Designing on Your Own - How to Start
Here are three basic approaches to starting to design your own, plus some
useful information.
System 1: Elizabeth's Percentage System - EPS
System 2: The Top Down Approach
System 3: Use Diagrams
Before going into those you have to know about your gauge.
Formula for working out what your gauge is:
number of stitches in swatch, divided by inches of width = stitches per
inch
Formula for how many stitches you need for a given width:
stitches per inch times number of inches across = number of stitches across
Gauge is the building block of knitting. Gauge is the number of
stitches and rows you get per inch with your yarn and your needles and your
personal knitting style.
The way to find out is to knit a swatch. Boring, but ultimately a
time-saver. When knitting someone else's pattern you are trying to
match their gauge, because that is the gauge they used in calculating the
pattern. So if you don't match their gauge, you won't get the same
results. So how do you get your gauge when you don't have a target
gauge?
When designing your own garments from your own yarn, you concentrate on
the feel of the fabric. I choose the first needle with a basic rule
that works for me: Double the yarn over and twist it together gently, as if
you were plying it again. Then pick a needle that is just about that same
thickness. Now I am a loose knitter, and this may not work exactly the same
for you. In any case it is only a starting point. The swatch tells the real
tale.
Now cast on 20 stitches and knit for twenty rows in whatever stitch you
intend to use for the garment. Consider the feel of the yarn - too
loose, too stiff? If you know within a few rows that this is not the best
gauge for this yarn, make a purl ridge in the swatch and change needle
sizes. You don't have to go all the way to twenty rows if you're
sure this one won't work. So, if the swatch is too loose, you need a
smaller needle, and if it's too tight, you need a larger one. Play
with this for a while, making a purl ridge every time you change needles,
and contemplate what this swatch would look and feel like in a whole
garment. Maybe try out a different stitch - would seed stitch work well, or
would moss stitch look and feel better? It's not a waste of time if it
avoids disasters. Look at the play of color and stitch as well.
When you are satisfied with the look and feel of the knitted cloth in your
hands, finish the whole twenty rows. Now pin the piece out flat and smooth
and measure it across the middle horizontally. No cheating now, accuracy is
important here.
Let's say your twenty stitches measures 5 inches. 20 stitches divided
by 5 inches equals 4 stitches per inch.
Do the same vertically. That is your row gauge. The ratio between
stitch gauge and row gauge will vary according to what stitch you are using
- so for example in garter stitch with a stitch gauge of 4 sts/in you would
probably get 8 rows to the inch, but in stockinette, it would be closer to 6
rows to the inch. Row gauge is not so critical to calculating the pattern,
since you will want to measure the actual length anyway, but is useful for
calculating the frequency of decreases or increases.
The reason we want to make the swatch twenty stitches and twenty rows, and
measure in the middle, is to even out the effects of a slight unevenness (or
in some cases a large unevenness) of the yarn and to avoid being fooled by a
tight or loose cast on row or bind off row. Also, a large swatch lets you
see and feel the real texture of the fabric, and see how the stitch affects
the color.
So here are those three systems of designing. A discussion of each is provided
below.
System 1: Elizabeth's Percentage System - EPS
This is a simple design technique which fits most people pretty well and is
a good place to start, especially if you are knitting for someone you
don't have available to take measurements on. I am not going to explain
it in detail because you won't remember from hearing it once anyway.
EPS is based on the observation that the usual human body is a series of
tubes, and the size of these tubes is related to each other by certain
ratios. Elizabeth Zimmermann was trained as an artist, and sometimes it
shows. She bases all her percentages on chest size, so that the only
measurements you need are chest size, neck to back length and underarm
length. The chest measurement plus the chosen amount of ease is taken as
the basic measurement and treated as a constant, called K. All other numbers
are calculated as percentages of K. So how does this work? Let's
assume you have a garment chest measurement of 40 inches and you have a
gauge of 4 stitches to the inch.
Formula: Inches x sts/in = number of stitches
So 40 x 4 sts/in = 160 sts = 100% of K.
Your cast on is 80% of K, in a needle 2 sizes smaller than your body size
needle.
So your cast on is 160 x .8 = 128 sts, working in ribbing for however many
inches you want, then increasing the extra 20% either all at once when you
change needle sizes to the body size, or gradually - your choice. The
sleeve cast-on is 20%, and you work the same way increasing gradually to I
forget what percent for the upper arms, but you'll find it in her book.
With this system you can write an entire knitting pattern in one page.
Jacqueline Fee uses this system and includes a sample one-page pattern.
The EPS system was designed for seamless knitting but works equally well for
seamed, flat knitting. Now why knit without seams? I started because I
don't like to sew up a garment. It's anticlimactic. Since
you're making the fabric as you go, you may as well make it the size
and shape you want it to be to begin with. As I got further into seamless
knitting, I became fascinated with the geometry of it all and the many
possible ways to make a garment.
Good basic classic designs using percentages can be found in the following
books
Knitting Without Tears - Elizabeth Zimmermann, available from
Schoolhouse Press
Knitting in the Old Way - Priscilla Gibson Roberts, apparently
oop, but is in many people's collections.
The Sweater Workshop - Jacqueline Fee - soon to be reprinted,
according to Amazon
A handspinner's problem, usually, is that you are working with a
limited amount of yarn, because you had a limited amount of that fiber or
color to begin with, and if you guess wrong about how much yarn a certain
garment will take, you will have to get creative. Sometimes you can get some
more of the same fiber, spin it the same way and dye it to the same shade,
but sometimes you can't. Most often, what you will do is spin something
else to add to it, making different colored front bands, or working out
other ad hoc solutions. The top down approach allows you to use your
"best" yarn first, placing it at the top, so that the main
attraction, as you might say, is around the face and upper body, where we
usually want to place it.
Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top available from
Schoolhouse Press.
Barbara Walker explains in detail how to start at the back of the neck,
minus the neckbands and shape around the shoulders and down, working down
the sleeves and down the back, for a large variety of shoulder and arm
shapes. This is a seamless technique, necessarily. She includes
instructions for calculating sleeveless sweaters, set-in sleeves, dropped
shoulder sleeves, saddle shoulders, and capes, skirts, pants, and a variety
of caps.
The third approach is to use diagrams - either modifying a published
design you like, or making your own diagram and working from there. For some
people this will be the simplest and best since you are drawing out what you
want. It's a lot more concrete and visual.
Option 1, Pick a fairly simple pattern you like that has a good
clear schematic and simply shaped pattern pieces. Probably your yarn will
not work to the same gauge as the pattern. Now, using your gauge, and
their schematic, calculate how many stitches it would take at your gauge to
make a piece the size given on the schematic. For the first try, do
something in stockinette or garter to keep things easier, since pattern
repeats complicate matters.
A couple of good books to use for that purpose are
25 Gorgeous Sweaters for the Brand-New Knitter - Cathy Ham,
available from Amazon
Sweaters by Hand - designs for spinners and knitters - Helene
Rush, apparently out of print
Option 2. Draw what you want - something simple - a shawl, a straight
sided sleeveless vest, a purse or tote bag, a pillow top. Make a diagram,
complete with sizes. How many inches across, how many inches long, etc. Then
make a gauge swatch. Using your gauge, calculate the number of stitches to
cast on, and how many inches you want to knit, and go for it. With a simple
shape, you could play with more elaborate patterns.