Purlbed

Knitting machine type

Double-bed hand flat (V-bed)

A semi-industrial V-bed used in colleges, with two equal steel beds, a hand-pushed carriage and separate cams for each bed, available from about 2.5 to 14 gauge. Ribs are set out in half pitch and the back bed racks in full-needle steps. There is no hold position and no per-needle selection, so short rows are not practical and patterns must be made with transfers, whole-bed tuck or slip, or high/low-butt needles. On a Dubied, 'holding' means tuck, not short-row hold.

Can do: rib and double jersey, transfers between beds, tuck, slip
Cannot do: hold (short rows), two colours in a row, lace carriage

  • No automatic needle selection
  • Beds fixed at half pitch
  • Needle spacing: 2.1 / 2.5 / 3.2 / 3.6 / 5.1 / 8.5 mm
  • Default 120 needles (up to 500)

Examples: Dubied hand flats (including high/low-butt models); Universal hand flats; Older Stoll hand-driven V-beds

How to draw for it

  • Do not use hold cells; the app should block them or suggest moving loops to the other bed.
  • In each pass, every working needle on a bed does the same thing (knit, tuck or miss), unless the high/low-butt split is marked.
  • Any per-needle pattern must be rewritten as transfers or reduced to stripes.
  • Draw ribs in half pitch and show racking as explicit full-needle steps.
  • Use cross-bed transfers freely for pleats, travelling ribs and purl effects.
Draw a bed chart for it

56 techniques you can knit on it

Jacquard (Fair Isle)

Plating

Rib

Cables and lace

Short rows (partial knitting)

Lifted stitches

Ottoman ridges

Pleats and folds

Stripes and woven-in yarn

Other machine types

Researched from machine manuals, dealer spec sheets and knitting references; a few details are still unconfirmed.