JP2025044399A - Knitted material and method for manufacturing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a knitted product such as five-toe socks and Tabi socks in which the sock has a finger bag part knitted as a loose and soft area, and a body area part knitted as an area enabling the appropriate tightening.

SOLUTION: A sock has a tip area part 110 including a finger bag part, and a body area part 120. The gauge number (ma) of the stitch of the tip area part 110 is different from the gauge number (mb) of the stitch of the body area part 120, and the former is larger than the latter. They have a relationship of mb=2ma.

SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

COPYRIGHT: (C)2025,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to knitted articles. In particular, it relates to knitted articles such as socks and gloves made of tubular knitted fabric.

In the prior art, so-called five-toe socks are becoming increasingly popular.
In the case of five-toed socks, each toe pouch is knitted one by one from the tip of the toe to the crotch area to form a single tubular body, the five toe pouches are knitted one by one in sequence and joined at the crotch areas, and finally, the five-toe body is knitted with all the toe pouches joined together.

Normally, socks are roughly divided into sizes such as for children and adults, and sizes under 20 cm, under 24 cm, and under 26 cm, but are basically one size fits all, and socks need to fit the feet of the wearer regardless of the size of the foot. For this reason, many socks are knitted with elastic yarn between the toe and heel parts to fit the wearer's feet and improve comfort.
As a knitting machine for automatically manufacturing socks made of such tubular knitted fabric, a circular knitting machine is generally used. Circular knitting machines are suitable for automatically manufacturing socks made of tubular knitted fabric.

Five-toed socks are designed with a toe pouch for each toe to allow for ventilation, as the toes tend to get stuffy when they are too close together.
Generally, in order to provide a comfortable fit when worn on the foot, elastic yarn is inserted throughout the entire knitted sock material. The same is true for five-toe socks, in which elastic yarn is inserted throughout the entire sock material.

In the prior art, there are prior art examples that have been devised regarding five-toed socks.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a five-toed sock disclosed in Patent Document 1 (JP 2008-063699 A).
The five-toed socks disclosed in Patent Document 1 (JP 2008-063699 A) are socks having toe pockets knitted seamlessly into a cylindrical shape by an automatic flat knitting machine, and at least the first toe pocket into which the thumb is inserted or the second toe pocket into which the index finger is inserted has a portion knitted with a knitting structure having a large stretch rate in the length direction of the toes. Here, Patent Document 1 states that a knitting structure having a large stretch rate in the length direction of the toes refers to a knitting structure having a large stretch rate when the knitted fabric with the stitches in a free length state is pulled in the length direction of the toes.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a five-toed sock disclosed in Patent Document 2 (JP 2007-039814 A).
The five-toed socks disclosed in Patent Document 2 (JP 2007-039814 A) are five-toed knee-high socks knitted by an automatic flat knitting machine. The socks are knitted by supplying elastic yarn from an elastic yarn receiving stand provided on the side of the carriage, obtaining a predetermined wearing pressure, and adjusting the stitches of the face yarn with a stitch density adjustment device.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a five-toed sock disclosed in Patent Document 3 (Utility Model Registration No. 3139087).
Patent Document 3 (Utility Model Registration No. 3139087) discloses five-toed socks that are entirely knitted by an automatic flat knitting machine. The toe pockets have a thicker fabric at the tip 3 than the sock body area 2, and elastic yarn 6 that has less stretch than the elastic yarn 5 inserted in the sock body area 2 is inserted into the toe pockets. This loosens the grip on each toe, making them easy to wear and less tiring to wear for long periods of time.

JP 2008-063699 A JP 2007-039814 A Utility Model Registration No. 3139087

Five-toed socks have their challenges.
This problem arises from the fact that the user's requirements for the finger pocket portion and the user's requirements for the main body area portion are different, and it is difficult to satisfy both of them simultaneously.
The concept of five-toed socks is to prevent the toes from getting stuffy and increase breathability by having each toe wear an independent toe pouch, so each toe pouch is small. Therefore, the toes feel very tight and oppressive in the toe pouch, making them difficult to wear, and wearing them for a long time can cause problems such as poor circulation and accumulated fatigue, which can lead to discomfort. Furthermore, after washing five-toed socks, the socks as a whole and each toe pouch shrink, which causes even more tightness and oppression.

