It is generally known to feed wrap yarn to selected groups of needles in a circular knitting machine to form walewise extending patterns in tubular weft knit fabric. For example, such a wrap yarn feeding device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 57-143548. According to this publication, the yarn wrapping device includes a plurality of pivotally supported levers with a yarn guide positioned in the outer end of one leg of each pivoted lever. An opposite leg extends inwardly and in the opposite direction from the yarn guide leg. A rotation mechanism is provided with first and second projections with the first projection being positioned in the path of travel of the yarn guiding leg to pivot the pivoted lever from a nonoperating position with the yarn being positioned inside of the knitting needles to an operating position with the yarn passing through and to the outside of the knitting needles. The second projection is located in a position for engaging the second leg of the pivoted lever to return the same to the nonoperating position. This arrangement of pivoted levers requires a relatively wide space between the levers for pivoting movement so that it is not possible to form closely spaced wrap patterns. Also, the arcuate path of movement of the pivoted wrap yarn lever is fixed so that the possibility of forming a variety of different knitting patterns is severely limited.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds