and a gear 34 affixed to the lower end of looptaker shaft 16 with set screw 36 in the prior art arrangment of fig1 a loose end of thread t will tend to be carried to the underside of hook body 18 and to either 1 become jammed between the thrust washer 14 and bushing 20 or the thrust washer and the central portion 24 of the underside of hook body 18 or 2 find its way over the thrust washer through a gap 38 or under the thrust washer through a gap 40 to the looptaker shaft and be wound thereon such fouling tendency of the thread is aggravated by the accumulation of static charges on the looptaker bushing thrust washer and thread all of which can be at different potentials referring now to fig2 and 4 there is shown a construction according to the invention including a number of parts which are identical to parts already shown in fig1 and which have been designated with like reference characters having a prime mark 39 added thereto such identical parts include machine bed 12 39 drive shaft 26 39 bushing 28 39 meshing gears 30 39 and 34 39 and bushing 20 39 the construction of the invention further includes a modified looptaker 42 and modified thrust washer 44 looptaker 42 is formed according to the invention on the underside of a hook body 48 with a depending ring 50 which forms an annular recess 52 with a central portion 54 of the hook body thrust washer.