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Double bed Passap / Pfaff machines
These machines are very versatile and so even though they may seem more
complicated and harder work, it is worth persisting with them. They appear
heavier and more robust, however they are still domestic machines and should
be treated as such.
Back bed
Front
bed
There are two fixed beds of needles and a knit carriage for each. It’s important
that both carriages are set correctly, it’s easy to forget about the back bed!
Row counter
N/X lever
Tension dial
buttons for changing the
position of the pushers
pattern selector
Tension dial
Generally the stitch tension would be set the same for the back and front beds,
however this is something to experiment with. Passap machines are less
forgiving than the flatbeds if the stitch size is inappropriate for the yarn.
Pattern selector
Each letter represents a pre-set sequence that works either with or without the
pushers.
N/X lever
When set to N, the machine will produce basic double or single bed knitting and
will ignore the pattern selector. When set to X, the machine will read the
pattern selector.
Many of the pattern settings use pushers for needle selection. There is a
pusher for every needle, they have three positions, ‘out of action’, ‘rest
position’ and ‘in action’.
In action
rest position
Out of action
Threading up the machine
The yarn brake is threaded in the same way as on the flat bed machines, then
the yarn is threaded through a bobbin, passed down between the beds and
secured onto the bracket.
To remove a bobbin from its holder, select the black lever below it and then pull
the silver lever on the right until the holder pops up. It is then possible to remove
the bobbin sideways from its holder.
Once all the required yarns are threaded up, all the bobbins should be pushed
down with the black lever selected under the first yarn to be knitted.
Knit notation for passap
It is important to keep notes during knitting incase a technique needs to be
repeated, this can become very tedious and so it is useful to work with
abbreviations and diagrams.
As the Passaps are double bed machines, the notation is written as a fraction.
Eg.
N
N
Top part relates to the back bed
Bottom part relates to the front bed
In the above example, the N denotes the N on the N/X lever, so both beds are
set to N for basic double bed knitting.
A letter followed by X eg.
CX
CX
refers to the X on the N/X lever and the C on
the pattern selector.
The stitch sizes can also be written in this way.
Apart from the carriage settings information about the needle layouts must be
recorded.
Eg.
L‘ l ‘ l ‘ l ‘ l ‘ l ‘ l‘ l
. l . l . l . l . l . l . l .
l needle in action
. needle out of action
The above diagram shows that the fabric was produced on alternate needles,
also described as 1x1 rib.
All needle, double bed cast on
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
Racking handle down
l
The needle beds move from side to side, there are two key positions, handle up
and handle down. When the handle is down the needles on the front and back
bed will interlock, when the handle is up, the needles are directly opposite each
other and so would hit.
Handle
down
handle up
•
Select the needles to be knitted and push them into the knitting position.
edge springs
knitting position
needles out action
•
Place the edge springs on each of the edge needles, front and back, making
sure the needle latches are closed underneath them. They are needed to
keep the edge stitches neat.
•
Select the correct strippers, either orange or black (blue strippers are the
same as orange!) orange for double bed knitting and black for single bed.
The strippers are there to push the knitting down to ensure the stitches are
formed properly. They take away the need for weights
•
It’s a good idea to take the carriage across the needles to make sure they
are lined up neatly for knitting, the carriage needs to end up on the right to
begin knitting.
•
To pick up a bobbin, it should have the black lever below it selected, take the
carriage across the bobbins so that it catches the silver lever causing the
selected bobbin to pop up. As the carriage is taken back to the left it picks up
the bobbin as shown below.
silver
lever
•
Set the carriage to
N
N
3.5 (stitch sizes based on 4-ply acrylic)
3.5
•
Knit 1 row.
•
Set the carriage to
CX
CX
The machine will knit alternately on the front bed and then the back bed to
produce tubular knitting.
•
Knit 3 rows
•
Set the carriage to
N
N
4
4
This is the setting for plain knitting, knit 40 rows
Open cast off
This will take the fabric off of the needles but will leave an edge that will
potentially unravel. Samples can be over locked to seal the edges.
•
Take the carriage back across to the far right, the bobbin will be replaced
into the holder. Make sure the bobbin holder has gone back down before
bringing the carriage back across to the left.
•
Move the carriage across the needles and the fabric will drop from the
machine.
2x1 rib
2x1 rib fabric has a much more defined rib structure than all needle fabric. The
name, 2x1, refers to the needle layout which is a repeat of 2 needles knitting to
1 needle out of action.
L ‘ l l ‘ l l ‘ l l ‘ l l
L l . l l . l l . l l . l
In order to set up a rib fabric correctly, the yarn, in passing from one needle
to the next, must also pass from either front to rear, or rear to front. If it is not
possible to get this, then it is necessary to set up on all needles or 1x1 rib
and then transfer stitches manually to produce the desired rib.
