By Susanna Lewis

Knitting a garment on the bias can be amost intriguing adventure. First, the fab-ric of the garment will drape and hang onthe body in a different way from garmentsknit either vertically or sideways. Second-ly, adding horizontally striped color ortexture patterning will create flatteringdiagonals and chevrons across the gar-ment. Thirdly, those fancy decreases youhave collected for knitting beautifulraglans can be put to a new use, to deco-rate the midline of a garment shape. Ifyou are interested in learning to convert astandard, vertically knit garment shapeinto one for bias knitting, read on. Or, youcan skip to the start of the instructions forknitting the model sweater (p. 34) andcome back to this part later!

The method of working describedhere allows you to convert any dia-grammed shape from either vertical orsideways into diagonal in a very visualway, without the use of unusual mathe-matical formulas and mumbo jumbo.Although using the Magic Formula todetermine the shaping of the selvedges iscertainly the most efficient way for thosewho are accustomed to using it, its logicoften escapes the uninitiated, especiallythrough the written word. The method Iam showing you here, for the designingof the model raglan sweater, is verygraphic and allows you to have full con-trol for modifications and changes everystep of the way, from the first measure-ment to the final bind-off.Materials. A. Square gridded graphpaper, 8 sq/in for adult size garments, 6sq/in for children’s sizes. B. Pencil anderaser. C. Ruler. D. Pocket calculator. E. Apiece of tracing paper. F. 3:4 propor-tioned graph paper (3 sq wide = 4 sqhigh). G. Colored pencils that approxi-mate the yarn colors you are using. H.The stitch and row gauge from yourswatch (for this exercise the ratio mustbe 3:4; in stockinette, the measurementfor 3 sts = the measurement for 4 rows).

To find out if your stitches and rowsare in a 3:4 ratio, divide the stitches perinch (or 4") by 3, and the rows per inch(or 4") by 4. The two quotients should bethe same number, or very close. Forexample, my swatch gauge is 5 sts, 6.75

rows = 1 inch. 5 divided by 3 =1.66 and 6.75 divided by 4 =1.69, not exact but closeenough.

The square gridded paperis used to plan the shape andsize of the garment pieceswith their measurements andcalculated stitches and rows.The proportioned graphpaper is afterward used toshow every knitted stitch androw in order to plan theincreases and decreasesaround the edges of each gar-ment shape, the colored pat-tern within it, and to have acomplete chart from which towork. This makes theprospect of keeping track of adifferent shaping for eachselvedge plus a color pattern,all at the same time, become awelcome adventure instead ofa dreaded nightmare!Step 1. Make an outline of eagarment shape on a piece ofsquare gridded paper. If youwant the entire front of asweater to be knit on thesame diagonal for example,you must use the full width of theshape, with both armholes and neck-line. Since I want to mirror the diago-nal and patterning each side of thecenter on my sweater pieces, only halfof each shape is required. When draw-ing the outline onto the grid, I allow 1square to equal � " (or 1 cm if workingin metric), and round off all measure-ments to the nearest � ". This makeswhole and half inches fall at the cor-ners of the squares, and fourth andthree-fourth inches in the middle ofthe squares — easy to see what you aredoing. Place dots at each point wherethe outline changes direction. Writethe measurements for each section ofeach garment piece, double checkingthat your numbers at the left and rightof each piece add up to the same sum,as well as those at the top and bottom.Mark the points A-D as shown. Notethat I was careful to make sure that thetriangle which forms the raglan hasexactly the same width and heightdimensions on both pieces, which sim-plifies the calculations and color pat-terning later on. Additionally, the depthof the front neckline should equal thewidth, making the resulting diagonalforty-five degrees.b. Lay the tracing paper over your dia-grams and carefully trace all the pointsand lines of each shape, except those forthe bottom ribs, which are knit separate-ly. Mark the points A-D. You won’t needthe measurement numbers any more,but you’ll have them for reference afterthe pieces are knitted.Step 2. Lay the tracing paper over a new

piece of graph paper. It is easiest if youcut the garment pieces apart and dealwith one at a time. Do the Front/Backshape first. Place the point A at the cor-ner of a grid square and rotate the shapeto the right so that point B movesupward and point D downward. Stop therotation when line AB is at a 45 degreeangle to the grid, bisecting all thesquares corner to corner. Lines BC andCD will also be at 45 degrees. The frontneckline will be horizontal. On the grid,mark the new positions of all the pointsas you see them through the tracingpaper, then connect them with ruledlines. Check your work by laying the newgridded shape over the original to make

32 � � ��� � � Magazine Spring ’91 Reprinted electronically by permission. XRX, Inc. Copyright © 1991 XRX, Inc.

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sure all the points and lines are the same(hold them against a window or over alight box). Now trace and draw the sleeveshape in the same way.

