| It is critical in developing innovative new products to effectively combine and build upon advancing technologies through creative exploration to sustain competitiveness in the global textile industry. Seamless knitting proposes to offer numerous advantages to consumers and producers including better fit, quick turn around time, improved performance characteristics, reduced system costs, reduced labor costs and consistent quality. The investment in and adoption of this new technology does not preclude looking at innovative methods of delivering color in patterns to the knitted garment through a translation of traditional hand dyeing methods to industrial machines. This research focused on exploring and developing resist-dyed structures on knitted fabrics or garments created by computerized seamless-knitting technology. The purpose of this research was to incorporate the advanced technology of electronic knitting to newly interpret traditional resist dyeing effects.; McIntyre and Daniels defined resist as "a substance applied to a substrate to prevent the uptake or fixation of a dye in a subsequent operation" (1997, p. 276). Resist dyeing techniques have been traditionally created by numerous ways around the world, such as wax resist, tied resist and pattern-dyed indigo. This research examined a variety of three-dimensional knitted structures for resist designs duplicating traditional methods of stitching, binding, or folding to gather or pleat the fabric through electronic knitting systems. The research resulted in the discovery that different knit structure variables including float length, course distance, and placement of gathering threads have a significant relationship with the resist dyed image. In addition, the research studies found that different types of yarn applications resulted in various knitted resist patterns. This research also explored the possibilities of various complex three-dimensional structures created by computerized flat V-bed knitting machines that affected the resist-dyed images. The ability to control multi-colored patterns in simple and complex knitted fabrics and garments through knitted resist structures and piece dyeing will be of interest to industry, academicians, and designers. |
