I get questions all the time about pattern design. I’ve covered a lot of your questions in my pattern design blog series, but there’s one question I haven’t written about in-depth until now. One of the most common questions I get is: How do you grade a pattern?
Pattern grading can be really intimidating for knit and crochet designers. You can read a million different posts about pattern grading, but in this post I’m going to break it down and make it as easy as possible. Yes, it is technical BUT it doesn’t have to be difficult!
Before we get too far, don’t forget to pin this post to reference later!
What is pattern grading?
When you hear the term, “pattern grading” it means scaling your pattern to different sizes, which includes creating the stitch counts, row counts, and yardage needed for each size. For example, you might take a sweater that you designed in a medium size and convert it to sizes XS-5XL so the pattern is available in a larger size range!
Do I need a spreadsheet?
Nope. The first pattern I ever graded was my Pebble Cardi and I did it all in a notebook. For me, writing it down on pen and paper really helped me make sense of every step.
After a few patterns, I created a spreadsheet so I could be a little more efficient. It also helps me make adjustments more easily and make sure I’m keeping all the numbers accurate without messing up another part of the pattern.
The point is – there’s no right answer! Whether you prefer handwritten notes or a spreadsheet, do what works best for you.
3 Things You Need to Know to Grade Your First Pattern:
There are three key things you need to know for grading a pattern:
- Gauge: Gauge is often overlooked, but it is SO important for pattern grading. You’re going to need to know how many rows and stitches per inch so you can scale it to your desired final dimensions.
- Final Dimensions: I use the Craft Yarn Council’s women’s size chart for all my patterns. This ensures I’m using standard measurements when I’m creating the final dimensions of each piece.
- Yards per Square Inch: I convert my patterns to the amount of yards of yarn I use per square inch. I use a kitchen scale to weigh my project to calculate this and then I can scale it to the other sizes! This is how you calculate the exact number of yards you’ll need for each size.
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Let’s Look at an Example…
This is where you’ll see it really isn’t that bad, I promise. I’m going to break it down into a simple example so you can see just how easy it is.
Let’s say you made a dishcloth with Dishie yarn. Your dishcloth is 10″ by 10″ and you want to make a larger version. So, let’s take down those three important things we need:
- Gauge: For the sake of this example, let’s say your gauge is 16 stitches x 20 rows of single crochet for a 4″ x 4″ square. To get our stitches and rows per inch, we’ll do a little bit of quick math.
- 16 stitches / 4″ = 4 stitches per inch
- 20 rows / 4″ = 5 rows per inch
- Final Dimensions: We want the larger version of this dishcloth to be 12″ x 12″, so let’s do a little more math using our stitches and rows per inch:
- 4 stitches per inch x 12″ = 48 stitches
- 5 stitches per row x 12″ = 60 rows
- Your final pattern would be 48 stitches wide and then continued for 60 rows. This example is easy because we used a square, but you can find the dimensions and area of any shape!
- Yards per Square Inch: Using a kitchen scale, we know the first 10″ x 10″ dishcloth was 60 grams out of our 100g skein of Dishie. We also know each skein has 190 yards, so here’s how we’ll find the yardage we need for the 12″ x 12″ dishcloth:
- 190 yds / 100g = 1.9 yds used per gram
- If our first dishcloth was 60 grams, we can take 60 g x 1.9 yds (per gram) = 114 yards used.
- Our first dishcloth was 10″ x 10″, which equals 100 square inches. We know this dishcloth used 114 yards and was 100 square inches, so we can find the yards used per square inch like this: 114 yds / 100 sq inches = 1.14 yards per square inch
- Since we’re grading this dishcloth to a 12″ x 12″ size, we need to find the total square inches: 12″ x 12″ = 144 square inches
- Last step! 144 square inches x 1.14 yards per square inch = 129.96 yards used
Want to learn more?
This was a simplified example of pattern grading, but I hope it shows you how easy pattern grading can be! There’s a lot that goes into grading that couldn’t fit into one blog post, so if you’re looking to learn more – You’ll love the grading guide my tech editor created.
This guide is 70+ pages of step-by-step explanations to show you exactly how to grade crochet patterns. It’s an amazing resource that I wish I had when I started grading patterns!
The Last Step
You’re going to feel so accomplished once you finish all the grading math for your pattern, but I always recommend using a tech editor and having your pattern tested for garments. Even if your math is perfect, this can help you make adjustments for different body types to make sure your next design is a perfect fit.
If you still have questions about pattern grading, leave a comment below!