Abstract: Knitting machine with a needle bed in which knitting tools having projections are mounted for raising and lowering, with a cam unit which can be transported past the projections and which has at least one lowering cam acting on the projections of the knitting tools which is adjustable with regard to its lowering depth, on which a runner is movably fastened having a plurality of pathways interacting according to pattern with the runner during the carrying of the cam unit past the projections of the knitting tools for the adjustment of the lowering cam to a preselected lowering depth, and with a controller acting before each passage of the cam unit past the feet of the knitting tools for the shifting of the runner to the position required for the interaction with a selected pathway (FIG. 7).