Abstract: For preventing holes from occurrence at an internally widened area of a rib knitted fabric, at the area, two needles, one on the front needle bed, the other on the back needle bed, are made empty. Then, a stitch held by an adjacent needle to one of the two empty needles is transferred to the other of the two empty needles so that two continuous needles on one needle bed are made empty and that the former empty needle on the other needle bed is provided with the transferred stitch. A yarn feeder is made to move over the area while feeding yarn till one needle before the two empty needles, then back above the area while feeding the two empty needles and an intermediate opposing bed needle, and move over the area while feeding yarn from the subsequent needles after the two former empty needles.