Modifying a pattern
 

I spent about a month working to modify a colorwork (Meg Swanson's
"Russian Prime") sweater pattern. I was dead-set on using MY yarn and
MY gauge to knit the sweater. Because my yarn gave me a sugstantially
different gauge from the pattern gauge I had to rearrange the color
patterns to ensure the sweater would be visually balanced. Not all
that difficult, simply a matter of noting where on the chart to begin
the work.

Because my yarn gave me a gauge substantially different from the
pattern gauge I filled many pages in my journal with scribblings in an
effort to calculate the quantity of yarn I would need. Then I asked a
more experienced knitting friend to check my math. We both reached
the same conclusion:

2 KILOGRAMS of yarn.

Now, I live in central Texas. We get *maybe* a week of winter temps,
surrounded by about two months of chilly weather. I certainly don't
need a 2kg sweater.

So I went back to the pattern. My sweater will weigh something less
than 1kg when made using the yarn specified in the pattern. So I
ordered THAT yarn from Schoolhouse Press (Meg's knitting supplies
company) and once I finish a couple of small projects I'll be ready to
start my 2004 sweater.

Now some of you are asking yourselves, why is she telling us this
before she's had coffee on a Monday? Because I'm playing catch-up and
I saw that someone wants to convert a plain stockinette sweater to a
lacy one but apparently doesn't understand the math involved in doing
so.

I recommend Maggie Righetti's book "Sweater Design in Plain English"
to anyone who wants to build their own sweaters or who wants to
substantially modify existing patterns. The book is an excellent
how-to that discusses in detail everything from swatchmaking to
measuring the intended victim to making all the pieces fit together.

Modifying the pattern isn't difficult at all, but you must know a few
things before you start.

1. What's YOUR gauge with THAT yarn and THOSE needles, as knitted
using the PATTERN you intend to use in the work?
2. What are your intended finished measurements?

Without these two critical pieces of information you can go to the
bank knowing that your sweater will not fit.

Make a swatch. If you don't like the fabric, change needle size and
make another one, and keep doing so until you produce a swatch you
like.

Measure the swatch, then wash and dry it the way you intend to wash
and dry the finished item.

Now measure your swatch. Stitches over inches is your GAUGE. Measure
the swatch in several places and use the average. If you used a
pattern stitch figure out what the repeat unit is - that is, determine
the width of say, 2 full pattern repeats, or 4, or even 8 if the
pattern repeat is a small one. Example: 40 stitches cast on, width
of swatch is 8", gauge is 40/8=5 stitches per inch. If my pattern
repeat is 4 stitches then I can expect 10 repeats to fit into an 8"
distance, or 5 repeats in a 4" distance.

Draw a diagram of your sweater showing finished measurements. If I
need a finished sweater with a 38" chest and my gauge is 5spi I'll
need to cast on a total of 190 stitches, 95 for the front and 95 for
the back. I knit sweaters in the round and from the bottom up because
I hate seaming.

Now I also need to make sure my pattern is visually pleasing WRT its
placement on the front AND the back of the sweater.

A 4-stitch repeat doesn't fit tidily into 95 stitches, so I can do one
of two things: adjust my stitch count UP, or adjust it DOWN.
Adjusting down will be a bad idea in my case as I'm chesty and a bit
too decrepit to wear tight sweaters :) However, by adding only one
stitch to each half of the sweater I have a number evenly divisible by
4. So I'll cast on 192 (96 for the front, 96 for the back). And
because 96/4=24 I won't need to dink with partial repeats at the
"edges" in order to center the pattern.

Now for the neck shaping. Where are we starting the neck opening
(navel? between the boobs? higher?) and how wide is the finished neck
opening? This tells us how often we'll need to decrease to achieve
the desired result.

To make a v-neck one generally decreases one stitch every 2nd or every
4th row a few stitches in from the edge of the neck opening, depending
on how wide or narrow one wants the V to be. Easy enough, as long as
I can make the decreases and keep the lace pattern halfway
decent-looking. I might decide to decrease away one entire pattern
repeat each time I decrease. This does two things - eliminates
partial pattern repeats in a very public area of the sweater AND will
probably produce a nice edge of some sort at the neck opening. But
I'll have to experiment to find out what works. I may decide to make
the neck opening wider than required, then go back and add an edging
of some sort to camoflage my decreases.

Sleeves should be easy enough but if I'm making a lace top I'd be
inclined to omit them altogether and call the thing a shell, then wear
a cardigan or something overtop.

Ok, I'm off to make a coffee. Hope my nattering is of some use.

