Changing a pattern yourself: one thing at a time

A pattern is not set in stone. The numbers are worked out for a particular drape and a particular fit, but not for you in particular. If you want the body longer, the sleeves shorter or the neck higher, you can change it yourself. What takes some thought is the rest of the garment. One change nearly always moves something else.

Here I go through the order I would follow, and what has to change along with it when you change one thing.

Measure yourself and a garment you like

1. Measure around your chest at the widest point.
2. Measure from your shoulder down to where you want the garment to end.
3. Find a garment you like wearing. Lay it flat on a table.
4. Measure the width straight under the arms. Multiply by two, and you have the chest circumference.
5. Measure the length from the shoulder and the sleeve length from the armhole.
6. Compare with "Finished measurements" in the pattern. The difference in cm is what you need to change.

The garment you like is the most important measurement. It shows how much room you want around your body. This is called ease, and it differs from person to person.

If the designs are patterned, I might knit them in a single colour, or try them out in other colours or even more bohemian.

Work from your own gauge

Gauge is how many stitches and rounds your yarn gives over 10 cm. You find it by knitting a swatch. Every calculation is based on your gauge, not the pattern's.

Many of my patterns have 12 stitches × 17 rounds = 10 cm on 7 mm needles. If you get 13 stitches instead of 12, the garment comes out narrower. 120 stitches then give 92 cm around, not 100. That is almost a whole size. So get your gauge right before you change anything else.

Change one thing at a time

Choose the change that matters most to you. Work it out. See what it moves. Then do the next one. If you change length, width and sleeves at the same time, you won't know which change gave which result.

Body length

Length is the easiest change. Add or subtract where the body is knitted straight, without increases or decreases. Don't change anything in the yoke. The yoke is the part from the armholes up, and there the numbers are tied to the sleeves and the neck.

Work it out like this: a body 6 cm longer at 17 rounds per 10 cm is 6 × 1.7 = 10.2. Round that to 10 rounds.

• If the body is striped, add or remove whole stripes.
• If the body has a pattern in height, change by whole repeats. A repeat is the part of the pattern that is repeated.
• A longer body uses more yarn. I'll come back to that.

Width

The easiest thing is nearly always to choose a different size. See the size guide. The reason is that the width is linked to everything above it.

My standard cast-on is XS 100 · S 110 · M 120 · L 130 · XL 140 stitches. All the numbers divide by 10. If the garment has a 10-stitch pattern repeat, it works out in every size. If you add 4 stitches, it no longer works out. Then you have to change by a whole repeat. 10 stitches is just over 8 cm, and that is the whole step to the next size.

If you make the body wider, the yoke has more stitches to decrease. The raglan then has to decrease more times to end on the same stitch count at the neck. Raglan is the decreases that run diagonally from the armhole up towards the neck. More decreases give a deeper yoke. That is why you follow your size in the yoke and only change the body below the armholes.

Sleeves

Most sleeves have increases or decreases on the way down or up. If you change the length, they have to be spaced out again. Otherwise the sleeve ends up too wide or too tight at the wrist.

The sweaters in Let Somebody Go have two sleeve lengths in the same pattern. The short sleeve is XS 28 · S 30 · M 32 · L 34 · XL 36 rounds, increasing every 2nd round. The three-quarter sleeve is XS 38 · S 41 · M 44 · L 47 · XL 50 rounds, increasing every 3rd round.

If the sleeve is a puff sleeve, most of the width sits at the bottom. Then change the length and leave the decrease at the ribbing as in the pattern.

Neck

A higher neck is easy. Knit more rounds before you bind off. Bind off loosely so the neck goes over your head.

A lower or wider neck opening is harder. The stitch count at the neck is what the yoke ends on. If you change it, you change the decreases in the whole yoke. It is a bigger job than it looks.

Raglan and row gauge

The yoke also depends on how many rounds you get over 10 cm. Everyday Life – The Icon comes in two yarns, with the same widths and lengths. Vams gives fewer rows per cm than DROPS Snow. Each row is taller, and each decrease takes up more height. That is why the Vams version has a deeper raglan: S 26.2 to XXL 31.2 cm, against S 21.8 to XXL 26.3 cm in the DROPS version.

If your row gauge differs from the pattern's, the yoke can come out deeper or shallower than the measurement. Measure as you go.

Yarn amount

A longer or wider garment uses more yarn. Work it out on how much yarn do I need? Buy one ball too many rather than one too few. The same colour from a different dye lot can look different.

Write down your changes

1. Write down your gauge.
2. Write down each measurement you changed, in cm.
3. Write down how many rounds or stitches the change came to.
4. Write down how many balls you used.

Feel free to use the project log. Then you can knit the garment the same way next time.

Customers often want the design with a different neck or even more fitted, for example with a more defined waist.

All the calculations are on the Knittipedia page Changing length and width, with calculators for body, sleeve and width.

Read also: Grading: how one garment becomes five sizes.

Sources: Wikipedia, Elizabeth Zimmermann, Knit Picks, Elizabeth's Percentage System and KnitPro, They Knit The Way: Some Notable Knitting Godmothers.

Anne-Turid

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