What is Thoughtful Design and Knitting Library Tour Part I // Casual Friday 2-39

[@kwosilait2855]

"Thoughtful design" is such a great phrase! I picked a hat pattern where the designer did *not* integrate the ribbing into the pattern, but someone else on Ravelry did. Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. I had to tweak it to make it work in my size, but it was so worth it! In the mid 80s, I had an assignment to write a computer program to calculate and graph a couple complicated functions. We had to discuss our programs with our professor. He was clearly impressed with what I had done, and asked me why I decided to do it that way. "Because I thought about it?" was all I could come up with. It was the looking at the big picture and seeing the pattern, knowing where I was going that allowed me to have a bunch of nested loops work well together. I think that was the equivalent of "thoughtful design." (While our professor was probably brilliant in his field, I don't think he was meant to be a programmer!) P.S. I also really appreciate the discussions of the books. I'm getting the one on finishing to read *before* I start my first sweater in 30-some years!

[@annd9159]

Great podcast! I am just starting the master knitting program. Feeling a little overwhelmed. I am glad to see I have all the books you showed today. Your discussion on thoughtful design was so interesting. Thank you for all the knowledge you share. I love how you do what I call a deep dive on your topics. I am like minded.

[@hazeluzzell]

I love the way you think everything through so meticulously! I’m one of those annoying people who close their eyes and jump in, then think-‘damn, I should have learned to swim!’ I paused your video half way through, went to the links, bought the digital Knit Scene and read your article (very well done!), went to Amazon.UK bought the Readers Digest knitting book you showed us for £4.95 including postage 💥 and now I’m back for the other half! Join me for a coffee later?☕️

[@sandramarshall7712]

I enjoyed this very much. Thoughtful design is an appropriate way to describe the process of design done well. I'll be thinking about this for a few days. I have designed a few knitted items and most 'worked' but one mitten design I am very proud of. It took many attempts to get it the way I wanted but well worth the effort.

[@debracisneroshhp2827]

Thoroughly enjoyed this episode! Particularly, info about the books and, especially, about design features with regard to transitioning! Years ago I knit a tank top with "Knit Cro-Sheen" and #5 needles when the pattern called for a bulky 'size' yarn using #9 or 10 needles. I went up a few sizes in the pattern and it worked great because it was knit in seed stitch (k1, p1) with one cable running up the front. So, I really appreciated the info on "thoughtful design"! Love your fingerless gloves, beautiful! 😺

[@sandygrogg1203]

I love Casual Friday!

[@sandraroper9866]

Hi Roxanne, thank you for another very interesting video. I have only been knitting for 3 years now and am still learning. I used a hat pattern from LoveKnitting called tied Knots which contains all that you had mentioned and I made the first for my daughter, mother-in-law and husband and on each I changed the yarn (4ply/DK/Aran) and needle size and they fitted perfectly so switching from men to women would be ok it’s adjusting to child sizes I’m not sure of.😊

[@gingertunstall7739]

Ann Budd has several great books for knitting sweaters of different styles with instruction for multiple sizes and multiple weights for each style. My favorite is the Top Down Sweaters book. She has this organized in easy to follow charts.

[@karinberryman7970]

The thought of 'Top down' knitting fills me with horror!

[@gingertunstall7739]

@@karinberryman7970 Why? It is not difficult at all. It makes it easy to try on and adjust as you go if necessary. I absolutely hate knitting separate pieces and having to seam them up.

[@Yvonnescraftyadventures]

I loved your knitting shelf tour, this episode and the following two as well. I am actually German and after you talked about the Big Book of Knitting I went to the store and had a look at it. It is very confusing. I never learned knitting in Germany, only much later here in the US so German instructions are totally confusing to me as well. And then am translating that word for word into English kind of makes it worse. It’s funny, with crocheting I am the same, can’t read it in German only in English. Guess I have been away from home too long

[@amymikelson3060]

I would think thoughtful design would be a great compliment! You do have lovely designs.

