Reading had midfielder Sammy Igoe sent off two minutes before half time after the former Portsmouth winger picked up his second booking for lashing out at Swindon midfielder Bobby Howe.
Igoe was later joined in the dressing room by the Robins midfielder Paul McAreavey, and defender Alan Reeves, as Knight went card crazy in the closing stages at the County Ground.
McAreavey was dismissed after 89 minutes just three minutes after coming of the substitute's bench when he lunged in at Royals defender John Mackie.
Reeves completed a hat-trick of red cards when he was sent for an early bath deep into injury time after aiming a kick at Jamie Cureton following an unsightly scuffle by the corner flag.
The former Wimbledon centre-back may now face a lengthy ban having already picked up two red cards, the second of which earned him a four game suspension that only came to a close after Saturday's 3-0 defeat at Cardiff.
Pardew had no complaints about the decision to red card Igoe but that did not stop The Royals chief aiming a barrage of abuse at Knight who needed a police escort at the end of the game.
Pardew said: "The referee was an absolute shocker but the problem is there are too many of those in our division.
"Sammy is not normally a dirty player and I think their player took a swipe at him first of all but he should not have reacted the way he did, I can't defend him.
"I had this referee at QPR and he cost us two points there. He was trying to make himself a star and he succeeded so congratulations referee."
Swindon manager Andy King was equally dismayed by Knight's performance. He added: "In the end the game turned into a mockery which is disappointing. It shouldn't have been nine against ten.
"Reeves pretended to knee their player and the ref has sent him off. I don't understand it."
On the pitch Reading had returning goalkeeper Phil Whitehead to thank for keeping them in the match by pulling off a number of fine saves to deny Swindon what would have been an unlikely victory.
The best of these came in the second half, when Whitehead, just back from a two-month injury lay off, tipped Sol Davis's long range effort past the post when it seemed the ball was destined to fly into the corner of the net