The Great Unknown – Knitting without a Pattern!

There are plenty of reasons you might decide to try knitting without a pattern. But there’s one biggie that persists for most advanced knitters: laying eyes on a gorgeous, but poor value-for-money item on a model, in a store or fashion catalogue and wanting on your own body for much, much less! These companies aren’t giving away any secrets, so if you have the knitting confidence it’s time to take a leap of faith and give this great unknown a go. Imagine – if you really get into knitting without a pattern, the freedom and sense of opportunity is really endless and exciting!

Beginners can easily create a scarf, beanie or even slippers without too much guidance just by repeating a favourite stitch and monitoring loose shaping as you go.

But those more experienced knitters embarking on more adventurous shaped clothing projects without written instruction would benefit from keeping these tips in mind:

Take your measurements carefully. If possible, also measure the length and width of the garment you wish to copy or a similar shaped item.

Knit a swatch before you start and measure the tension. This can be a bit tedious but it’s worth it! It will definitely decrease the chances of any bizarre surprises. This will help you work out how many stitches to cast on, how many rows, how many to increase, to decrease, your colour design, the number of repeats – pretty much everything!

Perhaps it’s worth doing your first unpatterned project with a less expensive yarn and upgrading as your confidence increases.

Always write down what you do as you journey through this new territory. There’s nothing worse than creating exactly the beautiful item you were trying to copy, only to now need to slowly go back and piece together what you did so you can make it all again for a friend.

Good Luck!