for the yarn carrier boxes a yarn carrier box 23 is provided on the side of the yarn carrier bar 22 remote from the thread readying device 21 the box being movable in a selective manner over the processing area of the machine together with the cam carriages 3 4 by means of the drive pin 8 of a driver device 7 that is fixed to the carriage bail 11 in the case of the illustrated embodiment the yarn carrier box 23 is permanently connected to the thread readying device 21 so that the latter is moved over the processing area of the machine together with the yarn carrier box 23 however one can conceive of a form of embodiment in which the thread readying device 21 is movable independently of the yarn carrier 23 be it by virture of a further drive pin or by means of another type of drive and control mechanism which can effect the displacement over the processing area of the machine the thread 17 provided by the thread readying device 21 is guided to the thread guide arm 15 of the yarn carrier box 23 and from there to the feeder wheel 16 from where the thread 17 is then caught by the needles of the knitting machine or is inserted as the final thread the invention has been explained on the basis of preferred embodiments for the skilled man however numerous arrangements are possible without thereby departing from the inventive concept for example it is possible to control the thread readying device and or the yarn carrier boxes independently of each other as regards their individual movement over the processing area of the machine for example by means of individual drive motors.