On the other hand, the main body area of five-toed socks must be as comfortable as regular socks, and must be knitted in the same way as regular socks to provide appropriate tightness around the sole, instep, ankle, calf, etc., and to prevent the socks from slipping off while walking.
In other words, if the entire shoe is knitted loosely and softly to fit the toes, it will be too loose in the main body area and will not be tight enough, causing the shoe to slip off while walking, whereas if the entire shoe is knitted tightly to fit the main body area, it will be too tight around the toes, causing a feeling of tightness or pressure, causing problems.

The five-toed socks disclosed in Patent Document 1 (JP 2008-063699 A) are socks having toe pockets knitted into a tubular shape by an automatic flat knitting machine. The toe pockets are knitted with a knitting structure that has a large stretch rate in the longitudinal direction of the toes.
However, the technology in Patent Document 1 is controlled by stretching along the length of the toes, and the density of the main body and knitting does not change relative to the width or circumference of the toes, so it is too tight around the toes and is insufficient to eliminate the feeling of tightness or pressure.

The five-toed socks disclosed in Patent Document 2 (JP 2007-039814 A) are also five-toed knee-high socks knitted by an automatic flat knitting machine. Elastic yarn is supplied and used to increase the stretchability of the knitted article as a whole.
However, the technology of Patent Document 2, like Patent Document 1, is controlled by stretching along the length of the toes, and the density of the main body and knitting does not change relative to the width or circumference of the toes, so it is too tight around the toes and is insufficient to eliminate the feeling of tightness or pressure.

The five-toed socks disclosed in Patent Document 3 (Utility Model Registration No. 3139087) are entirely knitted by an automatic flat knitting machine. As with Patent Document 2, elastic yarn is supplied and used to increase the stretchability of the entire knitted article.

According to Patent Document 3, Fig. 9(a) illustrates the knitting of the main body of a five-toed sock, and Fig. 9(b) illustrates the knitting of the tip part of the five-toed sock. Compared to the elastic yarn 5 used to knit the main body of Fig. 9(a), the yarn used to knit the tip part of Fig. 9(b) is an elastic yarn with even greater elasticity as the elastic yarn 6, and as a result of the greater elasticity, the fabric becomes thicker and the stitches become coarser.
However, like Patent Document 1, the technology of Patent Document 3 is controlled by stretching in the length direction of the toes, and the gauge number and loop pitch of both Figures 9(a) and 9(b) are the same, and the density of the main body and knitting does not change relative to the width or circumference of the toes, so that the technology is too tight around the toes and is insufficient to eliminate the feeling of tightness or pressure.

In the prior art, in addition to automatic flat knitting machines, there are also circular knitting machines as knitting machines. Circular knitting machines knit around 50 to 300 needles at the same time using a rotary motion, making production efficient, and there is an overwhelming difference in production volume when using circular knitting machines compared to automatic flat knitting machines. Five-toed socks can also be produced using circular knitting machines, but some consumers are put off by the appearance of the stitches that appear on the sides of the toe pockets. It is also true that the production of the toe pockets takes time, so the productivity advantage that is a characteristic of circular knitting machines cannot be obtained. For this reason, five-toed socks are currently mainly produced using flat knitting machines, and pursuing comfort using flat knitting machines is beneficial for many consumers.

Therefore, in order to solve the above problems, the present invention aims to provide a knitted article and a manufacturing method thereof that can automate the knitting process by knitting the finger pocket area and the main body area with different gauges and stitch counts, knitting the former as a loose and soft area and knitting the latter as an area with moderate tightness.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the knitted article of the present invention is a knitted article produced by an automatic flat knitting machine, which has a tip area portion including a finger pocket portion and a main body area portion covering the main body area following the tip area portion, and is to be worn on a user's foot or hand, in which the gauge number of the stitches in the tip area portion is different from the gauge number of the stitches in the main body area portion, the former being smaller than the latter.
With the above configuration, the gauge number of the stitches in the tip area and the main body area are different, with the former being smaller than the latter. This makes it possible to knit the tip area loosely and softly and the main body area with moderate tightness, even when using an automatic flat knitting machine.

For example, in the above configuration, if the gauge number per unit length of stitches in the tip area portion is ma and the gauge number per unit length of stitches in the main body area portion is mb, they are knitted so that mb = 2·ma.
The maximum value of mb is the maximum gauge number of the flat knitting machine used. If a flat knitting machine with a larger maximum gauge number is used, the upper limit of the numerical range of mb will be larger.
Here, the gauge number is the number of loops formed per unit length, and the number of loops is sometimes called the number of wells.

