Three Dimensional Thinking for Knitters

The way most sewers learn about fitting garments is by carefully examining the item on the body and making adjustments. I mentioned in my last post that sewers often make a test garment before cutting into their expensive fabric. Sometimes we use a plain cheap fabric, some use gingham because you can see the verticals and horizontals so clearly. No hems, outside seam lines or facings are added so the finished lines of the garment can be assessed.

Knitters can do exactly the same thing. Deborah Newton has an article in an old Threads magazine where she demonstrated the process. Fashion Doesn't Stop at 40 Inches Issue 18 1998.

Here's Deborah making mockup out of T-shirt fabric. It's best to start with a knit fabric when doing this.

Here's the pattern schematic created from the fitting. You can see how non-standard the shapes are. 

The article is also available in this book.

Recently a knitting friend sent me a link to this blog post.

I checked the writers "about me" page and see she included seamstress in her description of herself.  I wasn't surprised, creating a paper pattern to understand construction is a "sewerly" thing to do.

Unfortunately the only way to learn to think about garments more three dimensionally is to just do it. I once did a quarter size mock up in fabric to help a friend who couldn't figure out how to seam an unusual shape. We slipped it over a bottle as a stand in for a body. She was very surprised at how quickly it solved the problem and said she had wasted hours trying to figure it out with the pieces laid flat on a table. 

If you want to explore this further try making either a life size paper or fabric mockup of the schematic of a pattern you want to knit using the measurements for the size you have chosen and analyze it in relationship to the intended wearer of the garment. 

Three Dimensional Thinking for Knitters

I've been thinking about the difference between the way knitters and sewers approach fit and pattern customization for a long time. I wrote this post about it back in Dec 2012. I tried asking some knitters what they thought the difference was. It was clear from the responses that the knitter only group think sewing makes fit much easier. The ironic part is that sewers are sure knitting is much easier to fit due to the stretchiness of the fabric. I can tell you that my pattern drafting experience shows knit drafts are much simpler. You can do all sorts of things with cut and sew knit yardage which can't be done with woven fabric. Wovens require more seaming, more technical underpinnings, finishing and more fitting expertise.

I do realize that gauge and stitch multiples create trouble especially for the math phobic. However it is so much more fixable in knitting. We can tear back, but once you cut fabric if it's wrong you often can't fix it unless you have more fabric to re-cut. Which is why sewers make test mockups before cutting into very expensive fabric. I may have escaped this fear because my loose gauge forced me to rewrite the patterns I used when I was a beginner knitter and my lack of height meant I had to recalculate sleeve shapings in my early garments. I suspect my sewing influenced me as well in that I did not expect the patterns to fit me as written.

I suspect the difference in the education of each group has an impact as well. Fitting techniques start in beginner sewing classes, whereas in knitting it seems to come up much later in the learning process.

A designer friend told me her observation is "many knitters have a huge disconnect when they think about knitting as it relates to garments". I wonder if knitters are more likely to fall into the process/product categories. It is true we knitters make things which are outside of mainstream fashion. I make lace shawls knowing my non-knitting friends don't get it. When I took sewing classes students did seem to be more fashion focused when choosing their projects. I only took garment based classes. I wonder what my observation would have been if I tried quilting or other needle arts? 

I have come to one clear conclusion myself. I've become convinced that many knitters do not think three dimensionally when it comes to garments. Sewers come to this thinking much more quickly. Perhaps it's due to learning about darts and seamed shaping so much earlier on? What do you think?