Customising Knitting Patterns

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Once you have mastered basic knitting, you might want to start experimenting with customising knitting patterns to create your own unique garments and it is not as difficult as it seems!

The first thing you will need is a basic pattern for the garment you want to make.

To source your patterns you can either take advantage of the free knitting patterns on this site or you could find a good pattern book, like this one.

You can find quite a few basic knitting patterns on the beginner knitting patterns page.

As soon as you have found a basic pattern for the type of garment you want to make, you can start looking into which style of stitch pattern you want to use to make your garment unique and your choices are virtually unlimited.

Some of the styles you can choose from include:

• Aran or Cable stitch patterns 
• Fair Isle stitch patterns 
• Textured stitch patterns 
• All Over Lace stitch patterns
  
• Lace Panel stitch patterns

Or you can jazz up a plain design by adding a your own knitting graphics into a garment or other knitted item.  

Get Yourself a Good Knitting Pattern Book

By that I mean a book that provides detailed knitting instructions for a variety of knitting techniques, styles and patterns, not a book that provides patterns for garments.

These types of books tell you how to knit a repeating pattern for you to use with your sweater pattern or your scarf pattern or for the baby shawl you want to make, they don't tell you how many stitches you need to cast on to start your shawl, how many rows you need to do or how to shape your knitting!

I had a look at Amazon for you and if you are serious about customising your knitting patterns to create unique knitted garments, I recommend that you consider adding one or two of these books to your knitting library.

Customising Knitting Patterns: What Now?

Once you have got your basic pattern (knitting instructions for your garment) and a book of stitch patterns, you can spend a bit of time browsing through the book to pick out just the right pattern to customise your garment.

For some hints and tips on customising your knitting pattern, check out these pages:

• Customising Easy Sweater Patterns
• Customising Cushion Cover Patterns
• Customising Baby Knitting Patterns
• Customising Scarf Knitting Patterns

Same Basic Patterns - different stitch patterns...

Stocking Stitch Sweater | © Deborah Mason & Knitting Naturally

Textured Sweater | © Deborah Mason & Knitting Naturally

Zig Zag Lace Matinee Jacket © Deborah Mason & Knitting Naturally

Snowdrop Lace Matinee Jacket | © Deborah Mason & Knitting Naturally