For 2x1 rib it is necessary to rack the bed so that the needles mesh for the
Set up row (1st row) as described above.
•
Set out the needles as below, taking note of the single needles at the edges.
L ‘ l l ‘ l l ‘ l l ‘ l l
L l . l l . l l . l l . l
•
Set carriage to
•
Knit 1 row, turn the racking handle one whole turn clockwise. The needle
layout should be as the diagram below.
N
N
3.5
3.5
Racking handle down
L ‘ l l ‘ l l ‘ l l ‘ l l
L l . l l . l l . l l . l
•
CX
CX
Set carriage to
3.5
3.5
Knit 3 rows
•
Set carriage to
N
N
4
4
Knit 40 rows
Transferring from double bed to single bed
There is often a need to incorporate double and single bed knitting in one fabric,
therefore it is essential to know how to move between the two.
•
Push all needles within the sample area on the back bed into the knitting
position.
•
Rack the bed half a turn anti-clockwise so that the handle is up. This will
make it easier as the needles on the front bed will be directly opposite those
on the back.
•
Using a double ended transfer tool, transfer all the stitches from the front bed
onto the back. Make sure all the needles on the back bed have at least one
stitch on them.
Take the stitch from the front bed needle, slide it along the transfer tool and
hook it onto the opposite back bed needle.
•
Push all of the front bed needles out of action.
•
Set the carriage to to
N
GX
5
4
Black strippers
GX is ‘free move’ on the pattern selector. The stitch size has increased
because single bed knitting knits tighter than double bed.
•
Knit 50 rows
1x1 rib
This is a rib knitted on alternate needles as shown in the diagram below.
L‘ l ‘ l ‘ l ‘ l ‘ l ‘ l‘ l
. l . l . l . l . l . l . l .
•
racking handle up
Set out the needles as above and cast on as for all needle rib
Wide ribs
Any rib wider than 2x1 is classed as a wide rib. To produce a wide rib, set the
machine for either 1x1, 2x1 or all needle, and then follow the standard cast on.
After the last CX row, transfer stitches to create the desired rib setout and then
continue knitting with both carriages set to N. Note for very wide ribs black
strippers are more suitable.
Fisherman’s rib
This is a knitted fabric based on all needle rib and is a good example of one of
the pre-set sequences that are built into the machine.
•
Cast on as for all needle rib.
•
Set the carriage to
EX
EX
Orange strippers
The sequence of knitting is as follows:-
1. l
l
l
2. l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
All needles tuck on back bed
All needles knit on front bed
l
All needles knit on the back bed
All needles tuck on the front bed
l
l
It is possible to produce variations of Fisherman’s rib by only setting one of
the carriages to EX, and the other to N. This is called ½ Fisherman’s rib.
The sequence of knitting is as follows:-
1. l
l
l
2. l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
All needles tuck on back bed
All needles knit on the front bed
All needles knit, front and back beds
l
Single bed cast on
Single bed cast-on on the Passaps gives a messy edge to the fabric which is
acceptable for sketch book samples but not for finished pieces. For a really neat
edge it is necessary to cast on as double bed and then transfer all the stitches
from the front bed to the back.
•
Push all the needles on the back bed out of action and set the carriage to GX
•
On the front bed, push alternate needles out of action
•
Set the front bed carriage to N
Black strippers
•
Knit 1 row
•
Push the rest of the needles back into working position
•
Continue knitting. It will take a few rows for the stitches to form properly.
Make sure the single bed is knitting properly before attempting any stitch
effects.
Holding needles using BX
Held needles do not move at all, they don’t take any yarn into the hook like a
tucking needle would. By holding groups of needles and knitting others, raised
textures will be formed on the fabric.
When the carriage is set to BX, only needles with a pusher in-action will knit.
This makes it possible to select which needles knit by arranging the pushers to
be either in the rest position or the in-action position.
•
Cast on as for single bed
•
Arrange the pushers as described above
•
Set the carriage to
•
Knit a set number of rows, i.e. 6, then change the carriage setting to GX
GX
BX
assuming front bed needles are knitting only
N
And knit a set number of rows.
•
Alternate the two carriage settings above to produce a fabric with raised
bumps on the surface.
It is possible to swap the pushers so that those in rest position move to the
in-action position and vica-versa. This will alter the repeat of the bumps to
make a more interesting fabric.
When the arrows are pushed in, the pushers will swap places as the
carriage is moved across the bed in the direction of the arrow. For bold
textures, only push the arrow in for 1 row of knitting, for example on the
last row of the N sequence.