choice is provided by the use of additional guide bars 12a with jacquard controlled guides it is clear that the range of travel of the thread guide 11 can be kept rather small it can in fact be reduced to the order of about 8 mm so that it is possible to work even with rather high machine speeds thread positioning sinker 13 has the form of a hook 28 having an upwardly directed opening fig3 and 4 and a rearwardly directed protrusion 29 at its free end an eyelet 30 is provided in this protrusion through which wire 31 may be run along the entire breadth of the machine to provide additional security against thread misplacement the protrusion assists in holding thread 21 in place when a substantial swing to the right is required for example when several guide bars are present and thus the thread 21 is turned through an angle see fig4 in contrast in the position of fig3 the thread not illustrated runs to needle 2 without a substantial amount of turning from eyelet 20 thread 21 lies in front of bar 12 and behind wire 31 wire 31 however is not critical and need not be present in all embodiments while the purpose of wire 31 is a safeguard against the slipping of the thread from the space between the sinkers 13 the threads are usually pulled into the hook space of sinkers 13 and the wire plays almost no part in setting up a frictional effect in operation the thread guides 11 swing between the front and the back of needle bed 1 to execute an lapping.