Abstract: Apparatus for controlling the material tension in a knitting machine, particularly a circular knitting machine, by employing a permanent magnet-excited d.c. motor and an associated circuit to drive a motor torque-dependent material take-off mechanism through the generation of a variable magnitude, pulsed current to power the motor. The magnitude of the current may be set by the operator, with the pulse/no pulse ratio of the current being controlled by the operating mode of the knitting device. In a preferred embodiment, an additional circuit monitors the operation of the current control circuit to detect and signal malfunctions.