If you’re the kind of knitter who hates math — and I think that covers a lot of us! — you need to know about the Stitch Pattern Calculator from Laylock Knitwear Design.
This is a really simple, powerful concept. Just plug in the number of stitches the pattern repeat you want to use has and how many stitches you intend to cast on and it will tell you how many full repeats of the stitch pattern you can do and how many stitches you’ll have left over.
To test it I put in a pattern (totally made up) with an 8 plus 1 stitch repeat. I suggested I had 50 stitches, and the calculator told me I could work 6 repeats and would have one stitch left over.
Even better, it tells me I could use either 57 or 48 stitches and have no stitches left at the end, which is what you really need to know so you can adjust your pattern as needed.
So much easier than using a calculator!
Hate math, so one of these would be a blessing. Would like to get
updated on knitting and learn some of the new ways since I knit
(knit and purl) but never learned to knit socks
so for example: If I am knitting a fair isle chart, would I input my chart repeat and then add the beginning and ending row stitches?
Yes, I think that would work!
Hi, I have a question, if I do have extra stitches, and for some reason can’t exclude these stitches, how would I integrate these stitches into my pattern? For example, I want to use two different stitch patterns on the same project. One stitch pattern requires an odd number of stitches and the other requires an even number. Is there a way to reconcile the two? Thanks for your help!
I would probably just work any extra stitches in Stockinette stitch at the edge of the work. If it’s only one stitch difference you could possibly alternate which side you do it on but I’d want to test it on a swatch to see how it looks before committing to that for a full project.