This may come under the title, “Confessions of a Lazy Knitwear Designer,” but I’ve been trying to write a size inclusive raglan sweater. Look for it in two years, this is going to take a while. When I read an EZ line somewhere that raglans are written in pieces and seamed because the directions took up less space and were easier to write, I thought that was a condemnation of knitting magazine editors. Now I think, oh, easier to write? Let me try this!
I am trying to write it up for sizes where the formulas break, in my defense. But I am definitely in the space where easy sounds great. With PDF patterns, I don’t think I need to aim at short instructions. (Be warned, you may not want to just hit print all if you have bought my patterns.) But in addition to writing my first ever raglan in pieces, I realized that I don’t know how to write at the same time instructions. When I was in college, I’d make a graph of the pieces I was knitting on acetate. When I had to flip the instructions over, I’d flip my graph and read it through the backwards symbols. This post is about how to knit a pattern that uses at the same time instructions, and so is this one.
I’m not sure if I will take the jump to at the same time instructions, but writing the sweater with flat instructions is definitely easier than writing the sweater in the round. Not easier for knitting though. Hmm. What are your preferences?
2 Responses
You can do it! Love the acetate paper idea – now that’s novel and genius.
It works great! So does velum paper, and that is stiff enough to use as a stencil too. Sometimes I use them on a graph when I’m starting motif development.
Are either of those OK with your allergies, or are they too plastic? Digital photos put to transparency can work the same way.