The garment pieces are rotated onpoint A instead of point B because themidline of each completed piece is to bedecorated with a fancy decrease, and Iwant the color patterning to mirror in a Vshape. If it were rotated on point B, themidline would then be increased insteadof decreased, and the color patterningwould mirror in an upside-down V. I amrotating to a 45˚ angle instead of someother angle because the 3:4 ratio of myswatch gauge indicates a shapingsequence of plus or minus 3 stitches

every 4 rows, which will automaticallyproduce a 45˚ angle without any furthercalculation (if my swatch ratio was, say2:3, the shaping sequence would be plusor minus 2 stitches every 3 rows to makea 45˚ angle, and I would use 2:3 propor-tioned graph paper to chart the finalshape). As you can see from the dia-gram, the only lines which are not 45˚are the raglan (same on both pieces) andthe underarm side of the lower sleeve,and so their shapings will be different.Step 3. Now to calculate the stitchesand rows. To start, all the diagonal lineson the grid must become parts of right-angled triangles. This is easy, just con-nect each pair of adjacent dots with hor-izontal and vertical lines (dotted lines)until they intersect and form a right tri-angle. Count up the squares for eachhorizontal and vertical dotted line andconvert the squares to inches (remem-ber, one square = 1/2 inch). Mark eachmeasurement (with " by each number)next to its line. You don’t have to dealwith the diagonal lines at all. Now, con-vert all the horizontal measurements tostitches and all the vertical measure-ments to rows.

Take your calculator and learn to useit efficiently: Enter the stitch gauge. Pressthe ‘times’ key twice (this puts the gaugeand ‘times’ in memory). Enter one ofyour horizontal measurements and pressthe ‘equals’ key once. The result is thenumber of stitches for that measure-ment. Round it to an odd or even wholenumber and write it next to the measure-ment with ‘sts’ next to it. Without press-ing the ‘AC all clear’ key, enter the nexthorizontal measurement and press theequals key. The result is that measure-ment in stitches. Round it and write it

down the same way. Enter the next hori-zontal measurement and equals key, andkeep going until all the horizontal mea-surements are converted to stitches.Now, convert all the vertical measure-ments to rows. Do it the same way, butfirst press ‘AC’ to clear the stitch gauge.Now enter the row gauge, ‘times’ twice,the first vertical measurement, ‘equals.’Round the result to an even whole num-ber and write it next to the measurementwith ‘R’ next to it. Enter the next mea-surement, ‘equals,’ and so on until all thevertical measurements are done. Now,double check that all the stitches at thetop and bottom of the grid add up to thesame sum, and that all the rows eachside of the grid add up the same. Youmight have to make some adjustmentsup or down 1 stitch or 2 rows, since youhave been rounding off your numbersboth up and down.Step 4. (See charts pp. 59-60) Plot sts androws on proportioned graph paper. Onesquare will equal one st and one row.First, position points A-D on theirrespective sts and rows. Mark the squarefor A first, somewhere near the bottom ofthe grid. Place B by counting leftwardand upwards the required squares for theintervening stitches and rows. Plot allremaining points the same way. Connectthe points with lightly-drawn ruled diag-onal lines. Follow each ruled line fromone point to the next and make a stairstep outline around the squares for theshapings. Make each step be at least 2squares in height (grid rows) so that theshapings will be at least every other row,and either odd or even number in width(grid sts). In this garment, since theshaping for the lower part of each pieceis made by short rows, I was careful tomake all the steps be 2 rows in height,and placed all the L edge shaping stepson even-numbered grid rows, and all Redge shaping steps on odd-numberedgrid rows. I continued the L and R stepseven into the raglan, as it is easier to knitif you have to look at only one side of thechart and shape on only one side of theknitting, at a time. You will find that onall the diagonals that are at 45˚, such aslines AB, BC, and CD, the shapings willstep every 2 grid rows, alternately by 1grid st and 2 grid sts. This follows the 3:4ratio of the gauge and your proportionedgraph paper: inc or dec 3 sts every 4rows. To make the decorative dec on themidlines for this sweater, the shapingshave been grouped together into the 3 st,4 row steps, to make them more dramat-ic, so that 3 sts are dec all at once, E 4rows. It is a full-fashioned dec, on sts 3-5in from the edge, causing sts 1-2 to be onthe straight grain instead of the bias. Thisin turn, creates a negative bias at thelower edge, which is the reason whypoint B is temporarily extended by anextra 3 sts. The 3 sts do not stay verylong, they are dec one at a time E 2 rows,on the edge of the knitting.

Spring ’91 � � ��� � � � Magazine 33www.knittinguniverse.com

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All the lines that are 45� willhave the same shaping,which is the gauge ratio, � 3 sts E 4 rows. Youcan shape 3 sts atonce E 4 rows, oralternately 1and 2 sts E2 rows.

Neckline is horizontalbecause it wasinitially at 45�

Rotating the shapes so that most of the outline is 45�

1. Place point a at the corner of a grid square.1. Place point a at the corner of a grid square2. Rotate the shape until line AB is 45� , bisecting all the squares corner to corner.2. Rotate the shape until line AB is 45� , bisecting all the squares corner to corner.

2.

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36 � � ��� � � Magazine Spring ’91

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DESIGNING IN 45°

Reprinted electronically by permission. XRX, Inc. Copyright © 1991 XRX, Inc.

Spring ’91 � � ��� � � � Magazine 37

051015202530354045 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

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DESIGNING IN 45°

www.knittinguniverse.com