A study measured tensile pressure force on knitting needles during knit fabric manufacture on an automatic hosiery knitting machine with a cylinder diameter of 83 millimeters and 60 needles. Researchers attached strain gages to individual knitting needles to measure deformation and calculated tensile pressure. Results indicated that increasing the tensile force at the feed end of the knitting system from 5 to 20 centinewtons altered the tensile pressure force on the needle in certain phases of loop formation. Pressure force at the points of knocking the half loop over from the latch onto the needle shank increased with increases in tensile force at the feed end, whereas tensile force on the needle at yarn sinking decreased under similar conditions. 7 refs.