You’ve been knitting for a while, you feel confident using different techniques, and you’ve thought about designing your own garment but you don’t know where to start. Does this sound familiar? Designing knitwear and writing knitting patterns isn’t as intimidating as it seems! In this post I’ll explain how to start writing knitting patterns and I’ll mention some do’s and don’ts. I’ll focus particularly on designing sweaters.
Where to start?
First off, you’ll need to have inspiration for your new design. Inspiration can be found in many places. Many people love browsing Pinterest, others check the current fashion trends, and others draw inspiration from fellow knitters. The line between ‘being inspired by’ and ‘copying’ is often a thin one, because a lot of ideas and concepts have been worked out before. However, always make sure that you don’t copy an exact garment. Find your own style, do your own math and NEVER copy a pattern and sell it as your own.
Swatching
Once you have an idea of what kind of pattern you’d like to write, it’s time to start thinking about texture and color options. Do you want to use simple stockinette or garter stitch? Or maybe you’d like to go for a more textured knit or colorwork? Whatever you choose, swatching is an essential part of the designing process. Try out different yarns and different needle sizes until you find something that works for you. Measure the gauge from your swatch – you absolutely cannot skip this step! All of the math you need to do to write the rest of the pattern is based on the gauge of this swatch.
Getting started!
Before you can start knitting, you need to have an idea of the desired fit of your sweater. Do you want your sweater to be oversized, to have a normal fit or a super tight one? This is something that is determined by the ease of the garment. If the garment has positive ease, it’s bigger than your actual measurements. If it has negative ease, it’s smaller than your actual measurements.
Take the measurement of your bust circumference and add the desired ease. Let’s say the sum of these two is 100 cm (40″). By measuring the gauge, you know how many stitches are in 10 cm (4″). Let’s say your gauge is 20 sts x 24 rows = 10 x 10 cm (4″ x 4″). If you want to know how many stitches you need to cast on, you have to multiply the amount of stitches by the amount of times 10 cm (4″) fits in the finished bust circumference – in this case; 20 x 10 = 200 sts. This means casting on 200 sts will give you a sweater with a 100 cm (40″) bust circumference. When knitting flat, you’ll need to divide the amount of stitches by 2 – because you will be knitting a separate front and back.
This was just an example of using the gauge of your swatch for calculating the final garment. The same method can be used for calculating the length of the body, the length and width of the sleeves, etc.
Writing the actual pattern
First of all, it’s important to write EVERYTHING down while knitting your sample. Don’t leave something out because you’re sure you will remember – you won’t. Write down your gauge, write down your needle size, write down every measurement, every decrease or increase, and every special stitch. Doing this while knitting your sample saves you a lot of work later on.
By writing everything down while knitting your sample, you’ve basically created the first draft of your pattern. After this, it’s time to add some important information in your pattern.
Include:
- Clear and extensive information on sizing. Specify the available sizes, include measurement charts and give lots of measurements (preferably in both centimeters and inches). Some of the most important measurements include: chest circumference, armhole depth, armpit to hip length, end of sleeve width and the overall length. I’ll explain more about grading sizes later.
- A list of materials needed for making this design. Be clear and specific. For the needles, mention the needle size and the kind of needle (ciruclar, DPNs, etc.). For the yarn, mention the yarn weight and the required yardage for this pattern. It’s also useful to include other necessary tools, such as scissors, a darning needle, stitch markers and so on.
- The gauge! This is not just an important part of the designing process, other knitters will also need to know this if they want to achieve the correct fit.
- A list of used stitches and abbreviations. Not everybody uses the same abbreviations, and some patterns use unfamiliar stitches (which obviously also have unfamiliar abbreviations).
- Clear photos – a lot of them! People need to have a clear idea of what your design looks like, preferably when worn. Include pictures from different angles.
When writing the pattern, always be specific. I like to include ‘double’ instructions in my patterns, so there will always be something that works for everyone. I usually include the length of garments both in rows and centimeters, for lacework I include both a chart and written instructions, etc. This not only makes your pattern easy to follow, it’s also more accessible for less experienced knitters.
Grading sizes
When publishing a knitting pattern, especially a paid one, you don’t just want to release your own size. Grading isn’t as scary as most people think it is! It’s basically done the same way as you already calculated the amount of stitches and rows for your own sample. The difference is that you used your own measurements for the sample, and you’ll need to use other measurements for the other sizes. I personally love using the size charts from Craft Yarn Council. Linked is the women size chart, but they also have size charts for babies, children, and men. They cover quite a few sizes – enough to enable you to make your pattern size inclusive!
Testing
Once you’ve finished the first complete version of your pattern, it’s time to look for testers. Other knitters will use your pattern to knit a sweater in their size. I think testing a very useful step in the designing process. Testers will point out possible mistakes in the pattern. These can be minor mistakes, like typos, but also bigger ones – let’s hope it never happens, but your calculations might be off. Besides that, testers can also show off the fit of their size. Most knitters are willing to share photos of their test knit – these photos are great for promoting your new pattern and you can show off your design on different body types. Testers can be found on Instagram, Ravelry or tester websites such as Fiberly or Yarnpond.
Publishing
When the testing process in complete and you’re sure there aren’t any mistakes in your pattern and all of the sizes fit perfectly, it’s time to release your pattern! This can be done on multiple platforms. If you want to start selling your patterns, Etsy and Ravelry are the easiest (and most frequently used) platforms. Setting up a shop is very easy! If you’d like to start selling your patterns on Etsy and you don’t have an Etsy shop yet, you can use this link to set up your shop – it’ll give you 40 free listings!
I hope this little guide will be useful to you. Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions about writing knitting patterns!
