How to Scale a Knitting Pattern

photo credit: Lex in the City

So you found this great knitting pattern, a pullover you know will look great on your sister and a cardigan pattern you love for yourself but the pattern is the wrong size. While most patterns vary in sizes, if you are plus-sized or have unusual proportions finding a pattern that will be a good fit might be a bit difficult at times.  There is a solution – scale it to the right size.

Scaling a knitting pattern to fit is simple in principle, requiring only a swatch, a ruler, and some simple math which is explained below.  It’s important to remember you have to look at all aspects of the pattern when you put it into practice so you get the best fit possible.

Here are the steps to help you scale a knitting pattern:

1)  To resize a pattern correctly, you’ll need to knit a swatch first.  This square piece should consist of twelve rows of twelve stitches.  This is the only way you can take into account the behavior of the yarn when knitted.  Once you’ve completed the swatch, stretch it just enough to straighten the sides, then measure it’s width at the cast-on side.  Once measured, you’ll need to figure out how many stitches per inch you’ve gotten. Do this by dividing the number of stitches by the width.  Say for example your swatch is 4 inches wide; you’d divide 12 by 4 and get 3.

2)  Measure how large you need the piece to be in inches (if that’s the unit you used to measure your swatch, just make sure you use the same unit method).  Multiply that by 3 and you get 96.  That’s how many stitches you’ll need to do to make it the correct size.

You might have to adjust the number depending on the knitting style you’re using.  If you are using a pattern that uses multiple of 4, you will have to round up the next multiple of 4.  In this case, no adjustments are necessary, but say you came up with 94, you would have had to go up to 96.

To get a proper fit, you’ll have to repeat this process for each piece.  Don’t forget to take into account the finished product such as if it is designed to be shaped.  In complex situations such as this one, it’s often easier to simply go ahead and just redraw the entire pattern prior to beginning.