Converting Knitting into Crochet

So,  I've received my vintage patterns as you can see below; early 50's.  They look fantastic and really capture something from their period but also, more importantly, you could still wear them today.  At least that's my plan.  The big thing with these patterns in that they are written to be knitted and so most of us would sit there with a crochet hook and not know where to start!

For a while now I've been converting knitting patterns into crochet (although I have been knitting recently,  but keep that a secret) and I thought I'd talk about the process I do.

Basically, you crochet a gauge swatch - a dirty word, I know - in your chosen yarn and compare it to the gauge swatch given in the knitting pattern.  You then work out how many crochet stitches are equal to their knitted counter parts using a calculator,  and, taking the measurements from the original pattern do a bit more maths to work out how many stitches you need.

So you knitting gauge is say, a 10cm x 10cm swatch in a bulky yarn gives you 15 stitches.  Your crochet swatch gives you 12 stitches.  So here come the maths,  for knitting it would be 10(cm) DIVIDED by 15(stitches) = 0.6cm.  The size of each knitted stitch.

For crochet it would be 10(cm) DIVIDED by 12(stitches) = 0.8cm. The size of each crochet stitch.

If your knitting pattern tells you to cast on 86 stitches, these will measure 51.6cm (so that's 86 x 0.6 as above for knitted gauge swatch)

So now DIVIDE your 51.6cm  by  0.8 (This number is from the crochet swatch and is what each stitch measures).  This equals 64.5 stitches.  Round it up to the nearest stitch, so 65 stitches.

The last thing to add is you can substitute certain knitting stitches with crochets stitches.  Double crochet for Stocking stitch, you can even crochet into the back loop of the crochet stitch as a substitute for knitted rib.

This is a lot simpler to do than to explain!

Good Luck!

Hats, hats, hats!

Hello All

It's been far too long since my last entry.  That's not to say I've rested my hooks.  I spent my time in the run up to Christmas making hats.  I've posted the photos below.

My main news is that I've started doing some teaching of crochet.  It's a small group, 8 people of really mixed ability and age, youngest 22 and the eldest in her 60's, all of them keen on learning a new skill and making something.  So last week I took them through the basic stitches, double crochet, half trebles and trebles.  This week I've got them started on a project to make a shawl.  Lets see how far they get.

I have the next few weeks planned and really looking forward to it.

I've just purchased a 1950 three quarter length knitted pattern for a cardigan that I'm going to convert to crochet.  Also a mens knitted cardigan pattern from the 1950's which I may knit but will also look at converting it to a crochet pattern. I'll post some pictures when their done.

Here's some photo's