Patent 10519577 was granted and assigned to Nike, Inc. on December, 2019 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Present aspects hereof are directed to a circular knitted apparel item, such as a sock, or a sleeve. The apparel item has at least a first segment with multiple knit courses, and a second segment having the same number of multiple knit courses as the first segment. The apparel item has an aperture separating the first segment and the second segment, where the aperture is occupied by a single strand of yarn extending from the first segment to the second segment. The first and second segments are formed by changing the circular knitting direction from one course to the next course in a reciprocating fashion, until the last course is formed, wherein the single strand of yarn moves from the last course in the current segment to the first course in a next, adjacent segment.