1. Unlike cotton knitwear, wool knitwear is woven directly from yarn during the flat knitting process, similar to knitting a sweater. A single yarn cannot be continuous from beginning to end. Therefore, workers use knots to connect each yarn during this process. Generally speaking, a knitted sweater will inevitably have knots, but in a high-quality sweater, the knots are always hidden in inconspicuous places, such as side seams or underarms.
2. Another indicator of the quality of a knitted sweater is the hem, known in the industry as visible hem (or visible hem), often found at the neckline and armholes. Generally, both visible hems and loops are much more valuable than overlocked edges in knitwear. Some sweaters, when turned inside out, show overlocked edges at the junction of the garment pieces and sleeves, similar to woven or cotton knitwear. However, in the realm of wool knitwear, this is absolutely not considered high-quality. To digress a bit, there's a significant price difference between overlocked and serged sweaters in the export market.
3. Looking at the raw fabric of a sweater, the stitch pattern is crucial. These are the individual braids we see; they must be even and consistent in size. Uneven stitch thickness indicates that the knitting machine's gauge wasn't properly adjusted during the knitting process, or that the yarn contains fuzz.
4. Knitted sweaters are divided into two types: hand-crocheted/hand-knitted and machine-knitted. Hand-crocheted patterns are flexible and diverse, unmatched by knitting machines, but have lower production volumes and are therefore more expensive. Hand-crocheted sweaters are mainly produced in the Shantou area. Commonly used needle types on knitting machines include: 1.5 gauge, 3 gauge, 5 gauge, 7 gauge, 9 gauge, 12 gauge, 14 gauge, 16 gauge, and 18 gauge, etc. (The term "gauge" refers to the number of stitches per inch; higher needle counts result in finer stitches, requiring finer yarn and higher prices, and also higher processing costs).
