Abstract: The thread feeding apparatus for double needle bed knitting machine to form tubular fabric comprises at least two thread-guides for the same number of thread feed systems for the same fabric, said thread-guides are displaced the one relative to the other upon the passage between one needle bed and the other and upon the reversal of the knitting direction, in order to maintain the same precedence order of the thread-guides in respect to the instantaneous direction of motion. In order to ensure the unwinding of the yarns with no crossing thereof, said yarns are unwound from bobbins of yarn which are co-axially disposed in a row, holes or other equivalent thread guiding means being provided, which guiding means rotate preferably with a continuous motion.

Abstract: Several pairs of tubular articles are formed on two circular fixed fronts of needles using threads reciprocating transfer mechanism. The articles are alternatively formed by the two fronts by using sets of needles whose number may also vary. By using adjacent sets of needles, the two tubular, leg-shaped articles of each pair are successively formed to make up a body, that is, the panties portion for a pantyhose garment.

Abstract: A circular knitting machine for simultaneously making several pairs of tights and the like, with two tubular legs and a body portion having a front and a back, comprises a movable unit carrying a cylinder with a circle of cylinder needles and a plate carrying an adjacent circle of plate needles. The movable unit moves with alternating rotary movement relative to several thread guides disposed around the circles of needles. In order to make several garments simultaneously, the circles are divided into as many arcuate groups of needles as there are garments. Each arcuate group is divided into two equal sub-groups separated by a middle group. The needles of each group are automatically brought into operation in a sequence to knit the toes and legs (on the sub-groups), then the crotch (using the middle group as well), then the body (still using two threads, one for the left-hand and one for the linked right-hand side).