Jacquard Fabric on Circular
Knitting machine
Part 4: More Double Jersey
Jacquard Fabrics
Jimmy Lam
Institute of Textiles & Clothing
Learning Objectives
More unconventional double jersey jacquard fabric
 French Rib
 Blister Fabric
 Jacquard Backing

French Rib
Similar to imitation lace fabric
 Two fabric tubes are linked together to form a
unique fabric
 This method is to insert a fine yarn to tuck on the
selected cylinder and dial needles at suitable
interval.
 Normally, the finished commercial fabric looks
different on two side.
 One appears on fine gauge, and the other appears
in coarse gauge.

French Rib
Fabric looks
different on
both side
because
one side uses
coarse yarn, the
other
uses normal
yarn.
Blister Fabric
Two types: Single blister and double blister
 Blister fabric is well known for raised pattern
effect on fabric surface.
 It is similar to rib jacquard except with knit and
miss course.
 The structure is normally on fine gauge, 20-24
npi with polyester yarn for suiting fabrics.

Single Blister
There are more courses knitted on face side
(cylinder) than the back side (dial) of the fabric.
 The fabric shrinks and the single knit portion is
raised up on the fabric surface, and the rib areas
remain flat as the ground of the pattern.

Double Blister
It takes 6 feeders for one structure
 If the ratio between the face courses and the
back courses for single blister is 2:1, than the
ratio for double blister is 3:1.
 It is obviously double blister will show more
raised effect of pattern than single blister.

Blister Fabric
cylinder and dial arrangement
Double Blister
It takes three knitting course to make one course
on the pattern for double blister.
 Therefore, an 8 course per repeat double blister
will need 24 courses to produce.
 The characteristics of double blister is the raised
effect, which are created by knitting a particular
colour yarn in single knit (knit and miss format),
while the other in double jersey format.
 As a result, the single jersey portion of the fabric
will be raised up on the fabric surface.

8-course Double Blister
Motif
8-course design
Pattern Graph
24-course
Knitting sequence :
2 courses in single knit (A)
1 course in double knit (B)
8-course double blister
Knitting details
Color A in double course, single knit
Color B in double knit with birdeye’s backing
Jacquard Backing
All jacquard patterns are developed on cylinder
needles, the back of fabric is knitted by dial by
varies backing technique.
 In dial needles, there are L (long) and S (short)
needles and the possible selections are shown on
the table.

Horizontal Backing

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On a rib jacquard fabric, when all dial needles are
knitting on all feeders, the fabric will produce
horizontal stripe and is known as horizontal backing
horizontal stripe/backing is normally used for up to 4
colours.
2-colour, 3-color and 4-color, please refer to diagram
The surface loop size is stretched proportional to the
number of colours in the pattern.
Eg. Two colours pattern, the course ratio between the
surface and the back is 1:2; and for 3-color is 1:3 etc.
2-Color Horizontal Backing
Technical Face
Technical Back
4-Color Horizontal Backing
Face
Back
The fabric
composes of
one blue and
one white colour
No float yarn
at the back
Horizontal Backing
Ratio between the face loop and the back loop
Disadvantages of horizontal backing
Colour yarn at the back cannot be covered
properly and show off between the surface
loops.
 Result is poor resolution of colour pattern.
 Horizontal backing are unbalanced fabric.
 They will curl when cut and fabric setting is
needed in after treatment.

Advantages of horizontal backing

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Produce the largest pattern size on fabric
Lightest fabric weight when compare with other
backing methods, therefore, coarse gauge jacquard
double jersey always prefer horizontal backing.
Horizontal backing is used on 12 gauge and below and
especially on V-bed 5 to 12 gauge
Circular machine with gauge of E16 or above seldom
uses horizontal backing because of poor dimensional
stability.
Birdeye’s backing
To knit bird’s eye backing, the machine must be able
to select one of the two dial needles to knit and miss
on each feeder according to backing rule.
 2-colour, 3-colour, 4-colour backing, please refer to
diagram.

Birdeye’s backing Rule
2-colour Birdeye’s backing
Face
Back
Honeycomb
appears at the
back
Effect of birdeye’s backing