1. In a circular knitting machine having a plurality of needles operable to knit yarn into a plurality of loops in wales and courses, a patterning memory having means for the storage of a knitting pattern and an output for the control of the needles with respect thereto derived from an input based upon the position of the needles and the particular course of the knitwork, the improvement for reading said patterning memory comprising means for counting the passage of both said needles and said courses from an initial point, said counters having a capacity to read the total number of needles and the total course passage from said initial point and said patterning memory having a capacity significantly smaller than said total number of needles and the total course passage, and a decoder interposed between each of said counters and said inputs of said patterning memory to reduce the output of said counters to the capacity of said patterning memory.