Next, it is possible to improve the density of the stitches in the vertical direction.
The stitch density of the tip area portion can be adjusted to be different from the stitch density of the main body area portion, the former being larger than the latter.

In terms of uses, the knitted article of the present invention described above can be used as a five-toed sock or tabi sock if the tip area portion is for the toes. Also, if the tip area portion is for the fingers, it can be used as a glove.

Next, the method for manufacturing a knitted product according to the present invention is a manufacturing method using an automatic flat knitting machine, and is a manufacturing method for a knitted product which comprises a tip area portion including a finger pouch portion and a main area portion and is worn on a user's foot or hand, and in the knitting process of the automatic flat knitting machine, a tip area portion knitting process in which the automatic flat knitting machine knits the tip area portion with a gauge number ma, and a main area portion knitting process in which the automatic flat knitting machine knits the main area portion with a gauge number mb, and which produces a knitted product having a different gauge number of stitches in the tip area portion and a smaller gauge number of stitches in the main area portion, the former being smaller than the latter.
According to the above method, the knitted article of the present invention can be manufactured by using an automatic flat knitting machine to perform the tip area knitting process (gauge number used is ma) and the main body area knitting process (gauge number used is mb).

In the above method, it is preferable that the knitting process is performed in such a manner that the tip area knitting process is performed first, followed by the main body area knitting process.

It is also possible to change the number of stitches set in the tip area knitting process and the main body area knitting process that are input into the automatic flat knitting machine. By setting the former to a larger number than the latter, the tip area will be knitted loosely and softly, while the latter main body area will be knitted with a moderate amount of tightness.

The knitted article of the present invention has different gauges for the stitches in the tip area and the main body area, and by knitting the tip area so that the gauge is smaller than the gauge of the stitches in the main body area, the tip area can be knitted loosely and softly, while the main body area can be knitted to provide a moderate amount of tightness.

FIG. 1 is a diagram (part 1) showing a knitted article 100 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a second diagram showing the knitted article 100 of the present invention according to the first embodiment. 1 is a simplified diagram showing the relationship between the gauge number of stitches in a tip area portion 110 near the boundary and the gauge number of stitches in a main body area portion 120. FIG. 11A to 11C are diagrams showing the state of the tip area knitting process of the tip area 110. 13 is a diagram showing how the boundary (i.e., the border) of the main body area portion 120 is knitted in the main body area knitting process. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing the state of knitting after the boundary of the main body area portion 120 in the main body area knitting process. FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a five-toed sock disclosed in Patent Document 1 (JP 2008-063699 A) of the prior art. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a five-toed sock disclosed in Patent Document 2 (JP 2007-039814 A) of the prior art. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a five-toed sock disclosed in Patent Document 3 (Utility Model Registration No. 3139087) of the prior art.

Hereinafter, examples of the knitted article of the present invention will be described, however, the present invention is not limited to these examples.
The knitted article according to the present invention is to be worn on the foot or hand of a user, and in the following example, a five-toed sock for the right foot is shown. A five-toed sock for the left foot can be considered symmetrical, and the same applies to tabi socks. A knitted article for gloves can be considered to be similar to a five-toed sock, although the shapes of the toe pocket area and main body area are different.

Hereinafter, examples of the configuration of a knitted article according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
1 and 2 are diagrams showing a knitted article 100 according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 1(a) is a left side view (side view of the thumb side), and FIG. 1(b) is a right side view (side view of the little finger side).
FIG. 2 is a perspective view.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a knitted article 100 of the present invention has two areas: a tip area 110 and a main body area 120.

The tip area 110 is a portion of the knitted material that covers the tip area including the toe pocket. In this example, the socks have five toes, so as shown in Figures 1 and 2, the tip area includes the toes.

The main body area portion 120 is a portion of the knitted material that covers the main body area following the tip area portion 110. In this example, the socks have five toes, so as shown in Figures 1 and 2, the socks cover the instep, sole, and ankle, except for the tip areas of the toes.

A feature of the knitted article 100 of the present invention is that the gauge number of the stitches in the tip area portion 110 is different from the gauge number of the stitches in the main body area portion 120, and the gauge number of the stitches in the tip area portion 110 is smaller than the gauge number of the stitches in the main body area portion 120.
The gauge of the stitches referred to here is the number of needles used per unit length (1 inch), and is the number of loops per unit length formed in the knitted article. As the gauge increases, the spacing between adjacent loop peaks decreases, and the knitted article becomes denser. As the gauge decreases, the spacing between adjacent loop peaks increases, and the knitted article becomes looser and softer.

