The flat bed knitting machine knits a nearly unlimited number of patterns fully automatic. The needles glide up and down in a "needle bed" and form one stitch after the other, row for row. The computer controlled machine is able to knit not only shapes such as arms, fronts, backs of sweaters, but also necks, button holes, etc. (“fully fashioned"). The knitter enters the data for the batch into the computer, including the size and number of the individual parts. The machine completes the task: approx. every 6 minutes a is sweater finished, approx. every 12 minutes, a knit dress. The individual parts need only then be sewn together.