All knitted fabrics in our range are made on a circular knitting machine and this is where the term tubular knit comes from. Circular knitting machines can have a single set of knitting needles or two sets, and are called single or double bed knitting machines. We will come back to this later.

What are the characteristics of a circular knitting machine?

The characteristic of a circular knitting machine is that the fabric that is knitted on a circular knitting machine comes off the machine in the form of a tube. That is why it is also called tubular knit. After knitting, the fabric enters the finishing process. During this process the fabric still has the shape of a tube. Only after washing is it cut lengthwise and further processed as a single layer of fabric.

What is the difference in single and double bed circular knitting machine?

Single bed circular knitting machine:
Typical for single bed circular knitting is that the stitch rows are not horizontal when the knitting comes off the machine, but diagonally. That is generally not considered very nice. The rows of stitches are pulled in a horizontal direction by mechanical processing and fixed in that position.

Another feature of single bed circular knitting is that the front and back of the fabric are different. This affects the way the fabric is processed. An example of this is the single jersey, often used for T-shirts; at the front you mainly see a longitudinal structure, at the back you see waves. The side with the waves is generally processed on the inside. Another example is the sweater fabric; the fabric is processed with needles on the back, creating a 'woolly' surface. When processing the fabric, the smooth surface is usually processed on the outside and the roughened side on the inside.

This video shows a simple example of a single bed circular knitting machine: https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/526428643944546487/. This video does not show an industrial method, but it gives an idea ​​how a tubular fabric is created.

All knitted fabrics in our range, except ribbing and interlock, are knitted on a single bed circular knitting machine. This concerns the following fabrics: single jersey, sweater, knitted terry cloth and velour.

Double bed circular knitting machine:
The technique of knitting on double bed circular knitting machines is different: a stitch is knitted alternately on the front and back bed. This creates ribs in the longitudinal direction. This construction ensures great stretch in width, and the front and back of the cloth are the same.

In the Bo Weevil range, ribbing and interlock are knitted on a double-bed circular knitting machine.

What is a rib 1x1?

Rib 1x1 stands for rib knit 1x1, as mentioned, a rib knit is knitted on a double bed knitting machine. With a 1x1 rib, one stitch is knitted alternately on the front bed and one stitch on the back bed. With a rib 2x2 alternately two stitches are knitted on the front bed and two stitches on the back bed. This creates a wider rib than the 1x1 rib. In the Bo Weevil range only rib 1x1 are offered.

If you have any questions, please let us know.