Trust the Pattern

Don’t Make These Mistakes When Reading a Pattern

If you are making something from a pattern just for fun – this post applies to you. There is a major exception to this rule that I will put at the bottom of this post.

I am quite deferential to pattern designers when I am knitting. I give them tremendous benefit of the doubt for many things. This is because I assume that they:

• Have some knowledge
• Went through their own trial and error process as they designed
• Had their pattern edited and/or tested

Sometimes these are very good assumptions to make. There is so much that I don’t know about knitting, and even more I don’t know about designing.

Obviously one of the great things about making your own clothes, whether knitting, crocheting, or sewing, is that you can customize them. But there is a difference between customizing them and taking a short cut.

If you’ve been following along on Instagram you know I have been working on the Autumn League Pullover (affiliate link) from Two of Wands. It’s a top down raglan sweater, but is only worked in the round for the very top of the sweater, after that everything is worked flat and then seamed. Seaming is often loathed and much-avoided in the knitting world I’ve noticed. While I don’t completely hate it, I can understand the avoidance. The first sweater I made was knit flat and seamed. Since I had never seamed anything it took about 6 hours for me to seam just ONE side of the sweater. I am a little faster now, but unless you’re seaming something made with super bulky yarn, it’s not a quick process. BUT, seaming has its purpose. Seams help items keep their shape. I was asked near the beginning of knitting this sweater if I was just going to do everything in the round. I said I’d be following the pattern. This is an example of when I’m going to trust the pattern!

Customizing a pattern in my mind includes things like making a section longer or shorter, or doing more or less decreases on an arm. A short cut could include doing something in the round, or using a different (easier) bind off or cast on just because you don’t feel like looking up the recommended one. If you do a quick search, especially on Pinterest, you’ll see lots of examples of the effects of different cast ons and cast offs. Your change could actually have a big impact on the outcome of your piece.

Another time I find I really have to just trust the pattern is when I’m doing lace. I know VERY little about lace and so I just have to pay attention and trust what’s written.

Of course not all patterns are perfect. It is possible that you know more than the designer, just be sure when you make adjustments to a pattern that you are actually making it better. You don’t want to put all the time into making something just to have your short cut compromise the finished garment.

Now I mentioned there is one definite exception to my “Trust the Pattern” rule. And that is if you are testing a pattern. You can still trust the pattern to certain extent, and you certainly can NOT customize and make changes when you are testing, but you need to be examining what’s happening quite regularly, which is a good practice for following any pattern. As a tester you are on the look out for problems or errors, and that means that you can’t fully trust the pattern at all times.

Overall, the important thing about reading patterns is that you:

• Make sure you know what each stitch is, use YouTube tutorials if you don’t know exactly what something is
• Read the pattern and refer to it as much as you need to
• Keep track of rows or length regularly
• Pay attention to all notes included, whether at the beginning, middle, or end of the pattern
• Use the designer’s suggestions
• If it’s a garment, try on your piece regularly, definitely whenever is suggested in the pattern