Introduction:

A full-fashioned sweater is a pullover or cardigan which has been shaped, in some way, during the actual knitting process. The shaping is done by increasing and decreasing the number of stitches or rows across the width or length of the knit piece and allows the finished garment to have a better fit. This method is vastly different from the method of shaping used in cut-and-sew or even seamless, tubular sweaters. Although commercially produced, full-fashioned sweaters are assembled by machine, they are usually more expensive because it not only requires more time to produce individual garment pieces but it also requires more time for assembly of the finished sweater or cardigan.

At a minimum, each item of knitwear requires four basic shaped pieces of knit fabric – the two sleeves, the front, and the back piece. Separate neckbands may also require shaping. A cardigan has 5 shaped pieces with a front band which may be knit in several pieces. Mass produced knitwear generally uses the cut and sew method of construction where all the shaping is done after the knitting process, by literally cutting out and sewing together the individual pieces of knit fabric. The remaining scrap pieces are referred to as “waste” knitting. The term “full-fashioned” actually has more than one definition. When applied to knitwear, it can refer to the method used in shaping the garment but it can also refer to the distinctive characteristics of the full-fashioned decreasing or increasing method. How can you tell if an item of knitwear is “full-fashioned”? First, look for visible increases and decreases on the outside of the sweater, then look inside!

Turn the sweater inside out and check the seams. A full-fashioned sweater will have fully formed stitches along the very edge the sweater piece. The manufactured cut n’ sew sweaters will have open, cut stitches along the side covered by an over-locked type seam. Technically, an over-locked seam should not ravel. However, you can literally pick little bit of yarn out of the seam…pick a little more and your seam disappears. A scary thought! This visible full-fashioned shaping is created by a variety of symmetrical edge decreases or increases. Some of these decreases and increases can be extremely decorative, with most of them specifically designed to be visible and an integral part of the overall look.

These decorative increases or decreases are usually worked one or two stitch in from the selvage stitch as SKP and SSK decreases or increases. Think of the classic cashmere twin sets from Pringle’s of Scotland. The visible hallmarks of a quality item of knitwear are the decreases along the armhole and shoulder lines! There are several reasons why full-fashioned sweaters claim a number of advantages over cut—and—sewn or seamless sweaters and why these features increase their sales appeal.

Why would you want a full-fashioned sweater? Here is just one very important reason – not only do they fit better but each sweater piece is knit and shaped to conform to the wearer’s body rather to any body…

As knitters, we have the ability to further customize the shape of each piece for a perfect, personal fit – the ultimate custom knit garment! There are no bulky and irregular sewn seams such as those found in less expensive, mass produced cut and sew sweaters. There is no wasted yarn, especially when you use the more expensive fibers such as cashmere and alpaca.

Definition of Fully Fashion Knit:

Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth. Knitting consists of loops called stitches pulled through each other. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can be passed through them.

Knitting may be done by hand or by machine. By hand, there are numerous styles and methods. Flat knitting, which can be done on two straight needles or a circular needle, produces a length of cloth, while circular knitting, which is done on circular or double-pointed needles, produces a seamless tube. Different yarns and knitting needles may be used to achieve different end products by giving the final piece a different colour, texture, weight, or integrity. Using needles of varying sharpness and thickness as well as different varieties of yarn adds to the effect.

