The Knitting Fiend

Recently, someone on knitflame complained about limited sizes available for knitting patterns published in commercial magazines. A later “me too” type post raised the bar, insisting there is no excuse for this since it’s “always” possible to scale up a design for a knitted sweater.

Oh really? Is it always possible to scale up a design for a hand knit item?

Well, that’s not quite right. It’s always “sort of” possible to scale up a design. But, it’s isn’t always possible to do it right in the context of a magazine.

Let me explain a bit using one feature of a sweater I’m designing right now, which is an Aran. I’m going to discuss trying to figure out how to adapt the fit in the shoulders to multiple sizes.

Above left, you can see the shoulders on Jim’s sweater which corresponds to a Men’s XS. (Jim weighs 125 lbs. So, yes, very small.)

When I was designing this sweater, it was my intention to have a wide central pattern flanked by medium wide panels, and finally a relatively narrow pattern. I knew approximately how many stitches fit across the shoulders and selected panels that fit into this stitch count.

Selecting these panels is an important design decisions, and if I were scaling up the design and publishing a multi-size pattern in a magazine, I need to maintain this selection at least to a large extent.

Why? Because, while selecting other panels might result in a better or worse design, but it would be a different design. If a knitter is following instructions for this sweater they don’t expect that the final result will be a different sweater.

I’m going to reiterate a concept, because it’s an important when we are discussing whether or not a magazine can publish a multi-sized pattern over a full range of sizes:

When a magazine publishes a multi-sized pattern, directions for all sizes must result in “the same” sweater design.

Now, suppose I wanted to knit “the same” sweater for Jim and his brothers, who wear Men’s medium. I would need to add about 1″ to 1.5″ to the shoulders which is between 5 and 7 stitches.

Examine the detail to the right, I’ve labeled the honeycomb motif “H” and the rib ridge “R”. The current sweater extends 2 stitches passed the honeycomb at the shoulder. To add 3 stitches on each side, I could insert another rib, then add two more purl stitches. That would emphasize the shoulders a bit more.

To the left, I included an image of the pattern across the body. Notice that even though no rib ridge appeared at the edge of the shoulder for Jim’s size, one does appear below the underarm of the sweater. There are 2 purl stitches to the left of the ridge, and then I filled in the underarm area with moss stitch (which is labeled M.)

So, if I scaled up this way, I could use the same chart to describe both the large and small sweater design; I’d just draw vertical lines in different places to denote the large and small designs. As a designer, I’d be happy. I think that looks good and the design hasn’t “changed” as far as I’m concerned.

Will a knitter who buys the magazine think it’s different? The medium would have a rib ridge at the shoulder edge and the small wouldn’t. It’s possible that some knitters will consider these “different.” I suspect most knitters would consider it “the same” design, but I don’t actually know, do I?

Anyway, so far, I’ve addressed scaling up from XS to Medium — or in other words, not much.

Let’s supposed I want to publish directions for sizes XS to XL, and XL is to fit basketball player with shoulders 3 ” wider than Jim’s. Such people do exist. I even know a few. My neighbor Reggie played college football for Notre Dame; my other neighbor Ken played Basketball for De Paul. I’ve never measured their shoulders, but they are both much bigger than Jim.

What would I need to do? Well, those mondo-shoulders would need 15 more stitches than for Jim’s sweater. Since I can only add stitches in even batches, I’ll add 8 stitches on each side.

How to do this? First, I could add the 3 stitches for the medium, but I still need 5 more. If I were to just extend the line on the chart for the body, I’d end up with 5 stitches of moss stitch outside the honeycomb edge. The upside is that would be that I could still use the same graphic to describe the XL and XS sweaters. I would just draw a graphic for the body of the sweater, but I draw a line up to show the edge of the large.

But, there’s a problem. I think having 5 stitches of moss stitch on either side of the honey comb makes this a different sweater. It violates the basic design I was trying to publish when I first created Jim’s sweater pattern. If I think this isn’t the same design, why would knitters who buy a magazine think it’s “the same”?

Remember the concept: the scaled up design appearing in the magazine has to be the same design.

Of course, I know there’s a reader out there who would say: ” Oh, I’d be happy with the similar, but not quite identical sweater pattern. ” Of course, you might. But someone else wouldn’t. And people who spend money to buy a pattern, cast on, planning to knit the sweater illustrated in the magazine would sure as heck be complaining if it turned out the final sweater was different from the one they planned to knit!

At least if I don’t supply the pattern for the larger sweater, I don’t mislead you into thinking your size is contained in the instructions. So, you may complain, but you also didn’t buy the pattern!

So, now, what might I do to make a pattern for a larger sweater that’s still “the same”?

I could try to fit the motif across the shoulders by telling the knitter to knit at a larger gauge. If I did this, I could use the same chart, and create, more or less, similar multi-size directions to knit the sweater. The problem? I think there is a “correct” gauge a particular yarn type. Just knitting the yarn more loosely makes the sweater drape differently; the cables knit at a looser gauge might not “pop”. So, I don’t want to associate my name with that design because I would consider the end product deficient.

Of course, there are other ways I could make a bigger sweater. But, as I examine each one I can think of, it turns out I must either make what I consider to be a fundamental design change — which means it’s not the same sweater design– or I have to compromise quality.

So, yes, it’s always possible to make a bigger sweater that’s “sort of similar”, but it’s not always easy to scale up the same design. And, in the ned, that means that, no, it’s some times not possible to publish a multi-size pattern for “the same” design in an extremely wide range of sizes.

Sometimes, knitters just have to realize that they aren’t going to find every sweater they want to knit in every conceivable size. It’s always been this way; it’s likely to remain this way. So, either learn enough to modify patterns yourself so you can decide what changes you find acceptable, seek out designers who specialize in your size and buy from them, or continue to sulk and complain.

There aren’t any other choices!