This invention concerns a home knitting machine comprising at least one straight needle bed member provided with grooves slidably receiving the knitting needles, a carriage which is movable on the needle bed member and which is provide with selection units and cam tracks for actuating and displacing the needles of the needle bed member, a programming installation comprising reading means which are electrically connected to the selection units and which are relatively movable with respect to a program card, means for relatively displacing, from one row to the next, the reading means with respect to the program card, mechanical means for connecting the programming installation to the carriage for successive reading of the rows of the program card by the reading means in synchronism with the movement of the carriage, this machine being characterized in that the means for relatively displacing from one row to the next the reading means relative to the program card comprise means for adjusting the pitch of the scanned rows of the card.