Tips for Tracking Your Progress in Complex Knitting Patterns

Some knitting projects are repetitive and easy to memorize. Others are complex and require more concentration to track your progress across multiple pattern and shaping elements. Luckily, there are lots of strategies and tools to help you keep your place.

Before You Begin

Step 1 - Identify important elements in your pattern that need to be tracked. For a project like a sweater, you may need to know where you are in several different stitch charts/motifs and where you are in shaping elements like necklines or sleeve insets.

Step 2 - Decide how you are going to keep track of each element. It may be a matter of making tick marks in your pattern notes, or you may prefer to use a row/rnd counter or some sort of physical chart guide. Occasionally, you may need to use more than one type of progress keeper.

Step 3 - Start knitting!

Materials

• stitchmarkers
• row/rnd counter
• magnetic board
• pen/pencil
• paper, sticky notes, cardstock
• paperclips

Thanks to Skacel for providing the CoBaSi by HiKoo yarn and addi Natura Olivewood Circular Needles shown in this lesson. These products are available locally at many yarn shops and online at Makers' Mercantile.

Tracking Your Progress in Complex Knitting Patterns

Recommended Pattern

Ready to try these tips in a pattern? The Wallflower Sweater Pattern shown in this lesson has videos to help you learn more about:

• The Importance of Swatching
• Tracking Progress in Complex Knitting Patterns
• Open Bar Increase (a.k.a. Open Make 1 Increase)
• Decrease Slant and Stitch Charts - 3 Helpful Tips
• Smocked, or Tied, Stitches
• Dividing the Body and Casting On Underarm Stitches for Top Down Sweaters
• Picking Up Underarm Stitches for a Gap Free Sleeve
• Suspended Bind Off (Purlwise)

Pin this Post