Clueless

I'm having a radical thought here - about knitting, of course. Okay, it's
probably not radical to most of you but it is a little scary to me and I've
no idea if I am completely on the wrong track or if this is something that
everyone else has known for ever but just has never occured to me before!

I'm planning a jumper for my son for Christmas and was intending to do it in
double knitting wool on 4mm (UK8) needles as that is the pattern that I've
used before successfully. It now occurs to me that I am really running short
of time as I have other projects to finish too (two baby things, socky-thing
and a baby!) and that I might not get time to do it! The wildly radical
thought that has occured is that if I knit his jumper in a chunkier wool (I
was planning one of Rowan yarns chunky varieties) then the jumper would knit
quicker, wouldn't it? On appropriately sized needles, of course. The trouble
is, I can't find a plain round necked jumper pattern for a boy his age (10)
in those wools. I've never knitted without a pattern before (in fact, with
one exception, I've always knitted in DK) and the thought I'm having is: if
I follow a pattern in a smaller size (which is meant for DK) but in larger
needles and thicker yarn, would it come out right? I'd have to work out
*what* size pattern I'd be following by comparing size and tension to get
the right shape and size of finished pieces - it's a very simple shape with
no fiddly bits or decoration for this jumper.

Does anyone think this would work? The (ancient) pattern I use is really
just a 'knit till long enough then shape armholes like this' and neck
shaping type one. I'd work out stitches per inch then make sure that I've
got enough stitches on the needle to make the garment big enough to fit him.

Am I completely mad (already pregnantly psychotic so feel free to answer
honestly) or am I re-inventing the wheel? Is this posting totally
incomprehensible? Should I just give up the whole idea? Will I ever have the
courage to knit freehand? Should I even try? Will I ever shut up?

Claire
gestating gigantically

Claire,
I will tell you about some patterns I have. They use Astra (which is a DK
weight) for kids' sizes and Canadiana (worsted weight) for the adult sizes.
They use the same # of stitches for corresponding sizes, with the only
difference being the length of each section. I don't know if I would go all
the way to chunky - unless chunky is what you call worsted. With this
international community, I am never totally certain what people mean by
various terms. g
Good luck with it, and indeed you must keep experimenting.
Katherine

"Claire" wrote in message
...
I'm having a radical thought here - about knitting, of course. Okay, it's
probably not radical to most of you but it is a little scary to me and
I've
no idea if I am completely on the wrong track or if this is something that
everyone else has known for ever but just has never occured to me before!

I'm planning a jumper for my son for Christmas and was intending to do it
in
double knitting wool on 4mm (UK8) needles as that is the pattern that I've
used before successfully. It now occurs to me that I am really running
short
of time as I have other projects to finish too (two baby things,
socky-thing
and a baby!) and that I might not get time to do it! The wildly radical
thought that has occured is that if I knit his jumper in a chunkier wool
(I
was planning one of Rowan yarns chunky varieties) then the jumper would
knit
quicker, wouldn't it? On appropriately sized needles, of course. The
trouble
is, I can't find a plain round necked jumper pattern for a boy his age
(10)
in those wools. I've never knitted without a pattern before (in fact, with
one exception, I've always knitted in DK) and the thought I'm having is:
if
I follow a pattern in a smaller size (which is meant for DK) but in larger
needles and thicker yarn, would it come out right? I'd have to work out
*what* size pattern I'd be following by comparing size and tension to get
the right shape and size of finished pieces - it's a very simple shape
with
no fiddly bits or decoration for this jumper.

Does anyone think this would work? The (ancient) pattern I use is really
just a 'knit till long enough then shape armholes like this' and neck
shaping type one. I'd work out stitches per inch then make sure that I've
got enough stitches on the needle to make the garment big enough to fit
him.

Am I completely mad (already pregnantly psychotic so feel free to answer
honestly) or am I re-inventing the wheel? Is this posting totally
incomprehensible? Should I just give up the whole idea? Will I ever have
the
courage to knit freehand? Should I even try? Will I ever shut up?

Claire
gestating gigantically

Nope - this works just fine - the main pain in the butt will be the
shaping - you'll need to do a bit of math and muck around a little to
get the shaping to work right. . . or you could try one of the generic
top down patterns - I know of one for raglan style sweaters and one for
a round yoke sweater. . . basically you fingure our your gauge on the
yarn, needles and stitch pattern and plug requested measurements (ie
chest size, length, arm size, length. . .) and do the math as requested
- put these numbers in a pattern in the indicated blank and you have a
pattern to exactly fit using the yarn and needles YOU want to use

Let me know and I'll go looking for the appropriate addresses to post if
you want to look them over.

Sonya


Claire wrote:
snip the thought I'm having is: if
I follow a pattern in a smaller size (which is meant for DK) but in larger
needles and thicker yarn, would it come out right? I'd have to work out
*what* size pattern I'd be following by comparing size and tension to get
the right shape and size of finished pieces - it's a very simple shape with
no fiddly bits or decoration for this jumper.

Does anyone think this would work? The (ancient) pattern I use is really
just a 'knit till long enough then shape armholes like this' and neck
shaping type one. I'd work out stitches per inch then make sure that I've
got enough stitches on the needle to make the garment big enough to fit him.

| On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 11:52:04 +0100, "Claire" wrote:

've always knitted in DK) and the thought I'm having is: if
I follow a pattern in a smaller size (which is meant for DK) but in larger
needles and thicker yarn, would it come out right? I'd have to work out
*what* size pattern I'd be following by comparing size and tension to get
the right shape and size of finished pieces - it's a very simple shape with
no fiddly bits or decoration for this jumper.

So long as the pattern doesn't say stuff like "knit until piece is X inches
long, that should work. Otherwise you could run in to trouble with the size
of the armhole, not just the overall length.

Have you done a web search for patterns? I can't imagine that there isn't
one out there for chunky yarn in a good kid size for a 10 year old!


Helen "Halla" Fleischer,
Fantasy & Fiber Artist in Fairland, MD USA
http://home.covad.net/~drgandalf/halla/

I did a Google search and found a couple you might want to try.....
Hope these help!
Karen G. from GA

http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache...osts.org/help/
knitting.doc+knit+pattern+sweater+size+10&hl=en&ie =UTF-8

http://www.lionbrand.com/cgi-bin/lio...ttp://www.lion
brand.com/patterns/kkctq-sweatshirt.html

http://www.thesmartyarns.com/pattern...nPullover.html


've always knitted in DK) and the thought I'm having is: if
I follow a pattern in a smaller size (which is meant for DK) but in larger
needles and thicker yarn, would it come out right? I'd have to work out
*what* size pattern I'd be

I've had good luck by figuring out the yarn I want to use, the size needles,
then (the only time I ever do it :0) work a gauge swatch. Sometimes I just wing
it - if I know the yarn I want to use is 5st/1" on size sevens, and the pattern
calls for a DK at 6 1/2st/", then I just pull out the calculator. Solutia has
some great patterns, too.

Chunky is usually about 4 stitches to the inch; worsted 4 1/2 to 5, DK 5 to 5
1/2.