Replies

1. 
   Jean | Nov 11, 2004 12:47am | #1

   My first reaction is that it's not a good idea. I think a knit lining would make the garment difficult to put on and off. Maybe if you used a slippery fabric for the sleeves and used the knit for the body it would work better.

   Anyway.... do you know anyone with a knitting machine? The easiest way would be to use a regular lining pattern and cut and sew from knitted yardage.

   It's possible to measure and graph a pattern, but you have to use a special knitters graph (knit stitches are not square, they are wider than they are tall) and have a really accurate knitted gauge to work from...pretty daunting unless you're very experienced.

1. 
   educo | Nov 11, 2004 10:00pm | #4

   The knitting machine is not a bad idea!! I have a friend with a knitting machine, but i was too concerned with it not looking hand made. I want that "cozy " look to it, do you know what i mean? I definitely am going to take the great advice i am getting here.

1. 
   ehBeth | Nov 17, 2004 05:58am | #5

   It's an interesting idea, educo. Could you perhaps go to Goodwill or Value Village, buy an inexpensive coat and a sweater - stitch them together as a sort of sampler - hang it up for a while - watch how the knitted section reacts etc. I think I'd want to do a fair bit of experimenting with this before I invested too much serious energy into this. The knitted section would have to be extraordinarily well-blocked, and you'd have to ensure there was no way for it to stretch in any dimension as it was in wear.

1. 
   Stefanie | Nov 23, 2004 05:45am | #6

   You might also want to try interfacing the knit with a fusible like Easyknit or something to keep it from stretching as much.

1. 
   educo | Nov 29, 2004 05:43am | #7

   Yeah, that's a good idea. I will interface it then quilt it onto a backing then put it in the coat.

2. 
   rjf | Nov 11, 2004 04:34pm | #2

   What an interesting idea but I agree with Jean.  I think you might be disappointed with the results because the lining is going to move while the coat won't.  It might be a lot of wasted work.  But I admire your willingness to tackle something rather difficult.  Maybe if you quilted the knit part to a thin backing by sewing vertically between the rows of knit, that might work but I certainly would do a large swatch to try it before embarking on the whole thing.  Let us know what you decide...I'll be thinking about this for a while, I can see.      rjf

1. 
   educo | Nov 11, 2004 09:56pm | #3

   Yeah, I didn't realize the lining would shift. Although tacking it down to some backing would help. I still would want to do it. I just have to make a lot of swatches and come up with a serious game plan to how I would complete this.

   thanks

3. 
   PatricaA | Dec 07, 2004 07:25am | #8

   Hi,

   For a knitting machine - If you talk to the people who sell knitting machines they might be able to assist you. I used to own and use a knitting machine that you feed patterns into and using a special ruler to match the tension of the wool.

   For Hand Knitting - If you take the measurements of the pieces you can convert the tension from your test swatches to the number of rows and stitches you need.

   I saw the above idea in a Pattons knitting book and tried it out on a scarf. That might be a good place for you to start, so that you know that your math is correct. ie knit a scarf, 3 feet long and 6 inch wide, using 4 mm needles and 8 ply yarn.

   Do you knit? Have you done test swatches or rather do you know how to do test swatches?