This paper presents an experimental investigation on the knittability of various polyimide (PI) filaments, namely PI-H (high strength and modulus), PI-M (moderate strength and modulus) and PI-L (low strength and modulus) filaments. The tensile strength of the PI-H, PI-M and PI-L filaments is 3.41, 1.65 and 0.88 GPa, and the Young’s modulus is 92.94, 40.71 and 9.43 GPa, respectively. The chemical compositions and structures of various PI filaments were characterized to explain the mechanical performance differences. The results show that the imidization degree, structural crystallinity and orientation have significant effects on the mechanical behaviors of PI monofilaments. The filament forces during the knitting process are simplified into straight tensile, loop tensile and abrasion actions, which have been tested and analyzed on PI monofilaments. A home-made simulative knittability analyzer was designed to test the knittability of the PI filaments. A hand flat knitting machine was used to verify the validity of the simulating methods and the constructed knittability analyzer. The PI-H, PI-M and PI-L filaments have poor, moderate and excellent knittability, respectively. The results also demonstrate that the simulating methods and the constructed simulative knittability analyzer are reasonable and efficient to evaluate the knittability of PI filaments.