February 18, 2026

Knitting Mistakes I Made When I Stopped Following Patterns

When I stopped following published patterns and started self drafting my own handknits, I assumed my knitting experience would translate into drafting, but it didn’t because I hadn’t knit enough range in published patterns.

I did not yet have enough experience across the variety of garment constructions such as drop shoulder, raglan, circular yoke, top down, bottom up, set in sleeves, bust darts, and short rows, which are the mechanics of how a sweater is actually built. You don’t truly understand how to draft a garment until you’ve knit enough of them to see how those systems work on a body.

Many knitters eventually reach the point where they want to stop following patterns and begin drafting their own garments. It feels like the natural next step. What I discovered is that drafting requires a different kind of knowledge than knitting from a pattern. These are the mistakes I made when I first made that transition.

I didn’t know all my measurements

I didn’t know all my measurements, including bust both upper and lower, arm circumference, arm length, armhole depth, neck circumference, neck to shoulder, neck to hem, underarm to hem, and ease, and that is only a start. Self drafting requires a complete blueprint of your body and your preferences, and without those numbers you are estimating.

I chose the wrong yarn

I chose yarn without being clear about what I needed it to do. Fiber matters because fiber behaves. Alpaca brings drape and can grow, merino is soft but superwash can relax significantly with blocking, and plant based yarns have no memory and can stretch out to the point of no return, and these are just a few examples. It is important to know what you want your yarn to do in the finished garment before you cast on.

I did not document enough

I took notes, but I did not take enough. I would tell myself I would write it down later, but I didn’t. For example, when I went to knit the second set of sleeve decreases they were not on paper, and when I went to knit a garment again I had no record of how many stitches I cast on in the original, which meant guesswork. If you ever want to knit the garment again you will need those numbers, because without thorough documentation you are forced to reconstruct your own math, and drafting requires documentation even if the garment is only for you.

I underestimated the importance of row gauge

We all obsess over stitch gauge, but row gauge is equally important because row gauge determines armhole depth, yoke depth, neckline drop, and many other vertical measurements. If your row gauge is even slightly off those vertical measurements shift, and over the length of a garment a small difference adds up. Your armholes can creep up toward your shoulders or drop too low, your yoke can feel shallow or too deep, and the width can be perfect while the garment still feels wrong because the vertical proportions are off.

What I did differently

I took a step back and knit more garments across different constructions, not to copy them but to pay attention and see how they were built and how they fit on my body. I measured myself properly and wrote everything down in one place, and I stopped guessing and started working from numbers.

I became more deliberate about yarn. Before casting on I asked what I needed the finished garment to do and how I wanted it to feel, then I chose fiber accordingly and I swatched repeatedly.

I did the math, sometimes more than once, and I started documenting as I went rather than later or from memory, writing down stitch counts, row counts, decrease intervals, and observations.

What changed

Self drafting is a learnable skill and it is a rewarding and freeing process. It is learning to build garments for your own body, and it becomes your very own couture garment. It is worth the process, worth the frogging and the re-knitting, and worth solving the math.

When you wear that first garment you self drafted, it is an amazing moment and it will push your creativity to new levels. When you draft your own garments every decision matters, including the yarn, because the fiber you select will shape the outcome as much as your math does. If you are preparing for your next project, you can find Pearl & Clover’s collection of hand dyed yarns here.

Checklist Before You Draft Your Next Sweater

Knit a variety of sweater constructions so you understand how they work
Take and write down your body measurements
Decide how you want the sweater to fit and how much ease you want
Choose yarn based on how you want the finished garment to behave
Swatch and measure both stitch gauge and row gauge
Work out your numbers before you cast on
Keep notes as you knit

When you draft your own garments, every decision matters, including the yarn. The fiber you select will shape the outcome as much as your math does. If you’re preparing for your next project, you can find Pearl & Clover’s collection of hand dyed yarns here.