theatrical tights it is
customary to fashion down the forearm to the cuff.
Many knitters consider it good practice to reverse this formula in
fashioning; that is, to start at the cuff in order to have the rack
stitch on the end of the cuff to save the hand finishing. In this event
the narrowing operation as described would be reversed, or a widening
operation.
This is done by pulling up the three end needles and pushing them down
until the stitches drop off on to the decker, as in narrowing, but
instead of setting these stitches in towards the center we would push up
another needle and set them out one. This would leave the fourth needle
without a stitch, so we would pick up the previous stitch, which had
been cast off of what is now the fifth needle and raise it up and hook
it over the fourth. This is done with one point of the decker. After
having done this on both plates and on both sides of the sleeve, while
we would have pushed four needles up into operation, we would have
widened only two.
Where it is not considered an advantage to have the widening stitches
show, this operation may be expedited quite a little by using the hook
shown at _b_ in Fig. 42, which is a convenient size to handle, about
one-eighth inch in diameter by 6 inches long. By this method we push up
into operation the new needle and simply catch with the hook the
previous stitch cast off of the end needle and hook it on to the new
needle on the four corners as before described. It is best to do this
one needle at a time with a course between, taking the one on the plate
that contains the inside needle.
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