It’s exciting and fun to start out on a new knitwear design — choosing yarn and stitch pattern, designing a beautiful pattern flow on the garment, selecting a silhouette that is perfect for the final garment. But not all of us find drafting sleeve caps or armhole shaping to be as interesting; this is where the Handknit Garment Design App comes in. It does the work of designing the slope and shape of the sleeve cap, shoulders, armholes, necklines and even waist shaping, right down to the stitch. You, the designer, will still develop your overall garment design, but having these sometimes more tedious details taken care of for you will make the overall process more enjoyable and build your confidence in a successful outcome.

Begin by developing your overall garment plan and work your swatches as described in Knitwear Design Workshop. Sketch out your working schematic, select your desired sweater silhouette, enter your measurements and required ease, and the app will generate stitch-by-stitch charts called stitch maps that you can use to write your pattern.