to produce complex patterns weaves or shapes in the knitted fabric such as jacquard intarsia cabling etc thus as shown in fig5 c when carriage 15b is off to the right and not in a position to interfere with carriage 15a carriage 15a may be brought over to the complex knitted fabric and perform a knitting operation there as it is moved away from the complex knitted fabric carriage 15a is no longer in a position to interfere with carriage 15b and carriage 15b may thereby be brought to complete the pattern weave or shape meanwhile as carriage 15a is away from the complex pattern it may be used to knit a more simple pattern in another area of the needle bed 14 as will be evident from the foregoing description the great versatility of an apparatus according to the present invention will yield knitted fabrics from the flat bed knitting machine at vastly different rates it is therefore necessary to provide take up means that extend across the length of needle bed 14 and that take up knitted fabric at a rate that is equal to the rate at which the knitted fabric is produced a suitable form for such variable take up means is shown in fig1 as fabric 28 is produced from gap 12 it is received between two counter rotating rollers 32 the rollers 32 are loosely and frictionally coupled to shaft 34 which provides the rotating drive force for the.