Picking Up Stitches Evenly Across

Given the number of emails I’ve received recently on this subject, I thought perhaps I should re-post this important post from 2010.

Ever have one of those patterns where it says to pick up stitches evenly across? When a pattern indicates that you will pick up stitches evenly, it means that they must be evenly distributed across the space. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to pick up a stitch at the edge of each row.

Most stitches are wider than they are tall. If you tried to pick up stitches in every single edge of the row, your fabric wouldn’t lie flat. It would be ruffly.

Have you started picking up stitches only to discover that you’re short stitches or you have too many? Take the mystery out of it!

If you have a pattern that says to distribute a certain number of stitches evenly across then divide it into small sections to make it easier.

Let’s demonstrate.

Your pattern says to pick up 200 stitches (or to crochet evenly across for a total of 200 stitches).

Divide the piece into sections. Fold it in half and you have the center. Mark the center with a stitch marker or a scrap of yarn. You now have two sections. Fold each section in half and place markers at the center of each. You now have four sections. Fold these sections in half and place markers. You would now have 8 sections.

Now, divide the original number by the 8 sections. 200 divided by 8. That’s 25 stitches.

Begin placement of your stitches, making 25 stitches in each section. Trying to put 25 stitches in each section is far easier than trying to put 200 all the way across.

If your number doesn’t divide as equally, you’ll have to put one more or one less stitch into some of the sections. But, this is easy.

If you needed 204 stitches evenly across, for instance, you would put 25 stitches in 4 sections and 26 stitches in the other 4 sections, perhaps splitting them up for 26, 25, 26, 25, 26, 25, 26, 25.

If your pattern says to simply pick up stitches evenly and gives you no number, it is helpful to do a gauge swatch to determine how many stitches per inch you are supposed to have. Then, measure across the space where you want to place the stitches. Determine how many stitches *should* be in that space, then use the above steps to finish.

Enjoy!

New Design: Precious Baby Blanket

Yesterday, I noticed one of my new designs on the Red Heart website. (Who? Me? A Red Heart website stalker?)

The Precious Baby Blanket is knit with Red Heart Soft Baby Steps. My discovery of a wonderfully tidy double decrease in knitting is what led to this design. My double decreases were never very tidy looking. When I discovered this particular decrease, I was amazed and immediately wanted to use it in a design. It’s a gorgeous right- and left-leaning decrease.

I noticed that the chart wasn’t published with the pattern. Below is the chart I prepared with Excel. Click to enlarge.

Enjoy!

Garment Sizing: One Size Does Not Fit All

So, garment sizing. In technical terms, in my world, this is called “grading” a garment. It’s the most difficult part of my job. As I’ve said before, the designing part of my job is great fun and very satisfying. But, there is more to it than designing. Designing is like a painter using a brush and canvas to create a work of art. It usually comes from your soul.

Writing patterns isn’t something that comes from your soul. It’s precise technical writing. It’s a learned skill, much like legal or medical transcription. It would be like that same painter turning around and making a paint-by-number of that same painting.

Now, for garments, there is an entirely different beast that must be addressed in addition to the pattern writing. You have to take a written pattern that you have completed and produce different sizes for the same pattern. This part of the job is also a learned skill but it’s a skill that grows with time and lots and lots of research.

These days, no matter the style of the design, a pattern writer is expected to write the pattern for sizes up to 2X or 3X. Take this style, for example. This is my design of the Strasbourg Vest.

Pursuant to current requirements, I sized this design to fit sizes small through 3X. Does this mean that I feel that this style will be desired by a size 3X? No. This is an example of “just because you CAN knit it doesn’t mean it’s going to automatically fit your own style.”

There seems to be a lot of this going around. Just because a garment is sized to your size and you have the ability to knit or crochet, it doesn’t mean that every design out there is going to work with your own personal or body style. It doesn’t work that way anymore than it works to go to the mall and find that everything marked as your size fits you and looks perfect on you.

The beauty of making your own clothing, of course, is that you are crocheting or knitting your own garment. You can make spontaneous changes to the design.

If we look at the above style, the total length of the vest is sitting right at the top of the hip. When this garment is graded, it will continue to fall in the same location of high hip, even in the 3X. I can’t make a decision to spontaneously change the length to mid- or low hip simply because I think that it would be preferred in a size 3X. I can’t spontaneously add waist shaping to sizes 1X-3X because I feel that it would be desired. Nope, I’ve got to stick with the original design of no waist shaping and high hip throughout.

Just like in a sewing pattern, I can’t change the style of the garment as the size increases. It must remain the same, whether it’s my own personal choice or not.

The pattern certainly isn’t incorrect because the size 2X isn’t desired as a high hip garment by most. It would be incorrect if I suddenly made a decision to change the style to a low hip A-line only  in specific sizes because I felt that it would be more suitable for those sizes. I can’t make the decision to change design elements in a design from size-to-size.

BUT, just because *I* can’t spontaneously make changes to a design because of my own view of style choices during the pattern grading, it doesn’t mean that YOU can’t spontaneously make changes to a design.

It would be easy to alter the above style. It’s worked top-down and in stockinette almost exclusively. Since it’s worked top-down, you can make it as long as you like. Since it’s almost predominantly stockinette, it’s easy to add some waist shaping, even to turn this into more of an A-line style at the hip.

If you’re unable to find that perfect style of garment in knit or crochet, be sure to take a look at other styles which are close enough that you can alter them for that perfect fit you’ve always wanted.