I thought I would take and opportunity in this post to describe just how I go about creating a design. I have no formal training in this field so I do not consider myself an expert. Although I have knitted from childhood, having grown up in an extended family where every one could do several crafts I picked up the necessary skills for pattern reading and knitting up quite advanced creations. I also had an artist as a mother. Mum loved making clothes and was able to create her own designs or adapt from items she saw on sale in the store. We had little money but I always had clothes in the very latest kiddie fashions. Mum and her sisters were great at hunting out remnants in the haberdashery stores and when they saw some material at a good price they grabbed it and put it away for later. And any old dresses they had grown tired off but which still had serviceable material in them, any old sweaters they were tired of, would either be cut down to my size or pulled apart to proved materials for a new creation. Nothing wasted. No wonder I am such a fashion junkie.
I also struggle with another, and even more limiting problem than the mere lack of training in design, as I am very close to innumerate. The sad fact is that you really do need at the very least a basic aptitude in mathematics to create knitting patterns successfully. I get by on both fronts here by simple but dogged trial and error, with much crossed out computations on graph and other paper. Having said this I thought it might be of interest to examine the process I follow.
Step one: select the needles and yarns best suited to the doll and type of pattern you are working with. When making patterns for smaller child and baby dolls and slender lady dolls you need much finer yarns. For Serena's patterns which call for details I select a fine yarn such as no. 80 crochet/tatting cotton or Guttermans silk thread. Normally for a sweater where you need the maximum number of stitches to use in creating your design I would select size 22 needles For this sweater, since it is a chunkier lacy style I selected the larger size 20 needles.
This photo illustrates the crochet cotton and silk thread alongside a ball of 8 ply yarn with a pair or 4mm needles. I have also included the small crochet hook I use to help picking up stitches around necklines, etc and a safety pin which I use as a stitch holder.
Step 2: select a pattern. You need to do this before you can determine how many stitches you will need to cast on. I have built up quite a selection over the years and other sources are other mini designs in the various patterns available. Today, with the advent of Google a whole new world of choices has opened up.
You need to select a pattern which does not contain a large amount of stitches to the repeats. My rule of thumb is usually a maximum of 8 stitches. As a sweater to fit Serena using a slightly thicker yarn normally would have 30-35 stitches to cast on for the front and back of the pattern.
The pattern you select will also determine just how you can set out the design. For example this pattern the Chevron Rib which I selected goes in one direction and this fact limited my design choice. Normally I would attempt a design which could be knitted in one piece or with raglan sleeves. With this pattern I had to create a design with small separate pieces. So to make it as simple as possible I designed it without armhole shaping. It makes it easier to keep the pattern correct as you knit it up. I did not think anyone would enjoy knitting up a more complicated lace pattern like this and do casting off at armholes. Likewise the sleeves are knitted up without shaping to eliminate the need for increasing to armhole and decreasing at shoulder.
This pattern has 7+2 stitches needed for the design so I chose to cast on 30 stitches for the front and back since this fitted in nicely allowing for 4 pattern repeats of 7 stitches (28) + 1 stitch at the beginning and end of the row giving the grand total of 30. So then you start knitting.
I knitted up the front first and as you can see I did include shaping at the neck. Challenge no. 1. To help in the placement of the sleeves I put in pieces of contrast coloured yarn at row 29.
Next I planned out what to do with the back. With porcelain dolls the designer needs to make allowance for their rigidity. They just don't bend obligingly to help in putting the garment on. Hence the inclusion of a back opening and placket. Shaping was also needed at the back neck to complement the
front neckline.
The first step in making up the sweater is to join the shoulder seams and slip stitch the placket shaping into place at the bottom of the opening.
Next tricky challenge for the knitter is to pick up the stitches around the neckline to neaten up the neck opening. A very small crochet hook is invaluable and helps prevent a few cuss words. Patience is required here.
After that knitting up the sleeves is easy. They have been designed with the minimum of shaping required. 20 stitches are used for the sleeve band and then the number or stitches is increased to 30 to knit the main part of the sleeve.
All pieces are now completed ready for assembly. Should be easy. The next photo is included to show just how important it is to ensure that the pieces are assembled with the right side of the work to the inside. Yes, even after all these years I can make such a boo-boo as the one shown below.
The eagle eyed among you will see instantly that the sleeve is placed and sewn in wrong side out. Take it from me. Unpicking seams in knitting is never fun and with miniature work it is diabolical. So please take care folks and don't do what I did.
That drama aside the task is almost complete. As you can see from the photo at the start of this post. it was finally all together and fitted on the doll. But wait, there is more to do. This is when you take a very good look at the design to see what needs improvement. In this case I found the opening was not as large as needed to allow for easy dressing of the doll. The neckline is just a tad too neat fitting. So a couple of adjustments have been made to the original design.
Step 3: knit the whole garment up again from the completed, and adjusted pattern to ensure it is all correct and that it fits the doll better.
So it is back to the needles and thread for me. Hopefully it should not be long at all before the pattern is available for you all.