FIG. 3 is a simplified diagram showing the relationship between the gauge number of stitches in the tip area 110 near the boundary between the tip area 110 and the main area 120 and the gauge number of stitches in the main area 120 for easy understanding.
3 shows the loops of the knitted article in a simplified wavy shape, with the bottom three rows showing the loops of stitches in the tip area 110 and the top three rows showing the loops of stitches in the main area 120. The boundary between the tip area 110 and the main area 120 is the boundary between them.
In addition, in terms of the directions in the drawings, in FIG. 3 and subsequent figures, the lower direction is the tip area portion 110 side of the toe, and the upper direction is the main body area portion 120 side.

In this example, the gauge number of stitches in the tip area portion 110 depicted in the lower three rows of Figure 3 is ma, and the gauge number of stitches in the main body area portion 120 depicted in the upper three rows of Figure 3 is mb.
Here, the relationship between ma and mb satisfies the following formula (1) and the numerical range.
(Equation 1) mb = 2 ma
The maximum value of mb is the maximum gauge number of the flat knitting machine used.

First, in the tip area 110, the rows lower than that shown in FIG. 3, i.e., the rows before the first row from the bottom, have ma stitches formed in the same manner as the first to third rows from the bottom.
Next, looking at the knitting at the boundary between the stitches in the tip area portion 110 and the stitches in the main body area portion 120, it can be seen that for the ma loop pitch peaks of the stitches formed in the unit length of the stitch at the boundary of the tip area portion 110, the ma loop pitch peaks at corresponding positions among the mb loop pitch peaks of the stitches formed in the unit length of the stitch at the boundary of the main body area portion 120 pass through and are pulled to form the stitches at the boundary.

Looking at the stitches at the boundary of the main body area portion 120, it can be seen that by generating a new stitch in the first loop of the main body area portion 120 on the needles that make up the loop pitch that was not used in the tip area portion 110, the gauge number of the main body area portion 120 is doubled compared to the gauge number of the tip area portion 110 in Figure 3.
In other words, the number of loop pitch crests in the tip area 110 is half that of the main body area 120, and it can be seen that the knit is loosely and softly woven.

Also, as shown in FIG. 3, in the main area 120, mb loop pitch peaks formed at the boundary (fourth row from the bottom) are passed through and pulled by mb loop pitch peaks in the next row (fifth row from the bottom) to form stitches.
In the main body area 120, similar stitches are formed in the next row and thereafter (the sixth row and thereafter from the bottom).

The knitting process near the boundary in FIG. 3 will be explained step by step.
FIG. 4 shows the state of the tip area knitting process of the tip area 110.
In the tip area knitting process, knitting is performed with the gauge number of the automatic flat knitting machine set to ma in order to knit the tip area 110.
In other words, as shown in Figure 4, the gauge number (number of loop pitch crests) per unit length (inch) of the stitches in the tip area portion 110 is ma, and the loop pitch crest of the next row (upper row) passes through and is pulled past the loop pitch crest of the previous row (lower row) of the tip area portion 110 to form the stitches.

In addition, the top row in Figure 4 is the stitch on the tip area portion 110 side, which forms the boundary, and a gauge (needle) 200 is depicted, and ma loop pitch crests are created by pulling upward through the loop pitch crest of the previous row (the second row from the bottom) using knitting needles with a gauge number ma per unit length (inch).
In addition, the tip area portion 110 is knitted in a lower row than that shown in Figure 4, i.e., the rows before the first row from the bottom, with ma loop pitch crests formed in the same manner as the first row to the third row from the bottom.

FIG. 5 shows the knitting state of the beginning (i.e., the boundary) of the main body area 120 in the main body area knitting process.
In the main body area knitting process, knitting is performed with the gauge number of unit length used in the automatic flat knitting machine for knitting the main body area 120 set to mb.
In other words, as shown in Figure 5, the number of gauges (number of loop pitch crests) per unit length (inch) of stitches in the main body area knitting process is mb, and for the loop pitch crests (ma) of the tip area portion 110 in the previous row (third row from the bottom), the gauge of the current row (fourth row from the bottom) which is located in a position corresponding to them, passes through the loop pitch crests at the boundary of the tip area portion 110 and is pulled upward to form the first stitch of the main body area portion 120 (fourth row from the bottom).