SLINKY 2 kg ????? 2000 grams ,,,, are you sure
Wow
my first sweater for my husband [ than boyfriend] was ALLLLLLL cables
,,, it wa 1700 of wool ,,,, quite warm ,, still got parts of it, cut
up made into floor rug
mirjam
t about a month working to modify a colorwork (Meg Swanson's

Yep. 2-ply Jamieson Smith jumper yarn at 9spi. ~65000 stitches. My
friend and I each did the math independently based on my many swatches
and came up with the same number. I considered running it past Meg
but decided that I'd rather knit the thing than debate my methods ;)

On Mon, 10 May 2004 14:08:47 GMT, (Mirjam
Bruck-Cohen) wrote:

SLINKY 2 kg ????? 2000 grams ,,,, are you sure
Wow
my first sweater for my husband [ than boyfriend] was ALLLLLLL cables
,,, it wa 1700 of wool ,,,, quite warm ,, still got parts of it, cut
up made into floor rug
mirjam
t about a month working to modify a colorwork (Meg Swanson's

I agree on the book, it's one of the best I have. I have read it many
times!

Cheers,
Laura M

On Mon, 10 May 2004 12:20:19 GMT, Slinky
wrote:

I spent about a month working to modify a colorwork (Meg Swanson's
"Russian Prime") sweater pattern. I was dead-set on using MY yarn and
MY gauge to knit the sweater. Because my yarn gave me a sugstantially
different gauge from the pattern gauge I had to rearrange the color
patterns to ensure the sweater would be visually balanced. Not all
that difficult, simply a matter of noting where on the chart to begin
the work.

Because my yarn gave me a gauge substantially different from the
pattern gauge I filled many pages in my journal with scribblings in an
effort to calculate the quantity of yarn I would need. Then I asked a
more experienced knitting friend to check my math. We both reached
the same conclusion:

2 KILOGRAMS of yarn.

Now, I live in central Texas. We get *maybe* a week of winter temps,
surrounded by about two months of chilly weather. I certainly don't
need a 2kg sweater.

So I went back to the pattern. My sweater will weigh something less
than 1kg when made using the yarn specified in the pattern. So I
ordered THAT yarn from Schoolhouse Press (Meg's knitting supplies
company) and once I finish a couple of small projects I'll be ready to
start my 2004 sweater.

Now some of you are asking yourselves, why is she telling us this
before she's had coffee on a Monday? Because I'm playing catch-up and
I saw that someone wants to convert a plain stockinette sweater to a
lacy one but apparently doesn't understand the math involved in doing
so.

I recommend Maggie Righetti's book "Sweater Design in Plain English"
to anyone who wants to build their own sweaters or who wants to
substantially modify existing patterns. The book is an excellent
how-to that discusses in detail everything from swatchmaking to
measuring the intended victim to making all the pieces fit together.

Modifying the pattern isn't difficult at all, but you must know a few
things before you start.

1. What's YOUR gauge with THAT yarn and THOSE needles, as knitted
using the PATTERN you intend to use in the work?
2. What are your intended finished measurements?

Without these two critical pieces of information you can go to the
bank knowing that your sweater will not fit.

Make a swatch. If you don't like the fabric, change needle size and
make another one, and keep doing so until you produce a swatch you
like.

Measure the swatch, then wash and dry it the way you intend to wash
and dry the finished item.

Now measure your swatch. Stitches over inches is your GAUGE. Measure
the swatch in several places and use the average. If you used a
pattern stitch figure out what the repeat unit is - that is, determine
the width of say, 2 full pattern repeats, or 4, or even 8 if the
pattern repeat is a small one. Example: 40 stitches cast on, width
of swatch is 8", gauge is 40/8=5 stitches per inch. If my pattern
repeat is 4 stitches then I can expect 10 repeats to fit into an 8"
distance, or 5 repeats in a 4" distance.

Draw a diagram of your sweater showing finished measurements. If I
need a finished sweater with a 38" chest and my gauge is 5spi I'll
need to cast on a total of 190 stitches, 95 for the front and 95 for
the back. I knit sweaters in the round and from the bottom up because
I hate seaming.

Now I also need to make sure my pattern is visually pleasing WRT its
placement on the front AND the back of the sweater.

A 4-stitch repeat doesn't fit tidily into 95 stitches, so I can do one
of two things: adjust my stitch count UP, or adjust it DOWN.
Adjusting down will be a bad idea in my case as I'm chesty and a bit
too decrepit to wear tight sweaters :) However, by adding only one
stitch to each half of the sweater I have a number evenly divisible by
4. So I'll cast on 192 (96 for the front, 96 for the back). And
because 96/4=24 I won't need to dink with partial repeats at the
"edges" in order to center the pattern.

Now for the neck shaping. Where are we starting the neck opening
(navel? between the boobs? higher?) and how wide is the finished neck
opening? This tells us how often we'll need to decrease to achieve
the desired result.

To make a v-neck one generally decreases one stitch every 2nd or every
4th row a few stitches in from the edge of the neck opening, depending
on how wide or narrow one wants the V to be. Easy enough, as long as
I can make the decreases and keep the lace pattern halfway
decent-looking. I might decide to decrease away one entire pattern
repeat each time I decrease. This does two things - eliminates
partial pattern repeats in a very public area of the sweater AND will
probably produce a nice edge of some sort at the neck opening. But
I'll have to experiment to find out what works. I may decide to make
the neck opening wider than required, then go back and add an edging
of some sort to camoflage my decreases.

