An object is to provide a flatbed knitting machine for pile knitting and a pile knitting method, allowing pile knitting even when using a knitting needle without a locking hook for knitting yarn.
A capturing up-and-down means 10 drives a sinker 4 to raise the tip thereof upwards in a needle bed gap 1a, capture the ground yarn fed through a yarn feeder between a claw for ground yarn 4a and a claw for pile yarn 4b, and draw the ground yarn below the needle bed gap 1a. The solid lines show the sinker 4 when driven to capture the ground yarn. The dashed lines show the sinker 4 with the tip having retreated from between knitting needles 3. The two-dot chain lines show of the sinker 4 re-advancing to between the knitting needles 3, after the steps of separating the ground yarn 8a and the pile yarn 8b, and being driven so that the tip retreats from between the knitting needles 3 after the stitch formation by yarn drawing with a hook 3a. Pile knitting is performed even when using the knitting needles 3 without a locking hook for knitting yarn because the sinker 4 is capable of capturing and drawing the ground yarn 8a.