Knit Structure

Courses and Wales

Like weaving, knitting is a technique for producing a two-dimensional fabric from a one-dimensional yarn or thread. In weaving, threads are always straight, running parallel either lengthwise (warp threads) or crosswise (weft threads). By contrast, the yarn in knitted fabrics follows a meandering path (a course), forming symmetric loops (also called bights or stitches) symmetrically above and below the mean path of the yarn.These meandering loops can be stretched easily in different directions, which give knitting much more elasticity than woven fabrics; depending on the yarn and knitting pattern, knitted garments can stretch as much as 500%.Knitting was initially developed for garments that must be elastic or stretch in response to the wearer's motions, such as socks and hosiery. For comparison, woven garments stretch mainly along one direction (the bias) and not very much, unless they are woven from stretchable material such as spandex. Knitted garments are often more form-fitting than woven garments, since their elasticity allows them to follow the body's curvature closely. By contrast, curvature is introduced into most woven garments only with sewn darts, flares, gussets and gores, the seams of which lower the elasticity of the woven fabric still further. Extra curvature can be introduced into knitted garments without seams, as in the heel of a sock. The effect of darts flares, etc. can be obtained with short rows or by increasing/decreasing the number of stitches. Thread used in weaving is usually much finer than the yarn used in knitting, which can give the knitted fabric more bulk and less drape than a woven fabric. If they are not secured, the loops of a knitted course will come undone when their yarn is pulled; this is known as ripping out, unraveling knitting, or humorously, frogging. To secure a stitch, at least one new loop is passed through it. Although the new stitch is itself unsecured ("active" or "live"), it secures the stitch (es) suspended from it. A sequence of stitches in which each stitch suspended from the next is called a wale. To secure the initial stitches of a knitted fabric, a method for casting on is used; to secure the final stitches in a wale, one uses a method of binding off. During knitting, the active stitches are secured mechanically, either from individual hooks (in knitting machines) or from a knitting needle or frame in hand-knitting.

Complete Garment Knitting

Complete garment knitting is a next-generation form of fully-fashioned knitting that adds the capability of making a 3-dimensional full garment. Unlike other fully-fashioned knitting, where the shaped pieces must still be sewn together, finished complete knitted garments do not have seams. The knitting machines' computerized instructions direct movement of hundreds of needles to construct and connect several tubular knitted forms to create a complete garment in a single production step.

The complete garment system's advantages lie in 1) a further reduction in materials beyond even fully-fashioned production by eliminating seam allowances and 2) faster time to market by eliminating the need for sewing any components. These factors increases cost-effectiveness (especially important when using high-performance materials such as aramids for composites). One might also argue that cutting down on wased by-product selvage makes complete garment better for the environment.

Examples of structures that are most often made with the complete garment technique are clothing (sportswear to sweaters) or technical textiles (car seat covers which also incorporate additional structural elements such as metal and plastic fasteners, composite preforms). The machines can produce a variety of topologies that were more difficult or impossible to create with knitting machines before, including: connected tubes, circles, open cuboids and even spheres (for helmet shells and other performs).

Complete garment knitting requires two needle beds for three-dimensional structures (such as clothing). As is the case with all fully-fashioned knitting, machines require individual single needle selection (through electronic control) and presser feet (to hold down formed loops).

Aspects of complete garment knitting such as changing the fabric width or diameter and connecting two sides of the structure together are also possible with a single needle bed for two-dimensional or 'flat' structures -- and are achieved by:

Changing knit structure (e.g. rib to interlock)

Varying the structural elements (stitch length, weft insertion, knit, tuck, float)

Shaping through loop transfer

Wale fashioning by 'needle parking,'

Segmented takedown for varying rates of takedown across the width of the fabric.

Fully Fashioned Knitting

Fully fashioned knitting machines are flat knitting machines that produce custom pre-shaped pieces of a knitted garment. Instead of knitting a whole rectangular sheet of fabric, instructions from a knit pattern on a punch card or computer file guide a fully-fashioned knitting machine's needles to add or drop stitches to create custom two dimensional shapes appropriate to the desired finished garment structure. The pieces emerge from the machine ready to be sewn together.

Fully-fashioned knitting cuts down on the amount of material required to make a garment by eliminating selvage, the remnants that would be left after cutting from a rectangular fabric sheet. For example, a sweater requires at least four pieces of fabric: two sleeves, the front piece, and the back piece. Prior to fully-fashioned machine techniques, a full sheet of material would have to be produced, each of the four pieces would be cut out, and the remaining fabric would be discarded. With full-fashioning, the machine produces only the four required pieces.

The necessary techniques for changing the fabric width or diameter are achieved by:

Changing knit structure (e.g. rib to interlock)

Varying the structural elements (stitch length, weft insertion, knit, tuck, float)

Shaping through loop transfer

Wale fashioning by 'needle parking'

Segmented takedown for varying rates of takedown across the width of the fabric.

These knit options above may also be used to change the structure of each piece to create limited curvature (such as convexity at the bust of a sweater) in the relatively 2-dimensional output. A new generation of fully-fashioned machines, called complete garment knitting machines, output seamless 3-dimensional garments by knitting connected tubular forms.