Part 1: Freeing Yourself from a Written Pattern or How to Use the Yarn of Your Choice

March 19, 2010| Lindy| 0 Comment | 8:00 am

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In my last post, I discussed the issues related to trying to substitute one yarn for another and suggested at the end of my post that if you want to use a yarn of a different weight & gauge than what the pattern calls for – you can design your own custom sweater using the pattern as a guide.
Today, I will focus on the first of two approaches for doing just that. WARNING – you must be prepared to take measurements, do a proper gauge swatch and get out your calculator. Yes, we will be doing some math…

Approach #1 – Use EZ’s Percentage System.

Elizabeth Zimmerman published her “unvented” percentage system for designing sweaters in the Knitting Workshop and gave us many examples of how to use it in her other books. EZ was always someone who dealt with knitting in a pragmatic fashion and basically cut through all the fluff and gave clear explanations of basic concepts. I encourage you to read all of her books – but if you want the complete explanation of her percentage system — Knitting Workshop is the source.

I am describing EZ’s Percentage System for two basic sweater designs – the yoke sweater and the Raglan sleeve sweater. Both are knitted in the round. You need to take some basic body measurements:

Width around the chest (Chest Measurement) [CM] The Chest Measurement is the “Key Measurement” (100%) and the starting point.
Body length to Underarm (Underarm Measurement)
Sleeve length to Underarm (Sleeve Length)
You must know your stitch gauge or Stitches per Inch [SPI]

The math follows:
CM X SPI = # stitches needed for the body of the sweater.

For a Yoke Sweater the basic percentages of the above are:
Body = 100%
Wrist = 20%
Upper Arm = 33%
Underarm = 8%
Circumference of Shoulders = 133%
Neck = 40%

For a Raglan-Sleeve Style Sweater the basic percentages are:
Body = 100%
Wrist = 20%
Upper Arm = 33%
Neck = 40%

To calculate – multiply the total number of body stitches by the percentage.

I think you get the idea. If you want to try using EZ’s percentage system, I recommend you either borrow EZ’s Knitting Workshop from your library or a friend or purchase it.

Here’s a link that will take you to Amazon.com: Knitting Workshop

I have also created an Excel Spreadsheet that will make the calculations for you. You can download it here: EPS_Calculator Spreadsheet.

Next post, I will outline another approach to sweater design.

WIP: Cardigan & Romper for New GrandsonWIP: Cardigan & Romper for New Grandson

November 15, 2009| Lindy| 0 Comment| 10:29 am

Okay — I swatched some more on this cardigan project. Earlier I had posted about Things Learned from a Swatch. Well, I continued to be dissatisfied with my color selections — I really just do not like that light aqua color for this sweater. So, I went back to my LYS and bought up all the teal color they had — which is the color I really wanted for the main color on the cardigan. The problem is that there isn’t enough of this color to do both a cardigan and a romper to match.

So, standing in front of the yarn bin at the store, I decided that I’d try using a combination of the teal, the red AND a darker blue. There was enough of the darker blue in one dye lot to do the romper and there was 1 ball of another dye lot left. Since I only need 1 ball of the darker color to do the alternating 3 color pattern in the cardigan, I bought this ball as well because the color variation is not that different between the two dye lots and since it will be mixed in with the other colors, it should work out okay.

Swatch_Cardigan3 Here’s my swatch with the new color scheme added. The darker blue color definitely shows up better than the lighter blue against the teal color that I want for the main color. I have started knitting the romper in the darker blue and I think I’m going to really like the coordinated outfit that will result. This project is a bit challenging because I am knitting on size 0 and size 1 needles to get the right guage. Lots and lots of small stitches…

Jeny’s Stretchy (Slipknot) Cast OnJeny’s Stretchy (Slipknot) Cast On

July 3, 2021| LindyBeir| 0 Comment| 3:12 pm

This cast on is basically a series of slip knots placed on your needle. It creates a very elastic edge and is great for the cuffs of socks, mittens, and sleeves plus anywhere else where you want a very stretchy edge. It works especially well with ribbing and adding stitches at the end of a row.

