Abstract: Flyknit instep is a fully-fashioned instep, which has three different types with different forming principle, that is, no shoe tongue, has shoe tongue and full-packaged one. The paper analyzes the forming principles of the three types flyknit insteps via the method of division of forming areas. The forming methods of flat-knitted insteps are outside narrowing method and part weaving, of which the part weaving accounts for a large proportion. The flat-knitted instep design mainly includes process design and stitch design. Stitch design is one of the important links. Basic stitch, decorative stitch and functional stitch, these three kinds of stitch distribution need to be combined and applied on instep. The usage of basic stitch, and functional stitch was analyzed via the method of division of forming areas. And the stitch was mapped to the partitions of the insteps. Results showed that outside narrowing method and part weaving method can be applied in the flyknit insteps, and stitch design plays an important role in instep design.

Key words: flat knitting; flyknit instep; forming principle; stitch design