Fabric structural members

摘要

A man-made, flexible, knitted member is formed from at least one continuous strand of a conventional knittable flexible material knitted in a tubular or circular form with at least two sets of interlocked stitches extending longitudinally along opposite sides of the tubular form with opposite ends of the stitches of each row of each set being connected by unstitched lengths of the strand material to the ends of stitches of adjoining rows of the remaining set. A planar member is made by flattening the original tubular form longitudinally through both sets of stitches. The resulting structure is thicker at both ends due to the overlap of the strand material in the stitches and thinner between the end where the unstitched length of the strand material is provided. When flattened, the structure has a ladder-like appearance with interlocked stitched portions forming side rails of the structure and unstitched lengths of the strand forming a rung portion of this structure interconnecting the side rail portions. The unstitched strands connecting the two side rail portions are distinct having a saw-toothed pattern with curved or scalloped individual rungs, at least in the knitted version of the invention.