[@danielmidwinter7182]

Thanks for another great episode. The section on Thoughtful Design particularly resonated with me. I factor in how the pattern is presented to the knitter as part of the thoughtfulness. As a newer knitter I like to be able to fully understand the logic of the design and transitions before I start - so that I can make any changes to stitch count, repeats etc. I do not like any muzzing where you’re told you can just decrease on the following rounds. I prefer order and symmetry - and usually count stitches and make notes to myself if the pattern is more carefree. Basically, I want to know upfront what is going to be happening - I do not like following pattern instructions and trusting it will turn out as expected. Aside from instruction quality, I agree that thoughtful design harmonises the different elements of a project and it’s always clever when a technical requirement, such as increases or decreases, are incorporated into the aesthetic of the finished object. I recently completed a cabled hat - and once finished I realised only some of the cords of the cables transitioned into the purls on the brim - and some were offset. It’s a lovely hat - but I was quite deflated when I saw the flaw in the design and have not gifted it.

[@gracefrank500]

About thoughtful design. My response to your insight was “exactly!”. This explains my urge to design my own hats. When looking for hat patterns, I struggle with finding ones that are large enough-my son’s head is 25 inches around and the rest of my family aren’t far off. There are patterns out there, but the interesting ones, the ones that carry a theme from headband to crown, seem to be for smaller noggins. It doesn’t take too long into studying the pattern to realize I can’t preserve its genius and make it bigger. I can knit plain janes toques to fit, but want something more. And, it’s not just hats. Short-waisted bodies need a certain kind of sweater, not just a shorter sweater. Sigh.

[@debracisneroshhp2827]

Grace, Totally true about the short-waisted adjustments! I'm 5'3" and many years ago I found a lovely t-shirt dress with a simple argyle design across the front, from left shoulder down to the right-side hem. As we all know, models in VK magazines are not 5'3" so, I decided to brave "adjusting" the pattern to fit my height. As you can imagine, it was just short of a nightmare to accomplish and after realizing I had made a slight mistake on the back where I would have to leave it be or rip most of it out to correct, I gave it up(because I'm anal about knowing a mistake was there even if no one else would notice) and ripped the whole thing out and used the yarn for another project a few years later__which I really loved! Aaaah, the joys of knitting and learning new techniques! 😭😳😹😺

[@sandrafoster2211]

When I look at a pattern to knit I look at the details of that design . Most patterns with detail I knit as directed. But there are times when I feel the yarn weight or color that I have well not work and then the challenge of change comes in. I well say that the challenge can be fun and well accepted. Would love to learn more as to how to work these challenges. I've learned a lot from listening to you Thanks so much.

[@leotaviolett5265]

Sandra Foster u//“‘

[@keturahspencer]

If you're starting with the smallest weight of yarn that you will use, then you can use multiple threads where the yarn weight is heavier. Doing this the yarn will match. It can make it easier to make a ball with all of the strands of yarn put together. I've done this going up to 8 threads of the same yarn. First make a ball with 2 strands. Take 2 of those balls to make a ball with 4 strands, etc... I don't recommend joining more than 2 balls at the same time. That said, thank you for this channel. It's incredibly helpful as well as addictive. I put down knitting for a few years to finish school. It's nice to have refreshers, and learn new things. I like the way you explain and analyze techniques.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Doubling fingering weight will give you DK or Worsted, depending on how thick the fingering weight is, so you could get an infant and adult size (or sport weight doubled to Aran to get toddler/large adult) but you wouldn't be able to get those all the sizes, unless you started with laceweight, and then added strands to replicate the old 2-ply, 4-ply, 6-ply, etc system, which (as you point out) isn't an ideal way to knit. The infant/adult pairing would be great for mother/daughter hats or something like that, where you wanted to use the same yarn for both.

[@keturahspencer]

@@RoxanneRichardson I've only done one project with changing needle size as opposed to using increases and decreases. If I had it here I would show you a picture. It was a purse that I started with worsted weigh yarn and made ever larger cables, then worked my way back. It had a wooded hand and a seed stitch edge. I was surprised by how well multiplying the strands worked. That looks awful with crochet, in my opinion.

[@beth7467]

Make sure that you make the "thoughtful design" reasoning a selling point when you write the promotional copy for the pattern. The fact that you use different yarn sizes for different head sizes to allow you to retain the transitions between brim and body and between body and crown is way more compelling a reason than "oh, well, it's a 20-st pattern repeat, so to upsize just use different weight yarn." Because that's a cop-out that *less* thoughtful designers use all the time to explain away why a hat (or a sock or a whatever) hasn't been truly graded.

