Laying It All Out - Part I

We're ready now to lay out our "pattern pieces" and make sure that we have all the measurements that we need.  The pattern comes with great schematics, so I traced those and photocopied them at about 150% so that I would have room to add my own notes.

The first piece that I tackled was the 1/2 back/front.  I plan to make the largest size, but without any modifications to the measurements in the pattern for the largest size, so everything I refer to below will be in terms of size L.  If you have modifications (longer/wider for example), this will be where you record your desired measurements on the modified schematics.  Even though I'm not changing any of the measurements for my hoodie, remember I am doing this on a mid-gauge machine with a hand knitting DK weight yarn, so I will have some substantial stitch and row count changes to make to achieve these measurements.

So here is my tracing of the back/front schematic.  The numbers in dark green represent measurements that we are given.  There are, however, three more measurements that I would like to have, given in red, and marked as BF1, BF2, and BF3.

BF1, the measurement from the bottom of garment to the underarm, is an easy one.  It is E + F - G, or 14".

BF2, the measurement of the cast on edge, is also not difficult.  The pattern calls for us to cast on 162 sts.  Since the gauge for the pattern is 27 sts/4", then the math would be (4"/27 sts) x (162 sts) = 24".  Since the schematic is 1/2 back/front, then BF2 is 24/2 or 12".

For BF3, I have read further into the pattern to find out that at the start of the front neck shaping, 10 sts are put on hold.  Again, going back to the stated gauge in the pattern, then, (4"/27 sts) x (10 sts) = 1.5".

So that gives me everything I need for the 1/2 back/front schematic - except the pocket.  So again I turn back to the instructions and the stated gauge and "reverse engineer" for the measurements.

These are measurements I would like to have for the pocket, marked in red as P1, P2, etc., as indicated in the photo to the right.

P1 I can calculate from the number of stitches to cast on according to the pattern, and the gauge according to the pattern.  The math is (4"/27 sts) x (46 sts) = 6.8".

P2 is the total number of rows times the row gauge of the pattern, or (4"/36r) x (80 r) = 8.9".

P3 is, when I read through the pattern, 24 sts, so (4"/27 sts) x (24 sts) = 3.6".  So that makes P4 = P1 - P3, or 3.2".

Let's jump to P6, which is (4"/36r) x (30r) = 3.3".

So if P2 is 8.9", and P6 is 3.3", then P5 is ( P2 - P6 ) = 5.6".  And that takes care of the pocket measurements.

The sleeve schematic is a gift - there's nothing here that we need that isn't given.  Just remember that the horizontal measurements are half of the entire sleeve.

So the only pieces left that we need to have all the measurements for are the hood and the bands.  Up to this point I was feeling rather pleased with myself.  And then I ran into difficulty with the hood, so I'm going to talk about that in my next post.

In the meantime, work your way through what I've done, and please let me know if I've made any errors or if anything it not clear.

And, actually, if you want a little homework (because who wouldn't 7 days before Christmas?), here's my drawing for the hood, below.   See what you can come up with for the missing measurements!  Good luck!  Watch for my next post in the next day or so.

Nancy