Contrary to what you might think, the first step in creating a sweater is not the drawing. It is rare that one makes a sketch of the garment. It is in fact to write it. We indicate which yarn we have chosen, which machine will be used, the size of the needles, the knitting stitch, the desired tightness and the shape of the sweater. A sweater can be thought of at the stage of researching the model, however, the inspiration often comes from the yarn itself. This is possible thanks to the quality products offered by our spinning partners, in whom we have full confidence. There are two dynamics to making a sweater: either the pattern is already found and we look for the appropriate yarn, or we find our inspiration from the yarn, after which we look for the most suitable pattern to enhance it. Once the yarn and the pattern are selected, and the sketch is made, you have to turn to the programmer.

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Programming
The programmer decides on the movements of the needles and makes sure that they produce the desired stitch for the knitted panels (back, torso, and sleeves). He programs, with the help of a dedicated computer, the knitting machine so that it produces the chosen pattern by itself. Many adjustments are to be made, notably for the needle, the desired knitting stitch...

The knitting
Once the program is done and transmitted to the machine, some adjustments are still to be made. It mainly concerns the yarn. Indeed, even if years of know-how help the brand to produce high quality sweaters, it is necessary to constantly check the productions of the machine to make sure that the dimensions of the knitting are correct. Setting up the machine can take several hours or even days. Each knitted panel will then be washed, ironed and fulled to achieve its final appearance.
The passage to the wash and the fulling modify the dimensions of the panel, it is thus necessary to adapt to the material. Hence the complexity of manufacturing the sweater. The washing and fulling are done as soon as the garment is composed of at least 50% of natural materials. However, if these two steps are often essential, they lengthen the manufacturing process, and if the style allows it, they are sometimes left aside. They are in fact finishing techniques.

The washing
Washing is very important because it fixes the yarn and prepares it for fulling where it will swell and gain softness. Fixing the yarn is important because it allows the sweater to gain strength and durability. Indeed, when the panels are washed, they are subjected to very special regimes. The temperature is set to the nearest degree, as is the length of the washing time. Each material has its own preferred program in order to respect the yarn and the desired result. For example, when washing a mohair sweater, a different program is used than for a panel knitted with merino wool. For mohair, it is necessary to bring out the hair and avoid that the yarn does not fix itself too much. Therefore, little heat is used and the speed of the rounds is reduced. For the merino creeper on the contrary, we try to fix the yarns in depth, so we need more heat and more speed.

The fulling
With fulling, we try to spin the panels at different speeds in a drum to get the hair out. You need speed, but also heat, to dry the piece coming out of the wash. The more the panels hit the walls of the drum, the more hair comes out. As mentioned above, washing and fulling are essential when using pieces made with more than 50% natural materials. This completely changes the appearance of the product and the feeling on the skin. You can confirm our statements at any time by visiting our workshop.

The assembly
Then there is the assembly, also called assembly. It is to assemble all the knitted parts, all the panels. This step is done with a common sewing machine, and we assemble the back and the torso before sewing the collar and the sleeves. While our sewing machines are common, their layouts are a little different. They are mounted on a large wooden table and have two or three extra stitches. The machines used are often Juky, Rimoldi or Singer. Overlockers, overlocker plates, reknitters and bowls are used to assemble the sweater according to its material and the way it is knitted.
If the sweater is knitted entirely in a diminutive stitch, the sweater can be assembled directly without having to cut the piece. It is assembled edge to edge thanks to a scoop that passes a yarn on each side to create a very pure assembly, without any seam. You can also use a serger (to assemble t-shirts, shirts, jeans) to attach the parts together. This makes the seams stronger or adds originality. We start with the shoulders by assembling the chest and back. Then we put the collar before assembling the sides of the piece. The sleeves are the last pieces to be put on.
Re-knitting is the hardest and longest assembly. It is mainly used for collars and armholes, but this technique requires a lot of time because it is worked needle by needle and therefore stitch by stitch. At Nitto Knitwear, overlocking is preferred. We sometimes rework some pieces, especially for the collar, but it must be original because it takes four times more time than overlocking.
Our sweaters are therefore mostly assembled with an overlock machine. During the assembly, the tightening must be adjusted according to the thickness of the knitted panel but also according to the yarns used. Indeed, the most important thing is to preserve the shape of the product. It is thus necessary to keep flexibility in the sewing to avoid that it freezes the product. Thus, it takes a lot of concentration and precision, which explains why this step takes between twenty minutes for a simple sweater and an hour and forty minutes for a complex cardigan.

The ironing
After sewing the brand label on the collar, the composition label on the inside of the piece and the chip indicating the size, the sweater must be ironed to flatten the seams and give the final shape to the garment to be worn.
Programming, knitting, washing, fulling, assembling and ironing are the main steps in the production of a sweater. However, if these steps are necessary, the know-how and the techniques used for fifty years allow the production of quality sweaters, with the aspect proper to the knitters of Clamart, disappeared for the greater part today but which marked the history of the city and knitting.