A Grand design …


When designing in knitting, like it a lot of things in life, it’s about planning. I sometimes have problems with this because I tend to be a little spontaneous – okay, a lot spontaneous. In the area of designing however, I am working on it and making strides. It all starts with an idea and from there a swatch of that idea. For the longest time I never did swatches – hated doing them. I was too anxious to start making the sweater. I learned my lesson when doing the sweater you see me wearing in my profile picture. I actually made this sweater 2 and a half times! I made one that was too small that my girlfriend at the time got. I started another after adjusting my needles accordingly (still no swatch though) and finished the back before I realized it was going to be waaaaay too big. So I did a swatch and got it right the next time. Now I have two really good reasons (besides getting the right size) that I tell people for doing swatches.

  1. I sew the swatch on the inside of the sweater (when possible) in an inconspicuous place. This way if the sweater ever gets ripped or a small hole develops for some reason, you have a swatch of yarn that is a perfect match for the one used on the sweater. I have darned enough sweaters to let you know that while you may never use this tip, its a good one to do. Especially when working with an uncommon or expensive yarn.
  2. I make scarves out of the swatches. Swatches are small and sometimes don’t give you the right feel of how the garment will look and drape when finished. I love scarves and find that doing a scarf with a particularly interesting pattern is a great way to get that feel. When its finished you’ll also have a matching scarf to go with that great sweater you’re going to make!

Needless to say though, when you’re designing a sweater (or any other garment) the swatch is essential. It contains all the necessary information you’re going to need to make the garment. Since you’re the designer, you have to do the leg work so that someone else can just pick up your pattern and make the garment. Size matters. If you pick up a ball of yarn, there is information on it regarding the recommended gauge of the yarn and what size needles used to obtain it. It’s usually done over a 4×4 inch (10×10 cm) grid. Sometimes that’s enough (stocking stitch) and sometimes it’s not (a Saxon Braid Cable pattern). This is why I like to make scarves as well. I can block a scarf to get a better feel for it and also more accurate measurements. I should have done this when making the Adam’s Rib sweater (see previous post from Jan 16). I learned a valuable lesson about designing ribbed sweaters on that one! Its never a bad thing to go bigger than asked or expected – at least in knitting. You may be surprised at the ideas you get from swatches as well. When designing a current sweater I got a great idea for a scarf by turning the swatch upside down. Once I actually do it (finishing the sweater right now) I’ll put up some pictures of it.

Here are some pictures of the swatches that I used. You’ll notice that one of the swatches has quite a few different textures on it. That’s because the finished sweater is actually going to be a Guernsey style and will have all the textures in it. It’s important to calculate the correct gauge with all the different textures in the sweater so that you can calculate the correct number of stitches needed. With this particular sweater there is also a swatch for the plain patterning of the bottom of the Guernsey. This also provides filler for the stitches needed on either edge of the aran pattern at the top. I’ve finished the back, front, and neck of the sweater and am now working on the sleeves (a little trickier) so I’ll post some pictures of the completed sweater by the end of the week (I guess I’ll have to finish it now). Keep your needles poised and your eyes posted for part two coming soon …

Hugzzz 😎

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