Sleeves should be easy enough but if I'm making a lace top I'd be
inclined to omit them altogether and call the thing a shell, then wear
a cardigan or something overtop.

Ok, I'm off to make a coffee. Hope my nattering is of some use.

Slinky wrote:
snip
Wow, Slinky, that is impressive!
Katherine

I for one appreciate this post! Thank you!
laurie

"Slinky" wrote in message
...
I spent about a month working to modify a colorwork (Meg Swanson's
"Russian Prime") sweater pattern. I was dead-set on using MY yarn and
MY gauge to knit the sweater. Because my yarn gave me a sugstantially
different gauge from the pattern gauge I had to rearrange the color
patterns to ensure the sweater would be visually balanced. Not all
that difficult, simply a matter of noting where on the chart to begin
the work.

Because my yarn gave me a gauge substantially different from the
pattern gauge I filled many pages in my journal with scribblings in an
effort to calculate the quantity of yarn I would need. Then I asked a
more experienced knitting friend to check my math. We both reached
the same conclusion:

2 KILOGRAMS of yarn.

Now, I live in central Texas. We get *maybe* a week of winter temps,
surrounded by about two months of chilly weather. I certainly don't
need a 2kg sweater.

So I went back to the pattern. My sweater will weigh something less
than 1kg when made using the yarn specified in the pattern. So I
ordered THAT yarn from Schoolhouse Press (Meg's knitting supplies
company) and once I finish a couple of small projects I'll be ready to
start my 2004 sweater.

Now some of you are asking yourselves, why is she telling us this
before she's had coffee on a Monday? Because I'm playing catch-up and
I saw that someone wants to convert a plain stockinette sweater to a
lacy one but apparently doesn't understand the math involved in doing
so.

I recommend Maggie Righetti's book "Sweater Design in Plain English"
to anyone who wants to build their own sweaters or who wants to
substantially modify existing patterns. The book is an excellent
how-to that discusses in detail everything from swatchmaking to
measuring the intended victim to making all the pieces fit together.

Modifying the pattern isn't difficult at all, but you must know a few
things before you start.

1. What's YOUR gauge with THAT yarn and THOSE needles, as knitted
using the PATTERN you intend to use in the work?
2. What are your intended finished measurements?

Without these two critical pieces of information you can go to the
bank knowing that your sweater will not fit.

Make a swatch. If you don't like the fabric, change needle size and
make another one, and keep doing so until you produce a swatch you
like.

Measure the swatch, then wash and dry it the way you intend to wash
and dry the finished item.

Now measure your swatch. Stitches over inches is your GAUGE. Measure
the swatch in several places and use the average. If you used a
pattern stitch figure out what the repeat unit is - that is, determine
the width of say, 2 full pattern repeats, or 4, or even 8 if the
pattern repeat is a small one. Example: 40 stitches cast on, width
of swatch is 8", gauge is 40/8=5 stitches per inch. If my pattern
repeat is 4 stitches then I can expect 10 repeats to fit into an 8"
distance, or 5 repeats in a 4" distance.

Draw a diagram of your sweater showing finished measurements. If I
need a finished sweater with a 38" chest and my gauge is 5spi I'll
need to cast on a total of 190 stitches, 95 for the front and 95 for
the back. I knit sweaters in the round and from the bottom up because
I hate seaming.

Now I also need to make sure my pattern is visually pleasing WRT its
placement on the front AND the back of the sweater.

A 4-stitch repeat doesn't fit tidily into 95 stitches, so I can do one
of two things: adjust my stitch count UP, or adjust it DOWN.
Adjusting down will be a bad idea in my case as I'm chesty and a bit
too decrepit to wear tight sweaters :) However, by adding only one
stitch to each half of the sweater I have a number evenly divisible by
4. So I'll cast on 192 (96 for the front, 96 for the back). And
because 96/4=24 I won't need to dink with partial repeats at the
"edges" in order to center the pattern.

Now for the neck shaping. Where are we starting the neck opening
(navel? between the boobs? higher?) and how wide is the finished neck
opening? This tells us how often we'll need to decrease to achieve
the desired result.

To make a v-neck one generally decreases one stitch every 2nd or every
4th row a few stitches in from the edge of the neck opening, depending
on how wide or narrow one wants the V to be. Easy enough, as long as
I can make the decreases and keep the lace pattern halfway
decent-looking. I might decide to decrease away one entire pattern
repeat each time I decrease. This does two things - eliminates
partial pattern repeats in a very public area of the sweater AND will
probably produce a nice edge of some sort at the neck opening. But
I'll have to experiment to find out what works. I may decide to make
the neck opening wider than required, then go back and add an edging
of some sort to camoflage my decreases.

Sleeves should be easy enough but if I'm making a lace top I'd be
inclined to omit them altogether and call the thing a shell, then wear
a cardigan or something overtop.

Ok, I'm off to make a coffee. Hope my nattering is of some use.