One important point when doing this cast on: you need to get the stitches snugged up close to each other – avoid gaps between the stitches as it will give an untidy looking edge.

Link to video:

Jeny’s Cast On

How to Knit a Helpful Swatch – Part 3 Swatching in the RoundHow to Knit a Helpful Swatch – Part 3 Swatching in the Round

August 17, 2020| LindyBeir| 0 Comment| 8:00 am

It took me a good bit of time to decide if I thought it was necessary to knit swatches in the round if I was knitting an item in the round rather than flat. The practice of knitting sweaters flat in pieces that are sewn together versus knitting sweaters in the round is, in itself, a whole topic with proponents for each practice. I may take this topic up at a later time, but for now I will focus on knitting a swatch in the round.

First, there are many knitters and designers who only use gauge swatches knit flat to determine their stitch gauge even if the pattern is knit in the round, and second, most patterns do not state how the gauge swatch was done. All you see in the pattern is the gauge statement.

Do you know if your gauge is the same if you knit in the round as when you knit flat? There’s a good chance that it’s not. As I’ve said before, gauge is a measure of how an individual knitter knits.

Think about how you knit when you knit in the round. One of the biggest differences is that you only knit on the right side of the fabric when you knit in the round. Using stockinette stitch as an example: When you knit flat, you knit one row (right side) and then turn your work and purl the next (wrong side). When you knit in the round, you join the stitches to make a circle and then knit every round.

Now, if you are one of the many knitters whose purls are looser than their knits, there is going to be a difference in tension between something you knit flat and something you knit in the round. Plus, you may modify your technique for knitting when knitting in round from when you knit flat. If you use straight needles when knitting flat, then switch to using circular needles or double point needles (dpns) to knit circular – your gauge may be significantly different. This is why I have come to the conclusion that it is good practice to swatch in the round when planning a project that will be knit in the round.

So how does one knit a swatch in the round? The first method is to cast on a enough stitches to give you a knitted tube that will be at least 4+ inches when laid flat. This could be the start of a sock or a hat. (Elizabeth Zimmerman said that “a hat makes a good swatch”.) Once you have a tube knitted of sufficient length for a good measurement, you treat this swatch the same way you would if your swatch that was knitted flat – i.e. measure, block, re-measure.

The second method goes by a couple of different names: “Speed Swatch” and “Circular Swatch with Floats” are two that I have found in my research. In this method, you use a circular needle and cast on the same number of stitches you would if you were knitting flat. But instead of knitting a row and then turning the swatch and knitting back to the end of the row, you slide your stitches to the needle on the opposite end and strand the working yarn loosely across the back and start knitting the next row. You keep repeating this process until you have a long enough swatch for good measurements. See pictures below:

Front of Swatch ITR — Knit with US 8 and Us 7 Needles

Once you have the swatch completed, you treat it the same way as any swatch – measure unblocked, block, re-measure. A note about measuring this swatch: Some sources suggest that it is easier to measure this swatch after cutting the loose strands so that the swatch will lay flat. Others simply say to measure the swatch by laying it as flat as you can. Logically, you are not going to want to cut the strands if you plan to reuse the yarn in the swatch. I’ve tried both ways and did not find a significant difference in measurements. Here are pictures of the swatch above after I blocked it and cut the floats to take the measurements:

So if you plan to knit a sweater in the round, please do your swatch in the round.

If you would like to see a video on this technique, here are three helpful ones:

Nancy Wynn, “How to do a Circular Gauge – Speed Method”: https://youtu.be/1W9XYgd3s7I

HowToCast: “How to Knit a Circular Gauge Swatch”: https://youtu.be/E1z2pbRmddY

11 Gauge Swatch Secrets PLUS How to Swatch in the Round | Off Our Needles S3E1: https://youtu.be/tv7uy0HetrI