Adapting paper patterns for knitwear design

Finding, or drafting, a pattern to produce a garment that faithfully embodies your
style and fit decisions can be a huge stumbling block to a contemporary machine knitter.

A dressmaker’s pattern can be a big help. For instance, I have drafted a Knit Radar pattern for a large cardigan using Butterick B5049 by Connie Crawford as a reference

I used this pattern for the armhole and shoulder line. That was all. Almost everything else I changed. Connie Crawford knows that more padding around the middle does not make your shoulders any wider. In this multi size pattern, the width of the shoulder seam is the same for all sizes. The armhole increases in depth and slope with increasing size. If you would like a more complete description of the process of making the big cardigan, and you are a Ravelry user, it is aRavelry project

If you are looking for interesting design lines, you can find guided inspiration in the pattern books. Vogue 1476, a Miyake design that has never been out of the collection since it was published in the early 80s, includes a shirt with an interestingly shaped back that I noticed repeated in a design by popular knitwear designer Sally Melville. There are other great knittable Miyakes, but they out of print. You can get some idea of the shapes from this website showing the envelopes of most of theVogue Miyake designs

Some of the Vogue patterns of Marcy Tilton have shapes that would translate well into knitted garments. They would show off fancy stitch patterns and textures too.

You can also find patterns easily adapted to knitting on the internet, take a look at this take on the wrap with sleeves idea.

Happy to use a paper pattern, except you already have a perfect jumper and no pattern for it?
Here's a technique you can use to make a pattern without cutting up your garment. In the clip, David Coffin copies a shirt, but we can adapt.

There are three ways to approach using a paper pattern to guide your knitting
i. You can knit pieces in the traditional way – make sure you adjust seam allowances and hems.
ii. You can go over to what some would see as the dark side and go the full cut and sew from lengths you have knitted.
iii. Or you can take a middle way, knitting parts of your garment approximately to size, and cutting and sewing things like necklines. This works for me. Probably best not to try it on your Show entry.

Have a browse through your pattern collection – it may open a whole new knitting vista.

This post was originally published in June 2009, in the Moonee Ponds blog, which fell out of use about the same time.

Friendly Cardigan construction revisited

Today I was asked to clarify some details about the Friendly Cardigan free pattern I uploaded to Ravelry some time ago. Looking back at it, I'm embarrassed to note that I would be hard pressed to make sense of it myself, if it were not that it exists as a process in my head.
I was delighted to find that I still have the relevant pieces used in the construction of one of the prototypes. Taking inspiration from the old Empisal manuals, I demonstrated this process with a doll for the model,

This prototype was made using interlock fabric, just the collar piece being knitted in a simple 1x1 tuck stitch. The neck band is attached to the back neck, and the top sections of the front pieces.

These are the pattern pieces, the equivalent of schematics for an all knitted version

The pattern pieces were based on a cling wrap body wrap, discussed earlier on this blog, an excellent method for accommodating all shapes and sizes,

I'm not sure this illustration adds much, but it really is a magically useful process.

edited to get back to the detail of how to work out the slant on the fronts of the cardigan. 

The black lines represent a standard, one piece front. The sketch shows shaping at the sides. Yours may or may not have shaping.

The red lines illustrate the adaption for one side of the cardigan. (The other is a mirror image) The upper edge is defined by extending the neck edge across to the lower edge of the opposite armhole. The free side need not be shaped, even if the seamed side is shaped.

On the cardigan used to illustrate the pattern download, the neck piece is knitted in Passap Long stitch, and doubled over to cover the cut edges of the main pieces.  It is a design feature of this version to have the neck piece longer than the edge to be covered, giving a pleasant asymmetrical vertical to the garment when worn.

My most recent outing of this design was this T Shirt, altered to add in a knitted half front in stocking stitch, and a neck piece in 1x1 tuck stitch. This time the neck piece is sized to match the length of the neck and top edges of the cardigan.

I started this posting on a Mac, and am finishing on an iPad. The format has slipped from my control somewhat. I may be able to sort that out some time, but I will publish as is, in the interests of immediate optimistic explanation..