#knitting math

So Frankensteining it is! What I mean is, I'm going to find a pattern that has a construction and other elements I'm happy with, find a lace pattern I like, and mash them together to meet my yarn/gauge needs. The most important factor for this process is hubris.

Step 1: Yarn

This is what I'm working with

This is some handspun laceweight. I don't know the yardage and I'm not invested enough to figure it out. I've got about 75g of the grey and 120g of the red/browns (there's a second ball of grey not pictured). Should be enough for a tshirt based on the fact that I knit a whole lace weight sweater of the grey and it weighed less than 120g total (but it was all merino/silk and all I know is the red/brown is wool).

Step 2: Swatch and math

Yes, this part is important. You know that triangle where it's fast, cheap and good, and you can only pick two? The knitting version is swatch, frog and fit.

I figured out what lace pattern I wanted first and swatched that.

These are my notes. They're a mess and might not make sense to you, but there's three important things

Desired size - for me this is 110cm above - I also took a waist measurement because I debated a more fitted bottom band, then changed my mind.

Collarbone to underarm measurement - this gives you your sleeve depth. I find this measurement better than measuring the armscye itself because it also gives you an idea of where you want your neckline to be.

Gauge - this is why you swatch. I don't have a picture of my swatch because I ripped out out. It was only about 3 repeats wide and 1 repeat deep - not a great swatch, but I'm going for positive ease and just needed rough numbers. It gave me 20sts/10cm.

Step 3: Find a pattern that works (and do more math)

There are a couple ways to do this using Ravelry's amazing search features. The easiest would have been to find a pattern with my gauge and put the lace into it and otherwise followed along. That is not what I did.

Instead, I found a pattern I liked - Xyris - I found it by searching for a free tshirt adult pattern with complete disregard for gauge or suggested yarn weight. It's a beautiful design with stunning lace on the back (that I am not going to use).

Now, for the more math part

The suggested gauge is 24sts/10cm and mine is 20, so acutal/intended (20/24) = 0.83, or 83%

When I look at the sizes offered, I'm going to pick the size that I want, and then cast on 83% of those stitches. Any time it mentions a stitch count, I'm going to multiply it by 0.83 (and then round that to a number that makes sense, hopefully divisible by 10 to match my lace chart). For example, size 2 is just a little smaller than what I want, and says to cast on 252 sts, *.83 = 209, but that's 5cm smaller so add 11 sts for 220.

Lucky for me size 1 says to cast on 220sts and that matches my math above, so I'm just going to follow that one.

The pattern also says to put more stitches on the back than the front due to the lace. I'm going to reverse that - more stitches on the front to account for my shape, less stitches on the back. Fronts and backs don't need to have equal stitches!

I also want a short ribbed bottom band, and I'm doing it in two colours so I'm going to put stockinette columns on the side to hide the colour changes. And I want the back to be higher than the front so it fits better

So here are my alterations

All over lace pattern of my choice

start with half an inch of 2x3 rib

set up with 100 sts for back, 5 for side panel (kkpkk), 110 sts for the front and 5 for the other side panel.

Do an extra repeat of the lace pattern on the back

Otherwise, I follow the pattern for size 1, double checking with math if necessary. I can use my measurement for the distance between the armhole and collar when shaping the front.

Step 4: Start knitting

It doesn't look like much so far. I did the bottom band with just the brown/red, then added the grey. The lace panel has a knit row between pattern rows, so that row will always be grey to help me stay on track.

Also look at my needles

And then I did some knitting math and reminded myself how to subtract … the super large numbers of 22 and 14. 22 - 14 = 8 🤩

All to figure out how many inches of color transition and solid color sections for the rest of the sweater body.

Changing Up the Sweet Tee: Pink Worsted Malabrigo

I was explaining to some knitting friends that I made the Sweet Tee by Mary Jane Mucklestone, but that I had changed it by skipping the stranded work, re-sizing it, making it in worsted weight yarn, and adding a large seed-stitch cowl. Which raises a philosophical question: did I really make the Sweet Tee?

What I did was take her directions for a bottom-up yoked sweater and do a recalculation to shift from negative ease (i.e. skin tight) to positive ease as semi-fitted, and from DK weight yarn to worsted yarn. All of which worked out perfectly so far as the fit. I suspect that, as a long-timer dressmaker, I am so used to altering sewing patterns that I am not as intimidated as some newer knitters might be.

The only difficulty came in adding the collar which was based on the Capelet Tank by Cathy Carron which I have made before as a summer top. I had not reckoned with the much greater weight of the collar in a heavier yarn. I will explain how I coped with that later. There were comic moments.

The whole process was so satisfying, despite the stumbles, that I am now eyeing any knitting pattern anew. As the willingness to refit and alter patterns seems to have been far more encouraged in vintage knitting books, this is merely an old tradition revived.

You can find both Sweet Tee and the Capelet Tank on Ravelry which takes only a simple registration to access and is a font of knowledge via the postings by the more thoughtful makers: https://www.ravelry.com/