This book was born at a Twisted Sisters get-together when Lynn Nagasako, our natural-dye queen, asked, “Why don’t you write a book about all the different ways to knit the same sweater?”
I’ve knitted hundreds of sweaters but have never knitted the same one twice. Most of them sprang from the same roots, but something always changed: the yarn, the size, the shape; usually all three. As I spoke with other twisted sisters, I found that as handspinners, most of us had to adapt either our yarn to fit a pattern or the pattern to fit our yarn. So we agreed to meet this challenge: Knit an original sweater by altering a basic drop-shoulder pullover—expand, shrink, shape, and decorate it to meet your practical requirements and express your personal style. The following chapters explore the bare bones required in this challenge: choosing and using yarn, the ins and outs of the basic pattern and details of knitting techniques, and the sweaters we produced.
Generating instructions for different sizes of the same pattern can cause frustration for the pattern writer. The more complicated the details, the more difficult it is to adapt them to different sizes. This says nothing about the frustration on the reader’s end of things. Line-by-line patterns are hard enough to follow with one set of numbers—add extra sizes in parentheses and it’s easy to read the wrong number by mistake.
What’s more, general sizes such as Small, Medium, and Large represent only a portion of the population. These sizes are often inconsistent, depending on the way a style fits the body. What may be called Large in one style can be smaller than a Small in another. Have you or someone you know ever been “left out” of a really cool pattern because it wasn’t sized to fit you? This exclusion is not purposeful, just practical. It’s impossible to size for everyone, leaving a large portion of the knitting public to learn how to size, alter, or even design from scratch.
The Knitter Fitter System presented in Chapter Two changes all that. This system allows you to knit a sweater that will fit anyone from a toddler to a sumo wrestler with any yarn you chose. The Classic Crew sweaters in Chapter Three and Chapter Four outline every detail from swatching for gauge to adding finishing touches, whether you want to knit your sweater from the bottom up (or top down) or from side to side. Use the Fitter List to record all the important measurements and their conversions to the number of stitches and/or rows for your gauge. Use the Sweater Map to visualize where each of these measurements goes and how the individual pieces of the sweater fit together.
The Knitter Fitter System is infinitely variable, and some of those variations are outlined in Chapter Five. The projects that follow illustrate how the Twisted Sisters made changes to the length, neckline, and/or shoulders of the Classic Crew to create completely different and unique garments. With a little imagination, you can use these concepts to make any sweater you want in whatever size you want. Say goodbye to Small, Medium, and Large for good.
The tools we outline here may be found in sweater software programs. But sometimes there is no substitute for getting your hands in your work. After all, that’s why we knit. The ability to manipulate your ideas with yarn and needles or with a pencil, paper, and eraser can trigger a type of creativity lost to the keyboard and mouse.
A long time ago, a teacher told me to just pick up my needles and start knitting. At the time, my rational brain recoiled, yet my intuitive one strained at the leash. Think of the Knitter Fitter as a safety rope for knitters ready to look over the edge into uncharted realms. Just start knitting and watch your yarn turn into gorgeous sweaters.
Sandy Sitzman, Twisted Mom and “Millennium Queen Enabler of Prospective and Realized Fiber Enthusiasts,” began collecting members for the Portland, Oregon-based spinning group known as Twisted Sisters in the late 1980s. The group made yearly pilgrimages to Eugene’s Black Sheep Gathering to spin, knit, and laugh their fool heads off. The hilarity soon spread to the Oregon Coast, NW Wools in Portland, and Dome Central, Sandy’s home in Banks. The small, tightly knit group has grown to include a few friends from other states and one nomad who refuses to stay put.
In Alabama:
Mary Kaiser, Birmingham
In California:
Lori Lawson, San Juan Capistrano
Debby Schnabel, Pine Grove
In Oregon:
Linda Berning/NW Wools, Portland
Sue Brooks, Boring
Crystal Buckley, Portland
Alina Egerman, Portland
Ellen Farr, Portland
Gail Marracci, Scappoose
Lynn Nagasako, Portland
Jane Penny, Portland
Jan Prewitt, Portland
Stephanie Prewitt, Portland
Sandy Sitzman, Banks
Laurie Weinsoft, Portland
In Tennessee:
Mary Priestly, Sewanee
Lynne Vogel, Sewanee
In Washington:
Jeanne Roll, Vancouver
Elizabeth Farr, Friday Harbor
In a lot of places:
Rachael Hocking, Banks, Oregon; Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania; Njombe; Tanzania; Multnomah, Oregon; and, most recently, Goldendale, Washington (but not for long).