Monday, October 10, 2011

Pattern construction and knitting a vest for Seth…

So here is what I have been up to:

I like knitting in the same yarn . Knoll super soft from Holst garn is my favorite thin yarn.

One of the advantages of this is off course that you really get to know it very well. I use to knit this yarn on a needle size 2½ mm but have gone up to size 3 mm for normal stocking stitch.

I have made a lot of measurements on different pieces of knitting and it seems my knitting tension is very much the same. Stitches versus rows proportions are 1 row equals 1,4 stitches.

I have made a big sheet of graph paper with the exact proportions. The orange line is there to help me always keep the middle of the design aligned. I keep it all rolled up in a cardboard roll.

When I want to make a design, I first construct the pattern on see through pattern paper, and then place it on top of the graph paper with a couple of paperclips to keep it in place. I then simply draw all the decreases and increases and whatever I need to know to start the actual knitting.

For this design I just used my normal children T-shirt slope in size 110 cl. and made the armskye a little deeper.

When constructing a pattern I use a percentage system, much in the way Elisabeth Zimmermann does. I have just extended it to be used in both sewing and knitting. Normally when constructing pattern you work with increments, but I find this way more intuitive and simple. I don’t know if anyone does it like this, but it seems to function for me… The beauty of it is that everything stands in some kind of relationship to one another, and can be used on all different kind of designs. There is off course some details you have to pay extra attention to like the size off children’s heads, and so. But all in all I find it a good approach…