To prevent the squeezing of a needle on each reciprocating motion of the needle to cause the damage of the surface of a yarn and the yarn breakage and to prevent the increase of the size of a needle operation cam caused by the retreatment of an already knit fabric in knitting resulting in the expansion of a rotating stroke of a loop holder.

A mobile sinker 15 and a loop holder 16 are inserted between a needle bed 1 and a needle plate 4 positioned at the top of the bed. The loop holder 16 is provided with a knit fabric retracting groove formed at the tip end of a loop engaging arm and is swivellably supported on the needle plate 4 to enable the grip of the sinker loop of the final course of the last knit fabric with the groove. The carriage is provided with a cam for controlling the forwarding and retracting motions of the loop holder as a loop holder swinging means and a retracting cam for retracting the needle in such a manner as to grip the sinker loop with the knit fabric retracting groove of the loop holder 16.