Warp Knitting

Warp knitting a forming of loops in a vertical column on knitting needles from a beam of yarns. Warp knitting, in contrast to weft knitting, is accomplished by forming loops in a vertical direction. If you look closely at an illustration of warp knit, you see that the yarn is intermeshed vertically with two wales. With warp knitting machines, each individual loop is created from separate lengthwise yarns. Wound onto a beam from yarn packages in a creel, the yarns arranged as a warp must be placed parallel to each other. Normally, for the most basic fabrics, each yarn needs its own needle. If one thousand needles are used on this machine, there needs to be a minimum of one thousand warp yarns. If there is more than one yarn provided for each needle more elaborate fabrics can be produced. With warp knitting, individual needles knit simultaneously across the width of the machine. Loops are formed by needles knitting a series of warp yarns fed vertically and parallel to the direction of the fabric formation. Warp knitting machines are typically used to produce tricot, raschel, and crochet.