How to Draw Your Own Schematics

There are a lot of great free knitting patterns out there, but one failing that some of these patterns have (and I’ll admit, all of mine over at About have this problem) is that they are often lacking in schematics, those little drawings that show you the shape and measurements of the different sizes of the garments.

I don’t really use the schematics that much so I don’t miss them, but Kat over at Just Crafty Enough wanted one for a sweater pattern she recently started knitting. So she went through the instructions, figured out all the measurements and where things changed and made a simple schematic of the size she was planning to knit.

Because the shapes used in knitting are usually pretty simple, you don’t need drawing skills to make your own schematics; you just need a little patience and the ability to read and understand what the knitting pattern is telling you is happening. Great tips!

[Photo via Just Crafty Enough.]

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I can’t resist a pattern that’s both useful and a little silly, and that’s exactly how I feel about the Rybka pouch pattern from the delightfully named Rat and Sea Witch.

I know you’re going to ask, because I did, too. Rybka means little fish in Polish. (And because you’re also probably going to ask, Rat and Sea Witch comes from people’s attempts to say the designer’s name, Ratasiewicz, which if you say it fast kind of sounds like rat and sea witch.)

It’s easy to make a little fish bag in different sizes to suit your needs. The pattern has specific instructions for an Airpods Pro case and a pencil case, but you could change the length easily to hold more stuff, and change the size in general by working with a different weight of yarn.

The pattern calls for sock yarn and mohair held together to make a fingering weight gauge, but you could try it with heavier yarn and see what size bag you end up with.

Whatever size you make it, this looks like a fun project for holding trinkets or everyday items. The mouth of the fish is the mouth of the bag, and it closes with a drawstring that is also the strap. I wonder, too, if you could make one of these with a small clasp frame that could be the fish’s mouth and then you could just work I cord straps that would attach to the sides of the fish.

I could also see stripes, or fish of different colors to use up your yarn leftovers. How about a sunglasses case with a little loop to attach to your bag? Once you start thinking about all the ways you could use a fish-shaped bag in your life, I think you’ll see that you probably need more than one.

If you make one of these I would love to know how it went!

You can grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Rat and Sea Witch]

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