[@gfixler]

To me, thoughtful design must come with experience. I'm a programmer, and every year of my career I've had more successes and failures to look back over, or at least feel, subconsciously, as I'm planning out my next solution. I've been in meetings, and heard ideas that have made me feel bad inside, but I couldn't place why for a day or two, until remembering trying something just like that years ago, and watching it blow up in my face a few months later. I've also watched new programmers very excitedly code up one thing after another, because they have no experience-imposed limits. I've made the analogy in the past of programmers standing in a field, and the new guy says "Hey, there's the goal over there. Let's go!" and takes off running, while the old programmer is tuning up their mine detector, knowing it's a mine field. I've felt like that more and more over the years. The more I learn, the more things I think through, and the more options I cull away, and narrow down, before making any moves, so it looks like I'm just sitting there, staring into space for 20 minutes, before I type a little bit. Young me solved problems with 2500 frenetically-entered lines of code that broke multiple times per day, and got more and more patched over time, and harder and harder to work with. Old me writes 15 lines of code that look like something a child could write (they couldn't - simplicity is far harder than complexity), which do more than the 2500 lines could, and never break. You know so many things about knitting now, that you don't just dive into a sock pattern. You thoughtfully pick through hundreds of initial choices, available refinements, your own hard-won improvements, years of knowledge about fit and wear, and then ultimately you pull together something... thoughtful.

[@blou5598]

Thank you Roxanne, this was a very though-provoking episode, especially for considerations in hat design. Is your design of the green hat at time stamp 28.43 for sale. I really love that design and feel it would be a great learning template for designing.

[@gfixler]

Here's a thoughtful design idea (I think) that you made me think of with your unavoidable, 20 st repeat. Unfortunately, I don't think it works for your hat, and it might be a harder idea than I'm imagining, but think of some 20 st repeat. Now imagine you're told to knit it for 4.5 inches, and let's say you're getting 20 rows per inch, so the repeat occurs every inch. The problem is that when you finish the 4th repeat, you'll be at 4", and still have 0.5" to go. A thoughtful solution might be to have a handful of short cap patterns, say 5, 10, and 15 rows in length. At the start of a repeat, with only 0.5" to go, you'd pick the 10 st cap, and finish off right at 4.5". You could go even further, and have 5, 10, and 15 st caps for each of the 0, 5, 10, and 15 row starting points. So, if you were at the start of the pattern with 0.75" left, you would choose the row 1, 15 st cap, but you could also knit 5 more rows of the pattern, so you had 0.5" left, and then choose the row 6, 10 st cap to finish it off. I think you'd need 20 mini cap patterns for this example, which would be extremely thoughtful :)

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I actually did something like that for the crown of this hat, because row gauge can differ, and desired length can differ, as well. The pattern repeat is 8 rnds long. The crown is 13 rnds long. When the body is complete, the knitter can decide to add or subtract 2, 4, 6, or 8 rnds in order to achieve the desired length, with instructions for how to make that happen. :-)

[@KLD521]

I was very intrigued by tonight's "Casual Friday" topics. I haven't been knitting much because I also crochet and trying to build my own styling and more involved with designing and creating unique pieces. Listening very carefully to each word especially about the sizing of a hat without recalculating the repeat(s) of a design it made me think if I could use that same scenario with crochet. I have always backed away from hats and fingerless gloves/mittens because following a pattern to fit my measurements it just would not work out. But still my thinking cap is definitely on and with being still new to a lot of things; this will definitely keep me with an open mind and more thought into what I am actually trying to achieve. Thank you so much for sharing and looking forward to another interesting topic and conversation. Donna

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I crochet very little (and not well!) so I don't know if, say, single crochet has a consistent proportion as you go up yarn weights/hook sizes. There is some variation in row gauge from one yarn to the next, even in the same yarn weight, so I have had to figure out a good way to add/eliminate rounds, where needed, due to row gauge differences (or when knitting for someone who wants their hat longer or shorter!)

