In this sample, product developer Jan Willem tested the different plating options offered by the TextielLab’s new ADF knitting machine. The checked pattern can be produced on any knitting machine during normal plating, but he also experimented with the inverse plating and ikat plating techniques. With ikat plating, a pattern is created by moving the yarn carriers relative to each other while the machine is knitting. This technique, which was used in the horizontal blue and red stripe in the sample, is imprecise because the colour change does not occur at exactly the right moment. With inverse plating, the yarn carrier moves back and forth over the fabric and picks up the yarn very precisely. This can be seen in the flowers in the sample. The disadvantage of this technique is that the movement of the yarn carriers makes the knitting process very slow.Â
