Personalize Your Knitting: Graph it Out!

re: Personalize Your Knitting: Graph it Out!

kwilliams@gananda.org — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:57:00 GMT

I know this post is a few weeks old, but I am confused. I goggled "knit stitches taller than wide" and I got 50/50 results that say they are taller than wide and 50/50 that said no, they are wider than tall.

I charted out a snowman for a pair of socks. I used wider than tall graph paper. When i knit my snowman, I ended up with tall skinny snowmen, not the short plump ones I had charted out. Looking at my sock fabric, without measuring gauge, I would say my stitches are definetly taller than they are wide.

Can someone clarify if they are taller than wide in stockinette? or do I just knit weird?

re: Personalize Your Knitting: Graph it Out!

Knitvision — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:00:59 GMT

Despite all the math critics, I love it that you're making graphing sound & look like so much fun. I'm going to give it a shot!

re: Personalize Your Knitting: Graph it Out!

malkala — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:44:24 GMT

I also did this graphing technique when I made an S sweater for Sylvie. I think my husband made me a graph on excel. Then I got a knitting notebook which i LOVE and most recently, I copied a favorite cable pattern from a sweater a friend was working on, and am now using that cable pattern (which I had to copy a few times before I got it right) for a long-awaited brown vest for my husband ;)

re: Personalize Your Knitting: Graph it Out!

KnitNoir — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:19:13 GMT

What a cutie!

re: Personalize Your Knitting: Graph it Out!

McKennaO — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:33:01 GMT

Dear Kathleen - I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive all the hub-bub about the original post. Please bear in mind that we only say these things because we, your readers, have never transposed words or numbers and never, ever gotten our math wrong (please envisage my tongue firmly inserted in my cheek, dear).

Anyway, I wanted to thank you for the color combination on Henry's sweater. I've recently started combining neutrals and either pastels or brights to very good effect, and particularly like the colors you chose.

Also, your post on Faux Fair Isle has been a great source of inspiration. I've whipped up a couple of hats and am thinking about some gauntlets. I've been leafing through Sheila McGregor's Traditional Scandinavian Knitting, a veritable cornucopia of graphed designs, and incorporating variegated yarns, including those with long runs, make these old standbys really pop. Very cool.

re: Personalize Your Knitting: Graph it Out!

JenniferC@7 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:44:16 GMT

At a gauge of 22 sts for 4", you would have 5.5 sts/in. If you want to have the sweater front of 15", you'd need 82 or 83 total stitches, not 76. I think you need to re-do this post and make the whole graph a little more clear, ie write out how many stitches the H is, with # of sts for CC and MC. It's just not that clear.

re: Personalize Your Knitting: Graph it Out!

WeavingKnitter — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:57:11 GMT

I'm having trouble figuring out your math.

the theory seems good, but......

If the sweater front is 15" across, and the stitch gauge is 22 stitches to 4", wouldn't the number of stitches needed be 22/4 (to give you the number of stitches per inch) X 15= 82.5 (say 82).

And you would want to start the H (which is 22 stitches wide) 11 stitches from the centre of the sweater, or at stitch 30. (The centre of the sweater would be at stituch 41.)

re: Personalize Your Knitting: Graph it Out!

Sharon V — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:28:00 GMT

Thank you for the information about knitters graph paper, I had no idea it was different than regular graph paper (wider or taller).

Franklin's new book will also come in handy if for no other reason than to have my pattern and yarn choice in it to remind me why I bought 8 skeins of whatever back in 1993.

re: Personalize Your Knitting: Graph it Out!

KathyS@30 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:36:02 GMT

I use a crosstitch computer program and print out my patterns. It works great.

re: Personalize Your Knitting: Graph it Out!

Knitasha — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:17:21 GMT

Good stuff, Kathleen. Thank you. And (in light of recent criticism on Ravelry) the whole post strikes a good balance between information and commerce. Franklin's book looks like a great idea though, in truth, I would rather have seen it with a spiral or loose-leaf binding. (Some of my ideas and sketches are just too awful to preserve.)