[@KLD521]

@@RoxanneRichardson I will also keep this topic in mind for when I get back to knitting as well. So many things I am trying to accomplish with both and trying to make time every day to make that happen. Many thanks and I respect and appreciate you for sharing helpful tips and techniques.

[@robynbecker8610]

I would love to be a test knitter for your new pattern. How do I sign up? Thanks for sharing your library. I have and use most of the same books as I teach knitters skills at my LYS. And yes most of them came from recommendations from the Masters handknitting program. I was interested in the Reader's Digest book and did order that to add to my reference collection. Thanks so much sharing. Looking forward to part 2. Thanks

[@Titesoline75]

Thanks for your librairy tour. I'm interesting in the knitting guide of finishing technics. Is there a part about seams, and how to use them as decorative part? if not have you a book or article to recommend about it?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

If you're talking about A KNITTER'S GUIDE TO FINISHING TECHNIQUES, then no, that book does not contain information about decorative seams. It focuses on the techniques used most often by knitters. Decorative seams are more unusual. I don't know of any specific resource that covers a range of decorative seams, but I haven't looked for one, either. It depends a bit on what sort of seam you're talking about. Vertical seams (joining the selvedges), or horizontal seams (joining CO and BO edges). You might try asking for resources on Ravelry, in the Techniques forum, and specify what it is you're actually looking for, in terms of vertical vs horizontal seams, and what sort of projects you are looking to add decorative seams to, and what sort of effect you are looking to achieve.

[@FoodForTheJourneyTravel]

Rox, I love the pattern you created with the green hat at the end of your episode. Have you published or will you be publishing it? It's beautiful!

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Test knitting is just beginning, so the pattern will be published in a couple of weeks, I expect.

[@FoodForTheJourneyTravel]

Thank you! I'll keep my eyes peeled ;)

[@sandraroper9866]

Hi please can you make a video on adding zips to cardigan or changing from a button hole band to a zipper.

[@denisenj7648]

You don't have to sew the grosgrain button hole to the sweater button hole as long as they are lined up. If you just want to sew the sweater holes a bit snugger they still don't have to be sewn together.

[@amberschiwi]

😔😔 guilty as charged: SSK in German is: "zwei Maschen nacheinander wie zum rechts stricken abheben, auf die linke Nadel zurueck heben und verschraenkt zusammen stricken" K1 is "1 Ma re." And I won't even start with centered double decrease et al...

[@foleyjp1]

Roxanne, I just finished watching this video. As always I learned so much. I also LOVE your shawl sweater and would really like to make one like it for this winter. Is the pattern one of yours, or is it available on Ravelry? Thanks again for all your sharing...

[@RoxanneRichardson]

That's the WWI sweater I made around May/June. ("A Serviceable Sweater") It was featured in my Casual Friday episodes from late May to early July. You can find out more about the project, and get a link to the Ravelry pattern page from my Ravelry notebook: www.ravelry.com/projects/Rox/a-serviceable-sweater. The booklet the pattern comes from is on Project Gutenberg.

[@foleyjp1]

@@RoxanneRichardson Thanks, I did not realize that it had a shawl collar. Very attractive....

[@connieschmittauer5933]

I'm hoping you show the book that is in the cubical behind your head. The book is in the center and is fairly thick and is in a black and sort of red pattern on the spine, but I can't quite read the print on it.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

It's Latvian Mittens. It's a beauty!

[@emilybeaton2947]

So you never asked Amy Singer what she meant by her “thoughtful design” comment?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Nope. I was busy processing it as a compliment and a Good Sign, as she moved from person to person, and then she got to the woman with the sweater, and it was clear she wanted that design. Sometimes it takes a while to realize you aren't really sure what the person meant by whatever it was they said, and then it's too late.

[@amberschiwi]

I reckon a better title for the book at 12 mins would've been "Finessing techniques". "Finishing" really confuses\ doesn't seem to match the expectation.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

It might seem a better title, superficially, but it's a valuable lesson to discover that you need to think about your finished item *before* you even CO, because the choices you make about which CO method to use, which incs/decs to use, and where to place them are extremely important to getting a good finished result. Part of learning to seam, for example, is understanding that the shaping techniques you choose, and where you place them, will have a big impact on how easy it is to seam, and how good your seams will look.