For the first nine years of my knitting career, I never kept anything I knit for myself. Yes, I’d knit things intending to keep them, but once I finished I’d end up giving it to someone else. A major factor in this was a lack of knitting knowledge on my end. When you knit for the sake of knitting without connecting to any real community or challenging yourself to grow, you’ll produce the same thing repeatedly which is essentially what I would do. The same hat pattern, the same generic cowl, or some bulky mittens. I’d sit there and wonder why they never fit me the way I imagined until I’d end up gifting them to someone else.
It wasn’t until I discovered nicer fibers and yarns I really dove into learning more about knitting. Part of the problem was where I was shopping. When you spend most of your time shopping at a Michael’s or Joann Fabrics you don’t get exposed to much beyond Lionbrand and Yarnspirations. While these yarns have a place once I learned more about fiber and design the reasons none of my knitwear ever turned out the right way was suddenly obvious: knitting isn’t a one-size fits all scenario.
It’s taken me some time to determine what ‘works’ for my style in knitting and there are still times where I end up giving away projects (luckily my better half falls in love with all the hats that don’t quite turn out right for myself).
To share some of what I’ve learned from my knitting mishaps here are some of my top tips for making sure you’ll get good use out of your knits!
1. Know Your Measurements
Knowing your size makes SUCH a difference in creating a finished piece you’ll wear. It allows you to accurately gauge whether your ‘typical size’ will fit or not ensuring that those hours of knitting won’t be wasted. Be honest here—I remember being thirty-five pounds heavier than my current weight and convincing myself that I could fit into the sizes I’m wearing now. As much as it might stink to bump your size up, it will be worth it in the long run when you’ve got a finished piece that hits your curves perfectly instead of being too tight in certain areas, which is a guarantee you won’t be wearing it as often as you could be.
Yes, knowing your measurements also applies to your head too. I have a larger than average head and for years I’d wonder why hats would fit my husband so well but make me look like I had a sausage casing stuck to the top of my head—until I realized that a few extra stitches was all I needed to ensure my hats fit me. I went around during my family’s Christmas party last year and measured everyone’s head so I’d know how big to knit hats for everyone. It may seem neurotic, but it makes a huge difference in knitting
2. Swatch!
It’s hard to take the time to watch your work and make sure that your gauge matches that of the pattern when you just want to jump in and start knitting. But when you’re spending hours upon hours knitting a sweater you will want it to last for years, right? So why not take the extra hour to knit a swatch and guarantee it will be the right size?
Since I’m just a liitle bit neurotic, I am occasionally a tighter knitter than the gauge calls for, so I have to size up from time to time. Swatching ensures that you’re knitting the pattern to the designer’s specifications, this makes any alterations you want to make to the design easier to plan and execute.
Swatching also ensures you’re ordering the right amount of yarn so you won’t end up scrambling to find more yarn toward the end of your project or left with three extra skeins once you’ve woven in your ends.
3. Trust the Needle Size
I know it seems counterintuitive that making a sweater bigger makes it fit better, but it’s true! When paired with a slightly larger needle than the label calls for the yarn sits more loosely when it’s knit which gives the fabric ‘drape’.
For years I wondered why my hats never slouched the way I wanted and it all boiled down to the size of my needles. Sure, I was making the world’s warmest hats, but because I was using needles that were smaller than the yarn’s label called for I was making hats that were so tightly knit they barely moved. Using larger needles allows for more space between the stitches which creates movement in the knit fabric resulting in drape!
4. Look Through the Project Pages on Ravelry or Instagram
Before you make the commitment of casting on a big project, look through other people’s projects on Ravelry to determine if the pattern is actually what you want! The Reyna Shawl pictured above ended up being a gift to my sister and before I cast on I looked through the projects page on Ravelry to see other people’s finished projects.
In hindsight, I wish that I had used my second skein of this yarn (OnTheRound’s Everyday Lite in Rainbow Tweed) so this could have been a super drape-y shawl, but another round of the lace pattern made me twitch just by thinking of it. Luckily, since I had scoured Ravelry for a while I knew what a 100 g version of the Reyna Shawl would look like vs the 200 g version and I wasn’t disappointed with the result!
I know these may seem tedious, but I can promise that they’ll make a huge difference in the way you wear your knits! Now, get out there and show off your hard work! What are some of your favorite tricks to ensure your knitwear will fit?