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Giveaway: Customize Your Knitting

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Customize Your Knitting by Margaret Hubert review

Lori is the winner!

If you want to learn how to take control of knitting patterns and make projects that better suit your body type, you should check out Margaret Hubert’s Customize Your Knitting.

The book covers the basics of how to flatter your body type in garment shaping, how to measure your body and determine what size to make and how to alter patterns to make them suit your shape and size better.

It also includes four sweater patterns shown with different alterations for different body types (though full patterns for those alternations aren’t given, it just walks you through what to do) and lots of advice for finishing your projects well so they will look their best.

This week I’m giving away a copy of this book. If you’d like a chance to win, leave a comment on this post before the end of the day Sunday, July 3. I’d love to know how comfortable you feel altering knitting patterns for size or style. Even though I write knitting patterns, I still would rather use a pattern I don’t have to alter much to make it fit me if I’m not designing from scratch.

Thanks for visiting, commenting and sharing, and good luck!

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Comments

  3. I am ready to knit garments. As a sewer, I know adjustments to patterns are always necessary.

  5. As a new knitter, I really need help with adjusting pattern and learning new stitches.

  6. I would love to be able to alter a pattern to make items a bit more form-fitting, since I’m very petite. The only thing I’ve done in the past has been tweaking the waistbands and wristbands of patterns, as well as necklines, because I didn’t like what the designer chose, and wanted my sweater a little more form-fitting. I also took a sweater that I loved, and played around with the pattern before, since there was an inset in the front, so I added my own. That was fun, but I’d love to customize further. I’d even like to try making up my own patterns, since I’ve done some rough sketches of sweaters I’d love to make.

  7. I have altered patterns to fit me better, or added lengths where needed-some turned out great-others not so much!

  8. Used to look at a pattern and go ‘shucks, not my size’, then met a group of women who have taught me the JOYS of swatching and adjusting almost any pattern to fit me. Still a lot to learn but am getting there!

  12. I’d over to learn how to customize a knitting pattern. I love knitting and most of my projects come out too big.

  13. I am not real comfortable adjusting a pattern as I’ve not done it much. Especially with a sweater. That is a lot of work to go through if your finished product doesn’t fit right.

  14. I have to say I have never tried to alter a pattern. I would not be confident trying to do that without guidance. This book would be amazing for the information it has!

  16. I quite often admire something about a pattern, but won’t make it because of not wanting to work out the math to change the size, or making lots of adaptations to alter the type of sleeve or neckline. More likely I will just absorb the gestalt of the features I do like, perhaps a stitch or colorwork pattern, and try to work something similar into a pattern of my own. KittenWhiplash

  17. I haven’t done much with altering patterns to fit me. I’ve changed the length of some garments but that’s about it!

  18. The reason I purchase so many books and patterns is because I don’t want to design & calculate… That being said, I almost always fiddle a little with patterns; lengthening sleeves, changing necklines, etc.
    I do love all kinds of books and would love to win this one too!

  19. I have made small changes to patterns and would love to learn how to customize even more!

  20. I do not feel comfortable changing patterns so i stick to them. This would be very helpful! thank you!

  22. Sometimes I feel safe altering patterns. It just depends on how complicated the pattern is. But I would love to get better at it!

  23. I have just begun trying to make adjustments to patterns so the finished garment fits me. I would love more guidance.

  25. I’m very uncomfortable with altering patterns, but would love to learn. It would be nice to have sweaters that fit. lol.

  27. I will make something longer since I’m tall. I would love to learn more on adjustments.

  28. I tweak patterns a bit, but am always nervous of the outcome. This book sounds great!

  29. I never wear snug knits so there’s no need for me to alter knitting patterns.

  31. My body size and type is always different from the pattern sizes so I usually have to change patterns here and there. This book would be extremely helpful.

  32. I would say I’m moderately comfortable altering patterns, but only because there are so many resources available to help me. Books like this one, and the wonderful communities like Ravelry have really opened up my knitting horizons.

  34. This sounds like a wonderful book. I knit and crochet and do alter patterns if I HAVE to. But like you said – prefer and feel more comfortable knitting without alterations.

  35. Thanks for the chance so win. I make simple alterations, like changing the length of something. I don’t know how to alter much more. Would love to see this book.

  36. I have yet to make a garment that I can wear, so I’m not fully comfortable altering patterns but I tend to try new things recklessly.

Have you read?

Knit a Leopard Print Shawl and Learn about Yarn Substitution

When I was looking around for free knitting patterns to share recently, I came across this fun leopard print wrap from Yarnspirations. 

This fun bulky wrap gives you tons of practice with instarsia and makes a bold statement while keeping you warm. It’s rated for intermediate knitters and the design is charted but pretty easy to follow. And it’s only 50 rows and worked in bulky yarn, so it wouldn’t even take that long to knit. (You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.)

So what’s the problem? The yarn that the pattern calls for has been discontinued, and it’s not a yarn that a substitute for immediately springs to mind. 

The original yarn was Patons Alpaca Blend, a single ply bulky yarn that was a combination of acrylic, superwash wool, nylon and alpaca. 

My first thought was Lion Brand Hue + Me, which is an acrylic and wool blend, with two plies instead of a single. It looks like it has the colors you would need to make this fun shawl. 

But as I was thinking about it, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to YarnSub if you don’t already know about it. This website is a giant database of yarn that can consider the qualities of the yarn you want to substitute and offer potential substitutions. 

It’s not only thinking about yarn weight, like I was, but also fiber content, number of plies, gauge and even the difference in yardage between one ball and another. It even looks at the price and can be filtered by your price range or preferences about fiber content (if, say, you’re sensitive or allergic to wool, for example, or don’t want to you acrylic). 

When I plugged in Alpaca Blend, it gave me a lot of different options, though many of them were self-striping or multicolored, which wouldn’t work for this project, and I don’t see a way to filter for solid colors only. 

Still, it’s a good tool to give you some ideas you might not know about or might have forgotten about, and it tells you how the new yarn is similar to the old one and how it differs, allowing you to make smarter choices when substituting yarns. 

[Photo: Yarnspirations]