Knitting technology, Third Edition

The direction of lapping at successive courses
When using either open or closed laps there are three possible arrangements of
lapping at successive courses, which may be used alone or in combination:
1
The pillar stitch
. In the pillar or chain stitch, the same guide always overlaps the
same needle. This lapping movement will produce chains of loops in uncon-

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Knitting technology
nected wales, which must be connected together by the underlaps of a second
guide bar.
Generally, pillar stitches are made by front guide bars, either to produce ver-
tical stripe effects or to hold the inlays of other guide bars into the structure.
Open-lap pillar stitches are commonly used in warp knitting. They can be
unroved from the end knitted last.
Closed-lap pillar stitches are employed on crochet machines because the
lapping movement is simple to achieve and is necessary when using self-closing
carbine needles, which must always be fed with yarn from the same side 
(Fig. 23.6).
2
Balanced advance and return lapping in two courses
(23.5a). Many tricot struc-
tures are based on this type of lapping movement. Its extent may be described
by indicating the number of needles underlapped, followed by the number of
needles overlapped (usually one). With a fully-threaded guide bar every one-
needle space increase in the underlap movement will cause an extra warp thread
from that bar to cross between each wale.
Tricot lapping
or 1 
¥
1 is the simplest of these movements, producing 
overlaps in alternate wales at alternate courses with only one thread crossing
between adjacent wales. Two threads will cross between wales with a 2 
¥
1 or
cord lap
, three threads with a 3 
¥
1 or 
satin lap
, four threads with a 4 
¥
1 or 
velvet
lap
, and so on.
Each increase in the extent of the underlap tends to make the structure
stronger, more opaque and heavier. The increasing float of the underlap has a