In the last post in this series, we discussed unraveling an ill-fitted sweater to reuse the yarn and create a new sweater that will fit me better. You can find that post here.

Before unraveling the sweater, I enlisted my husband to take pictures of it on me, while I documented the process of pinning it up. I meticulously measured the pinned garment, studying its structure before disassembling the sweater.

The issues with this particular piece are twofold: it's too big and tends to fall back on me. Given its origin from a sample sale, it's likely a fit sample rather than a production sample. In this installment of this series, I'll delve into my findings and create a rough pattern. I hope you'll join me on this creative journey.

I’m using a t-shirt to draw lines on to show where to measure.

Measurements from the HPS (High Point of Shoulder) are the following: Back neck width, Front neck drop, Back neck drop, Shoulder slope, Armhole depth.

Horizontal measurements are the following: Across Shoulder, Cross front and back, Body width (Bust), Waist (not pictured here), and Sweep.

Additional measurements needed for the sweater are the Sleeve length, Muscle (bicep), Sleeve opening. I will be doing the 2x2 rib knit cuffs so that has been taken accounted for in my specs.

Body width and the muscle are both measured 1” from the under armhole.

Here is a front and side view of the sweater on me. As you can see the garment is too big. The shoulder seam is too far back for me. I will bring in the body width, cross chest, and sweep. I will bring up the armholes and reduce the sleeve widths.

In the second photo you can see the sides dipping and bringing up the armhole will balance out the hemline. As well as the front armhole is folding onto itself. I will reduce the cross front to eliminate the excess.

I pinned up the garment so that it will fit me comfortably. I noticed when I reduced the cross front the garment was not falling back on me. The neckband gave me a suffocating feeling whenever I wore it. Not comfortable at all.

I measured the garment from pin to pin. In this case I used binder clips. I don’t have any safety pins. Safety pins are the most used for this process.

When I removed the seams and had the pieces laid out. I found pattern discrepancies that would not work for my body type.

First, the front armhole should never be longer than the back armhole, ever.

Second, the cross front should never be wider than the cross back either.

The front neck width is also supposed to be narrower than the back neck width. I will fix that as well when making the new pattern.

Here is a rough pattern I hand drew on the photo above. Front and back will be symmetrical along the center front/center back line. The sleeve will be symmetrical along the outer sleeve minus the front armhole being slightly narrower than the back.

What is hard to see in the below picture is that I moved the shoulder seam down the front pattern piece by 1/2”. The back pattern piece is 1/2” higher at the shoulder at the armholes and total of 1” more at the neck seam and back neck drop. I also reduced the cross front considerably.

The new neckband will be figured out once the neckline has been revised completely.

I will update this post with an e-pattern created in Curves from my iPad. You can use Adobe Illustrator to create patterns if you have that program. I do not have it at the moment. You can also use Inkscape if you are an open-source fan.

I will figure out the pattern with a swatch I made from the machine to figure out a true pattern. I did the below swatch in 2 tensions. I like the looser tension the best and wish I made that portion bigger. It is best to have at least 2” vertical and horizontal to count the stitches. I have to count 1” to get my gauge from this swatch.

Coming next on the agenda: powering up the knitting machine! Well, technically, it's already in action – that's how I managed the gauge swatch you saw above. Brace yourself for my inaugural garment crafted using this knitting marvel. Anticipation is high, and I'm eager to see if my skills have improved since the swatch phase – fingers crossed! Speaking of which, the swatch may have a quirky charm with at least three long loops on the sides near the top. For a closer inspection, head over to my Instagram. Stay tuned for more knitting adventures!

Happy Fitting and pattern making,

Laurie & Bex