Designing a pattern
I'm currently trying to design a poncho for my grandmother (who broke her arm, and therefore would like loose things to wear). I was looking through Mary Thomas' Book of Knitting Patters (which is an excellent resource for pattern stitches), and I found two interesting pattern.
One is called "Brioche." It is a kind of rib, except that inside the "troughs" in the ribbing there are diagonal lines, and the fabric does not tighten up the way ribbing does. A second pattern is a four-rows-high bluebell shape. These two patterns together may make a good poncho, by using the bluebells for edging and a few stripes in the middle, and the brioche for the rest of the shawl. The only question is, how large around do I make it?! This poncho would need to be knit in the round starting from the bottom up, which means I need to cast on the longest edge. And that I need to figure out how long this edge needs to be. Unfortunately, I'm really not sure how to do this, especially for a person that is not around.
What I will likely end up doing is measuring around the edge of the poncho I made for myself before, and then adding about 10 inches (since my grandmother is wider than I am. Then.... gauge swatches! (Which I HATE doing, but for a self-designed pattern I guess I have to, since I don't know how wide the stitching will end up.
I always wonder about how people go around designing patterns. Do they just see a cool stitch, and try and see how they can incorporate it? Or is it usually yarn-inspired? I don't really like colorwork or fancy variegated yarns, so the times I've had vague ideas for patterns they have come from an idea for a texture, or from a texture I see on someone else's knitting. On the other hand, I'm not yet experienced enough to really know which ideas are good and which are not.
One is called "Brioche." It is a kind of rib, except that inside the "troughs" in the ribbing there are diagonal lines, and the fabric does not tighten up the way ribbing does. A second pattern is a four-rows-high bluebell shape. These two patterns together may make a good poncho, by using the bluebells for edging and a few stripes in the middle, and the brioche for the rest of the shawl. The only question is, how large around do I make it?! This poncho would need to be knit in the round starting from the bottom up, which means I need to cast on the longest edge. And that I need to figure out how long this edge needs to be. Unfortunately, I'm really not sure how to do this, especially for a person that is not around.
What I will likely end up doing is measuring around the edge of the poncho I made for myself before, and then adding about 10 inches (since my grandmother is wider than I am. Then.... gauge swatches! (Which I HATE doing, but for a self-designed pattern I guess I have to, since I don't know how wide the stitching will end up.
I always wonder about how people go around designing patterns. Do they just see a cool stitch, and try and see how they can incorporate it? Or is it usually yarn-inspired? I don't really like colorwork or fancy variegated yarns, so the times I've had vague ideas for patterns they have come from an idea for a texture, or from a texture I see on someone else's knitting. On the other hand, I'm not yet experienced enough to really know which ideas are good and which are not.
posted by Inna at
9:06 PM
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2 comments
