Flat Machine Knitting and Fabrics

"Flat Machine Knitting and Fabrics" by H. D. (Horace Davis) Buck is a technical instruction book created to fill the educational void in the knitting industry in the early 1900s. Intended as a guide for people in the knitting business, it focuses on flat latch needle machines and their importance in creating fabric, diving deep into the processes of knitted fabric creation and the machines that make it happen. Buck's inspiration to write this manual came from his time teaching a knitting class at the Textile School in New York, where he saw a need for good textbooks on the topic. The book charts the progress of machine knitting from its early days making simple hosiery to its growth into producing many different types of clothing. The beginning chapters teach basic ideas like how stitches are made and the different kinds of stitches, showing how the loop structure is the base of knitted textiles. The book guides readers to learn the core ideas of loop construction, which will help them understand the more complex parts of knitting operations that are covered later on.