Lacey Raglan Sweater: My Experiment with Reverse-Engineering

I saw a sweater pattern that was pretty, but I couldn't justify buying it at the moment. It was a pretty basic pattern, and they were charging a good bit for a basic pattern. So I decided to try my hand at reverse-engineering it. It was a basic raglan sweater with a lace design that starts at the center front and increases diagonally until it meets in the back.



I found the lace pattern that they used in the original pattern, but I found an even prettier one, too. It's very similar, but I liked the looks of it better. It's called Openwork Diamonds and can be found at www.knittingstitchpatterns.com.



It was pretty easy, once I figured out how to diagonally increase the lace design. (I was under a lot of stress at the time from a non-knitting-related incident, so it took me a lot longer than it should have to figure that out. I think it was several days.)



I like how I can add a colored tank top under the sweater to add a bit of color to my outfit.

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Falling Leaves Cardigan

I've been getting braver with my knitting lately. I've begun to look at sweater patterns and think of how I'd like to change them to make them perfect for my tastes. Usually a pattern has at least one feature that I'd like to change.

For this particular sweater (Falling Leaves pattern, available free on Ravelry), the yoke was knit in garter stitch. I HATE garter stitch. I have no idea why, except maybe because it looks like the sweater is inside-out. At any rate, I loved the lace detail but I knew I'd never wear it if I did the top in garter stitch. So I decided to change it to stockinette stitch, add ribbing at the top and bottom, add button bands afterward, and lengthen the sleeves. Maybe I came up with a completely new sweater, now that I look at all of those changes ...



The trouble is that garter stitch and stockinette stitch have completely different gauges. I got 8 rows to an inch instead of the 11 that the pattern called for. I did some math and adjusted it accordingly ... and it worked! Really, math is your best friend as a knitter. It's how I can get a perfectly-fitted sweater, instead of an ill-fitted one (like storebought ones usually are on me).



This one is done now, once I find buttons ...

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