the textile material 4 however what is important here is that in each instance the needle 10 is so bent that the distance thereof from the gripper 14 increases so that it no longer certain and assured that the gripper tip 13 reaches into the loop 12 therefore according to the present invention there is provided a drive which is connected to the gripper holding arrangement 15 and which is so constructed and so controlled that the gripper holding arrangement 15 is shifted or moved in dependence on the bending of the needle 10 caused by the textile material during its advancement of movement so that the distance a between the needle 10 and the plane of movement of the gripper 14 remains virtually the same hence in this case the movement of the gripper 14 by a certain distance takes place in the direction of the arrow 20 however instead of or even in addition to the shifting or movement of the gripper holding arrangement 15 and thus of the gripper 14 and the gripper tip 13 there can be performed a corresponding shifting or displacement of the needle holding arrangement which is not shown in fig3 so as not to unduly clutter the latter in this instance the displacement of the needle holding arrangement takes place in the rightward direction as considered in fig3 in order to accomplish the substantially constant distance a despite the bending of the needle 10 in the leftward direction when only the needle.