The Production of a Knitting Pattern – Part 2

This is a continuation on The Production of a Knitting Pattern — Part 1.

After selecting a yarn and a pattern stitch, I begin to make a swatch. It is during this phase that the yarn begins to talk to me. Sometimes the yarn suggests me to use a different stitch pattern or change the garment shaping. It happened once that a yarn (Debbie Bliss Fez, no wonder that it is discontinued) pilled so badly that I had to drop the design. I only begin working on the pattern when I’m happy with how the yarn is working out for the design.

Above is the actual swatch I made for Costanza. Sometimes I make a long strip, sometimes I make a bigger square. In any case I always make sure that all the stitch transitions in the design are also in the swatch, you never know when it’s better to add a little bit of garter stitch or ribbing in the transition unless you actually do it.

I always reserve an extra skein for swatching, which also serves as a just-in-case skein. I have just finished knitting a lace cardigan and used up 95 g of yarn. I have gotten 2 skeins (100 g each) for that design. Even if I could have done with 1 skein, I’m so happy that I did get an extra skein so that I didn’t have to worry about running out of yarn.

Continue on next part The Production of a Knitting Pattern – Part 3