FIG. 6 shows the state of knitting after the boundary of the main body area 120 in the main body area knitting process.
As shown in FIG. 6, in the knitting process of the automatic flat knitting machine, the gauge number of the unit length used in the automatic flat knitting machine for knitting the main body area portion is set to mb.
That is, as shown in Fig. 6, the gauge number (loop pitch number) per unit length (inch) of stitches in the main area knitting process is mb, and mb gauges in the next row (fifth row from the bottom) pass through the loop pitch crests (mb) of the main area 120 in the boundary row (fourth row from the bottom) and pull them upward to form the second row of stitches (fifth row from the bottom) of the main area 120. Thereafter, similarly, mb gauges in the current row pass through the loop pitch crests (mb) of the previous row and pull them upward to form the second row of stitches of the main area 120, and the main area 120 is knitted.

Regarding the order of the knitting process, the knitting process for the tip area in the figure is carried out first to form the tip area 110 at the bottom, and then the knitting process for the main body area is carried out continuously to form the main body area 120 at the top.
As described above, by the knitting process of the automatic flat knitting machine shown in Figures 4 to 6, a knitted article having a tip area portion 110 and a main area portion 120, the vicinity of the boundary of which is knitted as shown in Figure 3, i.e., the five-toed sock shown in Figures 1 and 2, is obtained.

In the knitted article of the present invention, it is possible to knit loosely not only in the width direction of the finger but also in the length direction of the finger. In other words, the number of stitches in the tip area 110 and the number of stitches in the main area 120 can be different at the boundary, and the number of stitches in the tip area 110 can be made larger than the number of stitches in the main area 120.
In FIG. 3, the number of stitches in the tip area 110 and the number of stitches in the main area 120 are the same, but the knitting process of the automatic flat knitting machine increases the number of stitches in the length direction of the finger, so that the knitted article 100 can be knitted loosely and softly even in the length direction of the finger.
In this manner, by changing the gauge number and the stitch count near the boundary, it is possible to knit loosely and softly in two dimensions, vertically and horizontally, and the tip area 110 can be knitted loosely and softly relative to the main body area 120.

The above illustrates and describes preferred embodiments of the knitted article of the present invention, but it will be understood that various modifications are possible without departing from the technical scope of the present invention.

The knitted article of the present invention can be widely applied to knitted articles with finger pockets, such as five-toed socks, tabi-style socks, gloves, etc.

100 Knitted object 110 Tip area 120 Main body area 200 Gauge

Claims (8)

A knitted article having a tip area including a finger pocket and a main body area covering a main body area following the tip area, the knitted article being worn on a user's foot or hand,
A knitted article, characterized in that the gauge number of the stitches of the tip area portion is different from the gauge number of the stitches of the main body area portion, the former being smaller than the latter. The knitted article according to claim 1, characterized in that, if the gauge number per unit length of the stitches in the tip area is ma and the gauge number per unit length of the stitches in the main body area is mb, then mb = 2·ma. The knitted article according to claim 1, characterized in that the number of stitches in the tip area is different from the number of stitches in the main body area, the former being larger than the latter. The knitted article according to any one of claims 1 to 3, in which the tip area portion is for the toes and is a five-toed sock. The knitted article according to any one of claims 1 to 3, in which the tip area portion is for the toes and is a tabi sock. The knitted article according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the tip area portion is for the fingers and is a five-finger glove. A method for manufacturing a knitted article, which includes a tip area including a finger pouch and a main body area and is to be worn on a user's foot or hand, using an automatic flat knitting machine, comprising:
a tip area portion knitting step in which a gauge number of a unit length used in the automatic flat knitting machine for knitting the tip area portion is set to ma in the knitting step of the automatic flat knitting machine;
In the knitting process of the automatic flat knitting machine, a main body area knitting process is provided in which a gauge number of a unit length used in the automatic flat knitting machine for knitting the main body area is set to mb,
There is a relationship of mb = 2 ma,
A method for manufacturing a knitted product in which mb is larger than ma. a number of stitches input to the automatic flat knitting machine for knitting the tip area portion in the tip area portion knitting step is different from a number of stitches input to the automatic flat knitting machine for knitting the main body area portion in the main body area portion knitting step;
8. The method for manufacturing a knitted article according to claim 7, wherein the former is larger than the latter.

Images